Week Four
December 19, 2021
A Song of Love and Justice
Luke 1:46-55
“My Soul Magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked with favor upon his servant.... He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty.” Luke 1:46-48, 52-53.
The Magnificat has become one of the most potent pieces of justice literature in the entirety of scripture for me. Growing up half-Roman Catholic and half-Pentecostal in rural Oklahoma, I remember hearing about Mary in very different tones depending on which side of the family we enjoyed after-church meals with.
Today, I honor and revere her.
Not just because of the clear connection she has to the expectation we all experience in Advent. Not as a woman created in the image of a rather absurd, westernized “meek and mild” archetype. Not even as the Theotokos, or, the Mother of God. But as an exemplar of the Holy’s commitment to love and justice.
Mary exclaims with Divine conviction that God’s eternal promise to lift the lowly, fill the hungry with good things, fulfill promises, and love with abiding presence will never falter. But it doesn’t stop there, for this only represents half of Mary’s exclamation. The powerful, the rich, the proud, and the greedy find justice in a different way within her prayer. “Meek and mild?” I think not.
The Magnificat shakes me from my privileged torpor to remind me that I am not always to whom the prayer is meant to comfort. Mary’s song is one of both comfort and retribution. Love and justice. Renewal and doom. As I greet the Living God in Christ this Christmas, will I find comfort in Mary’s song? Will you?
May we all be shocked by Mary’s Song. May the Magnificat help us realize justice, and indeed love, this Advent.
Kyle Miller-Shawnee
Interim Director of Admissions and Student Services
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