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December 22, 2022Mary says: “my soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord,” or in other versions we hear: “my soul magnifies the Lord.” Proclaiming God’s greatness or magnifying His name is why this beautiful canticle is called the Magnificat. Mary’s own soul reveals God’s greatness. Her soul is like a magnifying glass in which the seemingly unobservable is made known and present before our eyes. What is seemingly small and imperceptible to our eyes is the power of God unveiling itself. Mary is pregnant with the author of the universe. The One who holds the Blessed Virgin in being is fashioned in the flesh in secret in the womb of the Virgin. The Creator becomes creature. Heaven and Earth meet. Our nature, which was subjected to corruption, is now being elevated to the heights of perfection.
Mary then proceeds to proclaim all that God has done. This is a statement that reveals not only what God has done in the past, but also a bold statement that even now in the womb of the Virgin, God has revealed his strength. In the mystery of the Incarnation, God has already cast the mighty from their thrones and has lifted up the lowly. What lay hidden in secret, unseen to us; the Lord is overthrowing the tyranny of the powerful and raising the lowly, the poor, the hungry. We are the lowly and the hungry. We are the lowly and poor because we sometimes lack goodness and generosity. We are the hungry because we crave life that is more than what this earth can provide. Here in this meeting place of the womb of the Virgin, human nature is filled, because Christ fills our weak human flesh with his riches and feeds us with his presence.
Now, therefore, even before Christ’s birth the power of God is made manifest—not in a display of military might, nor in great and fearsome spectacles of nature, but in a pregnant woman, whose soul and body are filled with the One who is Grace itself. Like the Virgin Mary, we too give thanks and magnify the Lord, who has made all His children His holy temple. He has filled our lowliness with his goodness and love and feeds us with his presence, freeing us from evil and the corruption which enslaved us. The psalm rings true for us. Lift up your heads, O gates; rise up, you ancient portals, that the king of glory may enter (Psalm 24:9). The King enters, the dominion of death is overthrown, and we are filled. What more can we say than echo like Mary and Psalm 124? “The Lord has done great things for us.” He indeed has—now and always.
