He
has shown strength with his arm;
he has scattered the proud in the thoughts
of their hearts.
He has brought down the mighty from their
thrones, and lifted up the lowly;
he has filled the hungry with good things,
and sent the rich empty away.
(Luke 1:51-53)
Part of the Magnificat…
Mary’s song of joy when the two mothers meet, Elizabeth and Mary. I am very much on the outskirts of all
this. You know how people often say, “I
know exactly how you’re feeling”… when of course they don’t, and they can’t. What they know is what they are feeling, or
felt. We don’t know what these two women are feeling. We are distant onlookers, rightly hesitant
about approaching, and we sense mystery.
But we may listen to Mary’s song.
It is very moving poetry… and it is profoundly subversive. God, she sings, by the birth of this child
has done three things.
The first is: He has
scattered the proud in the imaginations of their hearts. It is in Greek. “The proud” is a word meaning those who deem
themselves naturally superior, the arrogant, the ones who believe they are born
to rule. But there is simply no place at
the cradle of this child for proud self-satisfaction or egoism... wherever it happens, in presidencies or the
highest places in church or politics, or in our homes or the secrets of our
hearts. It doesn’t belong. It is simply inappropriate here. Mary sees such people “scattered”, she says,
with all their pretensions.
Secondly, He has
brought down the mighty from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly. This is about power. “The mighty” means those not only wielding
power but enjoying knowing others are powerless – the Greek word denotes
powerful dynasties. Mary sees such power
defused, cancelled – as in the end, in history, it always is. It is the meek, the humble, said Jesus, who
inherit the earth.
And thirdly, he has
filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich empty away. This is more than turning on Christmas
dinner for the city’s needy… it is more than foodbanks… admirable and all as
they are. It is a vision of justice, equity
in which no one is hungry, children are nourished… in which there is no culture
of flaunted affluent greed or the diseases of over-indulgence.
Mary’s vision… we scarcely see it happening in fact. There is the poetry… and there is the
reality. Human arrogance, the misuse of
power, greed and inequity, continue to thrive.
Eventually the followers of this child began to realise that the
kingdom, as he indeed taught, is within.
The same Spirit who inspired Mary’s vision sets about changing
hearts. Mary knew what Jeremiah had
prophesied[1]: I will put my law within them, and I will
write it on their hearts. Or Ezekiel[2]: I will
remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh… I will
put my Spirit within you… These, in
ancient terms, are the changes to which we consent in the stillness and silence
of our prayer.
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