Advent Reflections 3: A Song of Mary

This post is the third in a series of weekly posts during Advent inspired by "Holy Boy", a Christmas oratorio which we're performing in Acomb on 21st December.

Having spent a few weeks considering the promise of Emmanuel, the story now moves to a teenage girl in an unknown small town, who has just been told that her life will be turned upside down by being unexpectedly pregnant with the Son of God (and not even married yet! What will the village gossips say, let alone her fiance?)
Somewhat surprisingly, she agrees to this (at least, after she has picked herself up off the floor – have you noticed the way that angels in the Bible always have to preface their words with “Don’t be terrified, I have a message for you”?).

Mary’s next move is to go and visit her elderly relative Elizabeth, who was thought barren and well past child-bearing age but was now expecting a son. When she arrives, she breaks out in a song of praise, the Magnificat, which is considered such a key part of what the Bible is about that it is sung daily in churches around the world at Evensong (notably in York Minster - perhaps you could go and listen to it one day this week):

“Tell out, my soul, the greatness of the Lord! Unnumbered blessings give my spirit voice”

But this is no ordinary song of praise. We often tend to assume that Mary was a quiet dutiful sort of person, not someone ready to change the world. But we should listen more closely to what she actually has to say.

Let us listen again to the passionate words of a young teenager who is full of radical hopes for a new world order. She sings of her joy that God has chosen a humble village girl for his great work, but that’s typical of the way God does things: in his mercy, God will overthrow proud rulers, reject the wealthy and complacent and raise up the poor, rejected and marginalized.

Her son took these words to heart, declaring that his mission was the same as Isaiah had prophesied: proclaiming good news to the poor, setting the oppressed free and declaring the year of Jubilee.

Intriguingly, our attitude to Mary is not shared elsewhere in the world. John Bell from the Iona Community shared this song from Mexico, where the poor see Mary as a hero, a strong woman who knows what it is like to feel pain and stands against it:

"Dolorosa, standing alongside the poor

You know the pain of sorrow, you know the pain of loss

When God’s own children suffer, you share the pain of their loss"

So this Christmas let us meditate a while on the God that Mary knew and seek his ways for ourselves. How can we be part of giving a voice to the voiceless, care for those who are rejected by society or challenge the inequality and injustice that wears them down? 

"The field of the poor yields much food, but injustice sweeps it all away" Prov 13:23

 The next Advent Reflection is available here.

See also:

• Advent Reflections 1: What are we here for?
• Advent Reflections 2: Making All Things New
• A Fossil Free Nativity
• A Rocha Blog - Mary the teenage revolutionary