The appointed Gospel reading for the Fourth Sunday in Advent is Luke 1.47-55; in many churches during worship we'll listen as the pastor or lector reads the Song of Mary, what many know as The Magnificat--what many sing or say every afternoon and/or night during Evening Prayer. Although you may know it well, look at it again:And Mary said,
My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord;
my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant.
From this day all generations will call me blessed;
the Almighty has done great things for me,
and holy is his name.
He has mercy on those who fear him in every generation.
He has shown the strength with his arm;
he has scattered the proud in their conceit.
He has cast down the mighty from their thrones,
and has lifted up the lowly;
he has filled the hungry with good things,
and the rich he has sent away empty.
He has come to the help of his servant Israel,
for he has remembered his promise of mercy,
the promise he made to our father,
to Abraham and his children forever.
If, however, we read several verses before coming to the Song of Mary, we have this context for her Song :
In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.”
[The Song comes here!]
And Mary remained with her about three months and then returned to her home.
Thomas Keating in The Mystery of Christ: The Liturgy as Spiritual Experience shares his understanding of these contextualizing verses this way:
What is Mary's first response to the gift of divine motherhood? She goes to see her cousin Elizabeth who happens to be having a baby and who needs help with whatever you do when you are getting ready for a baby: making diapers, preparing
the bassinet, knitting little socks and bonnets. That is what she figured God wanted her to do. It never occurred to her to tell anyone about her incredible privilege. She simply did what she ordinarily did: she went to serve somebody in need. That is what the divine action is always suggesting: help someone at hand in some small but practical way. As you learn to love more, you can help more.
Mary did not go to counsel Elizabeth; she did not go to evangelize Elizabeth; she went to prepare the diapers. That is true religion: to manifest God in an appropriate way in the present moment. The angel had said that Elizabeth was soon to have a baby. Mary said, "Is that so? She must need help; I'll go at once." She went "in haste," manifesting her eagerness to be of service without any thought about her own condition, including, I presume, what Joseph or her mother were thinking about her unexpected pregnancy.
As the title of his book suggests, Keating is responding to what he hears during Advent when he attends the Church's communal eucharistic worship. In his reflections, Keating reminds us that all of us listen and pray within many environments: those times we set apart for the Daily Prayers of the Church, Sunday morning worship, private praying, support-group meetings, short bursts of thoughts to God during any time of the day, and personal Centering Prayer. Using all these (and more) resources of the Church, the Holy Spirit works the will of the Father upon and in us all.
The Scripture in several places tells us that Mary spent a good deal of her time pondering, musing, and wondering about the activity of God in her life. She was often, I think we can safely say, practicing "centering prayer" although two thousand years ago she didn't describe her "listening in stillness" that way. For Mary is was simply "quiet time" with God. As Keating suggests, this quiet time extended itself into all avenues of her life. Such Mary-like "resting in God" will also prompt us to be more responsive to everyone, urge us to help someone whenever the occasion arises, and recommend to us creative ways to show our love for everyone, including family members, in-laws, and neighbors.
As you worship, read, intercede, praise God, give thanks to the Father, come to the Lord Jesus in Holy Communion, and listen to his voice in centering prayer, you too will find yourself "in haste" to make a visit, speak to a friend, spouse (or disgruntled neighbor) in love, write a letter to someone who'd like to hear from you, visit someone in the county jail, and say hello to your server at Bob Evans with an appreciative smile. You'll let the Blessed Virgin Mary be an example on how to re-enter ordinary living after prayer.
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