Beloved Members of St. Martin’s,
This weekend we ae invited to spend time contemplating Mary’s Magnificat, her great prophecy of revolution and reconciliation that she proclaims upon meeting her kinswoman Elizabeth in the first chapter of Luke. It begins with a joyful shout of faith-filled empowerment and triumph:
My soul proclaims the greatness of God,
and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior….
As we face the longest night of the year, which signals that the year is drawing to an end, what would it be like to dwell deeply in just that single proclamation for a few moments?
First, what does it mean that “my soul proclaims the greatness of God?”
There are two directions this proclamation is in effect: inwardly, and then outwardly.
For what would it mean for us to lean into the claim that our souls proclaim God’s greatness to us? Those words remind us that we are “fearfully and wonderfully made” in God’s image. That God has implanted within all of us the capacity to choose to follow in imitation of God, to decide to be children of God in reality as well as name Throughout the testimony of this generous creation which was designed for our flourishing, God’s foundational qualities are revealed to be lovingkindness, patience, grace, mercy, forgiveness, compassion, and abundant generosity of spirit. Those qualities are foundational to the shaping of our own souls as well, if only we have the courage to claim these gifts that are woven into our souls and spirits.
Once that self-knowledge begins to take hold of us, how then might our souls proclaim the greatness of God to the world around us? Wouldn’t the abundance of those holy impulses overflow and spill out of us the way even a single candle fills a room with light? What would it be like for the rejoicing of our spirits in God as our Savior to be a tune that all around us could hear through our willingness to be an instruments of peace, healing, and reconciliation?
Can we, like Mary, own our inherent talent and agency for participation, even in small ways, in the redemption God offers the world? The torch of God’s love is being offered to us. It comes into the world humbly, vulnerably, as an infant born in the most lowly and impoverished of circumstances. The light of God goes forth from that tiny babe into the world wherever there are those who will tend to that precious and delicate flame—tend it, feed it, embody it, and bear it forward.
This is the invitation to us as children of humanity and children of God, brought into verdant flower in this hope-filled season of Advent. May our souls proclaim the greatness of God, and our spirits rejoice in God our Savior.
In Christ,
Mother Leslie