Today we discussed a forbidden topic among the reformed in Church. And that is Mary.
46b My soul magnifies the Lord,
47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
48 for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant. Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
49 for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name.
50 His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation.
51 He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.
52 He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly;
53 he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty.
54 He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy,
55 according to the promise he made to our ancestors, to Abraham and to his descendants forever.”
In the reformation, the doctrines of Mary being without sin and ascending to heaven were rejected. Instead, Mary is fully human, a young Jewish woman, probably in her teenage years, betrothed (and preparing) for a marriage that was arranged with Joseph.
But she saw the child within her as the saviour of Israel and herself. She carried Jesus. We are to note that of all women she is accounted as the most blessed.
But in her lifetime… her husband died (which is what most commentators beleive — Jesus on the cross told John to look after her). Jesus Brothers went on in ministry — but even then, they were martyred. Do the math. If we say that Mary was ay 156 or 17 when she conceived by the spirit of God Jesus, and he lived 33 -34 years, at around my age (51) she was standing watching her first child be crucified.
Mary reminds us that the external signs of prosperity are not what God calls blessed. He chose a woman from the most marginal and dspised region — Galilee — and from a poor family. Mary may have been related to a priest’s wife, but she was going to marry a tradesman. She reminds us that Godly and blessed women still marry, still live within those walls — in fact it is significant that she DID marry — unlike most Female saints, who chose not to. Like most Jews, she was too sensible to see God as her boyfriend, but as the almighty.
If you compare her hymn (which is the text) and the prophets, you can see that see shes that the coming of the kingdom will be about justice. And this justice is something that all will plead for. And although Mary is fallen, she allowed the incarnation, and that makes her blessed.
As we are if we work for liberation, and freedom of the oppressed. Which takes me from Pergolesi to Gorecki, From the mother standing at the cross to a child awaiting death.