Gospel Reflections Fr. Michael Juran

Latest Update: August 15, 2010  -  Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

  We sometimes call the prayer Mary says in today’s Gospel the Magnificat, a title we get from the first word of the Latin translation of these verses. Although it is a beautiful prayer, the Magnificat is not an original but a combination of several Old Testament passages, similar to the prayer Hannah said when she dedicated her only son, Samuel, to God’s service (1 Samuel 2).

   God’s preference for the poor and the lowly over the rich and the powerful is a theme running throughout the prayer. God confuses the proud and deposes mighty kings, but he looks kindly upon those who are weak and insignificant, raising them to places of honor and giving them their fill of good things.

   The Magnificat provides an excellent description of how God has acted throughout history. God constantly chose to work through the least likely candi-dates. He used Abraham’s old and barren wife, Sarah, instead of a young and fertile maidservant to fulfill his promise that Abraham would become the father of a great nation. He sent Moses, a man with a speech impediment, to demand that Pharaoh allow the Jews to leave Egypt. He used Rahab the harlot to help the Jews conquer the city of Jericho. Later, God took David, a poor shepherd boy, and made him the greatest king of the Jews.

   Mary appropriately rejoices in how God enjoys working through ordinary people because she too was poor and lowly. A young girl in her early teens from the small town of Nazareth in unsophisti- cated Galilee would not dare dream that God would have special plans for her. But God did, and Mary responded affirmatively to God’s power in her life.