I came across an interesting piece of information in preparing for next week’s sermon. It actually has nothing to do with what I will be preaching about, but it was far too interesting to pass up.
According to Elizabeth A. Johnson (writing in U.S. Catholic, 2003), the Magnificat of the Virgin Mary was considered so subversive that for a period of time in the 1980’s the government of Guatemala banned it from being publicly recited. The Magnificat begins:
“Mary said,
My soul praise the Lord’s greatness!
My spirit finds joy in God, my savior,
because he has looked favorably on me, his humble servant.”
(Luke 1:46-47)
To be fair, Mary does go on to say that God scatters the proud and pulls down the strong rulers while lifting up the humble and the hungry. I guess the Guatemalan government was fearful those words of Scripture might apply to them.
Still, it is hard to understand how an ancient poem written by a teenage girl could be considered to dangerous to speak out loud. As I read Mary’s song in its context, I see her incredible humility. It frankly catches me by surprise because there is so little humility.
I have watched the response to the current economic crisis in our country with the same morbid fascination that causes one to watch two cars crash into each other or a train run off the tracks. In all of this mess, no one has stepped up to say, “it was our policies, or my greed, or my stupidity that caused this.” There are a million causes for the sorry state of our economy and no one to take responsibility for one of them.
It takes a measure of humility to say you were wrong. Humility, however, is in short supply.
The good news that Mary’s song proclaims is that God lifts up the humble. When we can come to the place where we can say in humility, “I was wrong; this is my fault,” God is ready to forgive, renew, and lead us to better things.
I don’t know if we have leaders with the insight, determination, and wisdom to bail us all out of the current economic crisis. I do know that we have a God who is on the side of the humble and He is always more ready to forgive than we are to acknowledge our need of Him.
Try something subversive and revolutionary today: read Mary’s words in Luke 1:46-55 and ask God to give you a heart that trusts Christ like Mary did.