Saint Mary the Virgin - Reflection from Rev. Mees Tielens, Curate

August 15th is the Feast Day of Mary, or St. Mary the Virgin as she officially known in the Church. It is, however, not her virginity that I want to highlight today, but her radicality. You might not know it, given the many, many paintings of Mary hanging all over the world in which Mary is portrayed as demure or sweet, usually silent, often just a backdrop to baby Jesus on her knee. She’s usually cloaked in blue, her eyes downcast: the perfect woman, at least in some quarters.

But that is not at all what Scripture tells us. In Scripture, Mary is young, yes. Likely afraid. Certainly overwhelmed (isn’t everyone after the birth of their first child?). But there is a fierceness clearly present in her in the Bible that is missing from so many of those paintings. And to see that, all you have to do is read the Magnificat.

The Magnificat, or the Song of Mary, or the Canticle of Mary, is one of the oldest Christian hymns we have, and it’s taken from Luke 1:46-55, when Mary goes and visits her cousin Elizabeth after being visited by the angel Gabriel. It is steeped in allusions to the Hebrew Bible and goes as follows:

46And Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord,

47and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,

48for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant.

Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed;

49for the Mighty One has done great things for me,

and holy is his name.

50His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation.

51He has shown strength with his arm;

he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.

52He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,

and lifted up the lowly;

53he has filled the hungry with good things,

and sent the rich away empty.

54He has helped his servant Israel,

in remembrance of his mercy,

55according to the promise he made to our ancestors,

to Abraham and to his descendants forever.”

You can just hear the explosive power of Mary’s hope, and her trust in God when you read this. And that’s also what has given it its enduring power, especially among the poor and oppressed, where it became a scriptural rallying cry of entire communities. Because you may have noticed that Mary speaks not of things that God will do, but things that is God was already doing. Is still doing, actually. God is already feeding the hungry, liberating the oppressed, at work in the world in so many ways. Mary didn’t sing about a God who fed the hungry once; she sang about a God who cared so much about our hunger that—to invoke the Gospel reading for Sunday—he sent his own Son to feed us with living bread and eternal life.

Thousands of years ago, Mary sang in hope that, in the words of Rory Cooney, “the world is about to turn.” (Click the link to hear one of my favorite interpretations of the Magnificat!) She held onto that hope throughout Jesus’ life, and death, and resurrection, her fierceness never wavering.

So yes. Mary was young, and afraid, and in over her head. But she was also a smart and resourceful woman, with “artistry” and above all, the “chutzpah [to interpret] her life according to ancient patterns of divine action. [A]nd her song encourages us to do the same.”1

Yours in Christ,

Mees+