Column on Mary for dec. 13

I was raised Roman Catholic, so I learned of devotion to Mary, the mother of jesus from youth. I was also raised in a Polish household, so every year we set out the Nativity scene on christmas Eve and had it up through January, 6, epiphany, the feast of the Magi. With infinite care, craftsmen would build a grotto to honor Mary in the backyard or on the side of a church such as ours. All of the pictures or statues of mary showed a young contemplative beauty, often gazing with tender devotion at the child in the manger. This Sunday we read the magnificat of Mary’s great prayer response to elizabeth when they share news of their respective miracle pregnancies.

We read of the Magnificat of Mary in Luke’s gospel alone. I do notice that she doesn’t say much about marketing the church. In our time; it does not say Christmas is for children; Christmas reaches for those in trouble.  Its prayer speaks of helping people in need. Mary does not make   a listing of the economically needy alone. The prayer mentions those who are hurting in their hearts, mourners and bind up the brokenhearted.

We leave the latter to alcohol with friends and the words and music of songwriters. We react to mourners by hoping that they well get back to work as soon as possible and not burden us with a repetition of some facet of their loss. That’s especially true this time of year, so we warn folks not to ruin Christmas. Of course we are called to do charitable things at this time of year, and an astounding generosity pours out of people, hard economic times or flush ones.

No, Mary’s words were and are political dynamite. I note that the noted Biblical scholar and theologian Rush Limbaugh went ballistic when the Pope offered words that reflected Mary’s prayer. I see that the esteemed Fox News ecclesial  contributor Sarah Palin has given us a gift of her views on Christmas that include a celebration of its being “commercialized.”  Mary’s prayer is not one for Scrooge to become converted to a new way of life. it is for the reversal of the fortunes of the Scrooges of the world. it is a prayer from the heart of the Cratchit household.

The NRSV translates Lk. 1:51 as “scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.” In Genesis all people are scattered after the tower of Babel incident (ch.11) the tribes of Israel were scattered and dispersed in 722 and then in the horrific exile after the destruction of Jerusalem.Mary could well be playing on this theme. It could also be more prosaic. Just as the rich gather in money and power, so their status will one day be scattered, with one assumes, their goods. I hear mary saying that the pride of the rich will go with their fall.Just as poverty often entails a poverty of the spirit, an empty heart to match an empty purse, so the rich will be sent empty away (v. 53).

So, Mary’s prayer links her selection as the bearer of Christ as a new sign for the ages, a coming reversal of fortunes. it has the sense of saying at last, a new order for the ages is on the horizon. She does not see ti as an accident that a lowly one would bring the child to delivery in a lowly place.We make her a safe remote figure when we exclude her great prayer from our religious imagination. For mary, christmas was not a sentimental day, but a shot of divine power that echoes through the centuries.