My Soul Magnifies the Lord

and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior....,

for He has done great things for me,

and holy is His Name (Luke 1:46).

I love it that Mary did not have to find the words to explain to her cousin Elizabeth what had happened to her in Nazareth.  I wonder if on the journey to the "hill country of Judah" she pondered how on earth she would tell Elizabeth that an angel had appeared to her and that now she was pregnant.  It was a pretty far-fetched story.  But at the sound of Mary's greeting, Elizabeth "was filled with the Holy Spirit" and knew --- she just knew---that Mary was the Mother of the Messiah and said, "Blessed is she who has believed that what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished!"

Elizabeth knew that Mary had received the word of God, had heard from God, and that His word would come to life in her.

I think that maybe Mary's experience with God's revelation to Elizabeth may have prepared her to trust God to also speak to Joseph three months later.  There was not much she could have said to him, except "I am with child."  She had to leave it at that, and trust that God would reveal everything else.  Maybe she was expecting an instant revelation, as had happened with Elizabeth -- but it did not happen that way this time.  I wonder if Mary faltered a bit when she saw the expression on Joseph's face -- his confusion and bewilderment.  I wonder if she went to bed frightened that night.  I wonder if God was stretching her faith a bit further this time, because she would later need even more faith.

I once heard a talk about our experience in the spiritual life.  The priest said that when we first begin to walk with God, we feel like we are flying on a magic carpet, far above all the problems of the world.  One day, however, we look down and see God pulling out the threads of the carpet one by one.  "What are you doing?" is our response; "I need this carpet!"  "You don't need the carpet," says God.  "I am teaching you that you need only Me."  We no longer have "instant" answer to prayer, instant healing, instant success in all our ways.  Our faith often seems stretched to the limit --- but in the end, the result is the same:

My soul magnifies the Lord,

and my spirit rejoices in God, my Savior,

...for He who is mighty has done great things for me,

and holy is His Name.

The further we go in the spirit, the more we know that God is not a "magic carpet," but always an unfailing refuge, the One who says in Isaiah:

Listen to me, O house of Jacob....

Even to your old age and grey hairs,

I am he; I am he who will sustain you.

I have made you, and I will carry you;

I will sustain you and I will rescue you (46:3-4).

The deeper we go in the spiritual life, the more we want to dance and sing the Magnificat; the more joy we have at the everlasting faithfulness of God.  He may stretch our faith a little further each time, but only that we know that "His arm is not too short to save us," no matter where we are.

Recently, I was privileged to read a letter from a nun who lived in the East sector of Berlin, separated from the other sisters of her order whose house was in the Western sector.  On the day of the re-unification of the two sectors, she describes all of the people -- Christian and non-Christian, baptized and non-baptized, Catholic and Protestant and athiest, Communist leaders and common people --- all gathering in all of the churches to thank God in inter-dominational services led by both Catholic and Protestant preachers and priests.  The joy of those people "behind the wall" was a great Magnificat!  They were all thanking God  for their freedom --even the Communist mayor of the village. 

I have heard that Pope John Paul II had a great deal to do with the crumbling of that dividing wall, but that remains for history to tell us.  However it happened, it was as much a miracle as the deliverance of the Israelites from Egypt and the opening of the Red Sea.  For those who lived for years behind the wall, it must have seemed that God had abandoned them -- but all the time, He was working on their behalf! 

In the book of Daniel, after Daniel and his companions were delivered from the lions' den, King Nebuchadnezzar was amazed and said this:  No other god can save in this way.  Then he wrote to "all the peoples, nations, and men of every language who live in all the world:"

It is my pleasure to tell you about the miraculous signs and wonders that the Most High God has performed for me.  How great are His signs, how mighty His wonders!  His kingdom is an eternal kingdom; His dominion endures from generation to generation (Daniel 4:1-3).

Even the Persian king was singing the Magnificat after he had seen what God can do!