Luke is the evangelist of prayer. He offers numerous teachings, recommendations, and shows also the space prayer occupies in the life of Jesus and of other figures in the Gospels and in the Acts of Apostles. It is not by chance that we find persons praying in the temple of Jerusalem at the beginning and at the end of the third Gospel. In the first verses we meet the Priest Zachariah celebrating the offering of incense, while the people pray outside the temple (Luke 1, 9 – 10). In the final verses of the last chapter, the evangelist presents the disciples of Jesus in prayer, in the temple of Jerusalem (Luke 24, 52 – 53). The theme of prayer crosses and encloses the work of Luke.

Besides introducing men and women in prayer, Luke offers pure examples of prayer, among which  we see the hymns standing out in his Gospel like stars: the Magnificat, the Nunc dimittis, other prayers, and the Church asks us to rhythm with them the hours of the day and every day of our life, proposing them respectively for the Lauds, Vespers and Night Prayer before going to bed.

The canticle of Mary comes first from among the examples of prayer. There is a good reason for holding the Magnificat as a gift of God to Virgin Mary, of this to the Church and to each of us. The Lord who puts it on the lips of Mary, puts it also on our lips. We can say with Paul VI that it is the prayer of Mary par excellence, the song of Messianic time in which the exultance of the Old and the New Israel flow. The exultation of Abraham, who presented the Messiah, (See: John 8, 56) flowed to it and, prophetically anticipated, the voice of the Church re-echoed….The canticle of the Virgin has dilated to become a prayer of the whole church and of all times (Marialis cultus 18).

THE CONTEXT OF THE MAGNIFICAT

The infancy Gospel according to Luke (cc. 1-2) is the immediate context of the canticle. It is intercalated between two announcements: to Zachariah (Luke 1,5-22) and to Mary (Luke 1,26-38), and the narrations of two births: of John the Baptist (1,57) and of Jesus (2,1-7). The canticle of Mary is  between these two announcements and two births; the canticle Magnificat is situated within the episode of the visitation of the Virgin to Elisabeth (Luke 1,39-45). The two, “impossible”, mothers - one sterile, the other virgin- meet and the babies in their womb also meet. John acknowledges  the Lord and exults in the womb of its mother who, under the power of the Spirit, understands the sense of that exultation and recognises the mystery that Mary carries in her womb. Thus, she proclaims her blessed and mother of the Lord:  

And she spoke out with a loud voice, and said, Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb. And whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For, lo, as soon as the voice of thy salutation sounded in mine ears, the babe leapt in my womb for joy. And blessed is she that believed: for there shall be a performance of those things which were told her from the Lord (Lc 1,42-45.

At this point, in answer to the blessing of Elisabeth and to her act of faith, as well in front of the mystery of the Son she carries in he womb, recognised as the Lord, Mary sings the Magnificat, a song of praise (Luke: 1,46-55).

According to the exegetes, the presence  of the Magnificat at that point of the text is not essential in the plan of narration, which seems to be complete in itself (v. 56 follow v. 45), but it is a kind of suspension of the global movement of the narration to bring to emergence the meaning of the just narrated event, namely the Annunciation (Luke 1, 26 – 28), and, with a more theological language, the mystery of Incarnation.

The fact that the Magnificat interrupts the natural continuity of the narration does not mean that it is not important for the deep understanding of the reported events. A series of bonds links it to the context. The words: “My spirit exults” reminds us of what v. 44 had said on the exultance of the baby in the womb of Elisabeth. The way in which Mary speaks of herself (v, 48b) repeats the beatitude of Elisabeth: “Blessed is she who has believed (v. 45). By stating “The Almighty has done great things for me” (v 49a), she remembers the words of the angel: “Nothing is impossible to God” (v,37). Therefore, the Magnificat must be read and understood in function of the context from which it fetches many significant traits, particularly in function of the narration whose deep sense it intends to manifest.

After the annunciation of the angel, a great secret is entrusted to Mary, a secret that involves her deeply and that she cannot explain to anyone. Luke narrates that in this solitude she joins a caravan and goes towards Judea to reach the house of Elisabeth. Now the register of her life, the motion power of all her actions is the “power of the most High”, that envelops her. Her journey is a going, a remaining in the Lord, a setting  on a journey while dwelling in Him, a journeying with him. It is the interior virtue that moves Mary, that directs and gives sense to her exterior action; it is silence that matures the word. Each of us is called to the school of Mary to learn the secret of the vital synthesis between interiority and activity, between “to be” and “to do”, between to believe and to act, between memory and creativity, between “keeping everything in the heart and walking in a hurry”, between welcoming the Word of God and being a gift of God for our brothers and sisters.

THE TEXT

The Magnificat is an anthological text, whose Biblical tiles are set in a unitary mosaic. We recognise in it the memory of the canticle of Ann at the birth of Samuel (1 Sam 2,1-10), the joy of Lia at the birth of her two sons (Gen 29,32; 30,13), but also the language of the experience of the Exodus and the motive of the famous son of the sea (Es 15,1-18). Mary expresses herself like the heir of a religious tradition.  As daughter of the chosen people, she constantly nurtures herself with the Word of God, it is natural, therefore, that what is superabundant in her heart surfaces on her lips.

Though the terms and the motives of the canticle lead us back to the Old Testament, the spirit of the canticle is neo-testamentary: the coming of Christ inaugurates new times; it follows that the voice of Mary, though taking the accents of old Israel, anticipates and inaugurates the day of the Church of Christ that joyfully celebrates a salvation, which transforms the roots of the world’s history.

The text of the Magnificat appears like a unitary composition dominated by the tonality of praise and thanksgiving. The structure is the classic one of the Biblical hymns: the exordium, verse 46 – 47, formed by two parallel propositions, expresses the feelings present in the soul of Mary; the first stanza, verses 48 – 50, exalts the fruit of faith and humble trust in the mercy of God;  

The second stanza, verses 51 – 53, counts the saving actions worked by God in the history of salvation; the conclusion, verses 54 – 55, dilates the text, making of it the canticle of Israel and the canticle of the Church.

The exordium, verses 46 – 47
⁴⁶ «My soul glorifies the Lord
⁴⁷ and my spirit exults in God, my Saviour

These two verses contain the unique actions whose subject is Mary. She speaks in the first person: my soul….my spirit…. My Saviour…they will call me blessed …. The Almighty has done great things in me…. The Magnificat opens with an expression of joy, just as it happens in the Psaltery: “Celebrate the Lord with me, let us exalt his name all together…. I shall rejoice in the Lord, I shall exult in God my Saviour… I shall glorify you, Lord my king, I shall praise you God my Saviour, I shall glorify your name” (Psalm 34,4; Ab 3,18; Sir 51,1). Thus, the happiness of faith flourishes, as well as the wonder of contemplation and the peace of donation. The entire person is transformed into praise, becoming a “living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is the spiritual cult” (Rom 12, 1)..

Mary “magnifies”, “makes great” or better “proclaims the greatness of God”, proclaims the special gifts that have been granted to her; thus she “exults”, “rejoices”, “is glad in God” with full and exuberant joy that involves her whole person; a joy that finds its source and foundation in God. The verbs “to magnify”, “to exult” define Mary completely in relation with God, with that God whose work she has experienced in her existence. Mary is not self-referential: she is a self de-centred woman turned to the Lord, whose action she celebrates: God is the motive of her joy, and it is God that she exalts. In the comment of Luther to the Magnificat we read: “Mary does not say: “My soul magnifies itself”…; she magnifies exclusively God, to whom she attributes everything. She strips herself naked of everything and everything she offers to God, from whom she had received everything”.

At the beginning of her song, therefore, Mary expresses the programme of her life totally donated to God: “Not to put herself at the centre, rather to create space for God… not to magnify herself, but to magnify God and God alone. She is humble: she wants to be nothing but the servant of the Lord  (See:  Luke 1,38.48): She knows that she contributes to the salvation of the world by making herself available for the initiatives of God” (Benedict XVI, Deus caritas est 41).

It is not by chance that Mary’s experience is explained by the experience that she makes of God as Saviour. “My Saviour” (echo of Ab. 3, 18) underlines that salvation is not an abstract idea, but a personal relation with God. From the first verses Mary appears as the first saved being; it is not she the saviour: she is one who trusts the unique Saviour, narrated, sung, confessed with love. Moreover, the abundance of divine titles cannot flee away from the canticle: “Lord (v. 46), Saviour (v. 47), “Almighty” and “Holy” (v.49 and 49b). These appellatives evidently refer to God, but it is meaningful that the evangelist often refers them to Jesus; Lord  (Luke 1,43; 2,11; 5,8.12; At 1,21; …); Saviour (Luke 2,11; At 13,23; 19 …); Holy  (Luke 1,35; At 3,14; 4,27.30).The experience of God’s salvation, made by Mary, can be known by the Christians through faith in the Son Jesus Christ.

Faith generates thanksgiving and praise. The humble servant of God, who had made herself available with her “fiat” for the mysterious and upsetting project of God, continues its journey of obedience by celebrating the greatness of the God of Israel  and his salvation plan.

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The first stanza, verses 48-50 La prima
⁴⁸ because he has looked upon the humiliation of his servant,
Yes, from now onward all generations will call me blessed,
⁴   for the Almighty has done great things for me
and  Holy is his name
⁵⁰  and his faithful love extends from age to age
To those who fear Him

After the exordium, Luke presents the motivation of the praise to Mary; it is, first of all, in the fact that God has revealed himself as her Saviour “looking at her nothingness”. The distance between the Lord and his servant, between the Powerful and the poor, between the Most High and the one who is characterised by tapeinosis littleness, is filled in by the gaze which, from above, rests on Mary. Thus, God answers the expectation of all who trust in Him and fear Him. The history of His saving acts starts with the fact that he sees the misery of the oppressed, he sees the poverty, humiliation and oppression of his people. A crashed people, without any title to presume the divine intervention. The expression “God sees” means that He intervenes in history, in the events and expresses already his saving action; he says that he is already working in favour of somebody, because his looking at people always brings salvation.    

The gaze has the capacity of expressing the ample range of relations and feelings. In the case of Mary the gaze of God is synonymous of his being compassionate. Te compassion of God is not a vague feeling of piety, but assumption of responsibility for those who stand in need; it changes into concrete solicitude, gesture, actions, tending to restore the person to the fullness of life: in a word, it is “salvation”.

Therefore, God turned his gaze on Mary (v 48a) and acted, intervened concretely. V. 49 adds as motive of Mary’s praise the fact that God “has done great things for her”.  This recalls to mind the prodigies of the Lord in favour of his people, but above all the time and the deliverance from Egypt (Dt 10,21; 11,7; Sal 106,21; …). The memory of the exodus is found also in v. 51, “He has used the power of his arm”. It is meaningful that Mary places the intervention of God in her life, along the way of the great event of the Exodus. As a daughter of Israel, she finds, in the confession of faith and in the prayer of her people, words and images to describe the action that God has fulfilled in her. What has happened –the conception for the Messiah- is an event of salvation and deliverance.

The fact that the prodigies do not concern only the person of Mary, but will have an ampler destination, is underlined by the opening towards the future contained in verse 48b: “Yes, from now onward all generations will call me blessed”. The event accomplished by God in Mary has its repercussion over the centuries,  through acknowledging and proclaiming the beatitude of Mary. To declare her blessed does not mean to over-exalt her, but to see her with the eyes of God, to discover in her the poor, humble and obedient woman who has consented the historical realisation of the divine design of salvation. Now the task is entrusted to us and to all the present and future generations. This, even when, Rosary in hand, in the solitude or in a great assembly, we pray saying: “Blessed are you among women….”, we are the people of the prophecy. 

After acknowledging the intervention of God, Mary proclaims His holiness, “Holy is his name…and his faithful love extends from age to age to those who fear him” (verses 49-50). Holiness surely distinguishes God from man; “I am God, not man, I am the Holy among you”, Osea says (11, 9). God is the “separated”, but this distinction is finalised to a meeting, a covenant, a communion. The acknowledgement of God’s holiness goes together with the confession of his eternal mercy, which embraces all those who fear him, from generation to generation. Moreover, verse 50 counts Mary among those who “fear” God, that is, who love him and obey him, recognising his holiness, distance and otherness.

The second stanza, verses 51-53
⁵¹  He has used the power of his arm,
He has routed the arrogant of heart
⁵²  he has pulled down princes from their thrones
and raised high the lowly;
⁵³   he has filled the starving with good things
sent the rich away empty

In this second stanza Mary continues her song mentioning the saving gestures of God, whose action reaches powerful oppressors and littleness made poor, radically putting their destiny upside down. The praise and joy proclaimed in the first verses concern not only Mary and what the Lord has worked in her, but also the little ones and hungry subtracted from the dominion of the rich and powerful oppressors (vv. 52-53).

Now the personal history of Mary inserts itself in the history of the promise made to Abraham. What has happened in her is in conformity to what God “had spoken of to our fathers, to Abraham and his descendents  in eternal” (Luke 1,55). In this history, the conception of the Messiah is the fulfilment of the promise, in whose light we see the continuity and the newness of God’s action. In fact  the acting of God has always been so: taking expressions of the Old testament, Mary states that God has dispersed the proud (cf 2 Sam 22,28; Sal 89,11), has pulled down the princes from their thrones (cf Job 12,19; Sir 10,14), has raised high the lowly(cf Job 5,11; Psalm 147,6; Eze 21,31), has filled the starving with good things (cf 1 Sam 2,5; Sal 107,9), has sent the rich away empty (cf Psalm 34,11). The God of the Magnificat is the God that changes the destinies, granting his predilection to the humble and the little ones, to the poor and undefended

In the Magnificat, powerful and humble, hungry and rich, proud and faithful confront each other, but God has made his choice. He is, like in the whole Bible, on the side of the poor, “with the sick, with those who are tormented by afflictions and infirmities; with the possessed, the epileptics and paralytics” (See Mt 4,24) and He appeals to them: “Come to me all you who labour and are overburdened, and I will give you rest” (Mt 11,28). This divine way of acting, from now onward, will be shown in life, in the words and actions of him who will be born from the womb of Mary.

In fact, as Simeon will reveal in the temple of Jerusalem, Jesus “is destined for the fall and for the rise of many in Israel, destined to be a sign that is opposed…. So that the secret thoughts of many may be laid bare”  (Luke 2,34-35). In these verses we see the successive development of the Gospel, which we can condense in the logic of the beatitudes, a logic expressed by Luke in clear contrast between the beatitudes proclaimed for the poor, the hungry, the afflicted, and the troubles announced to the rich, satisfied, jolly persons  (See Luke 6,20-26).

This judgement actuated by God shows that the acceptance of salvation passes through a crisis: What is essential is the conversion of the heart and of life, in all the relational dimensions that characterise it, particularly the social, political and economic ones, as it appears from our text that speaks of powerful and rich, to know the beatitude announced by Christ. The page of Luke about the “conversion” of Zacchaeus (Luke 19,1-10) shows that welcome of salvation is directly a welcome of Christ himself, and that this implies a concrete movement of emptying oneself, of impoverishment, of lowering, in a word it implies the metànoia (See Luke 5,32).

The canticle reaches once again the situation of the  reader who feels involved by the invitation to conversion and recognises that the action of God chooses a remnant also within his people. Mary, in her littleness-poverty, is the heir of the “poor and humble people” whom Sophonia speaks of like the saints within the community of the covenant (Soph. 3,12). In the obedience of Christ, who among his own is like “one who serves”, and after the example of Mary “the servant of the Lord (Luke 1,38), the Church also, the Eucharistic community, must give a physiognomy of servant and poor to live her own presence among the people as Diakonia and evangelical witness of the Lord, who pulls down the proud and powerful and raises the humble and poor. Once again the words of the Magnificat question and disquiet the conscience of today’s believer.

Conclusion: vv. 1,54-55
⁵⁴ He has come to the help of Israel his servant 
mindful of his faithful love,
⁵⁵ according to the promise he made to our ancestors
to Abraham and his descendants for ever”..

In its conclusion, the canticle uses old-testamentary expressions (for verse 54: Isaiah 41, 8-9); Psalm 98, 3; for verse 55: Genesis 12, 3; 22, 17; Mi 7, 20), evoking the help granted by God to Israel, “servant of the Lord” (See Is 49,3), up to the promise made to Abraham. In this way the Magnificat is the song of the memory and of the faithfulness of God: God keeps his promises. It is not by chance that verse 54 speaks of God who remembers his mercy, recalling the event of the announcement to Mary of the birth of the Messiah. From Abraham to the Messiah, through Israel and, finally, to Mary we can see the “itinerary” that the Magnificat covers to celebrate the faithfulness of God covering the whole of history, even the future. The reader/listener of the Magnificat, he who prays, at this point, is moved to renew the confession of faith in faithfulness to God, such a faithfulness as to know how to  discern the daily events in which God is present.

The Magnificat, therefore, is not a shut up prayer; it asks to be continued and personalised by each of us in our own existence. It does not send us back to the past, but projects us into the future; it does not bend on man, but contemplates God and his faithfulness: which is “for ever” (v. 55b).  Whoever reads and prays the Magnificat places himself in this future along the course of history. He, too, is called to recognise, in the evening of every day, what the Lord has made for him, to confess it and to thank for it; the promise of God did not fail on that day, but was fulfilled; the faithfulness of the Lord was fulfilled on that day with prodigies and miracles of love to be seen and recognised: to have kept the faith, remaining faithful to the received vocation….

TO SING THE MERCY OF GOD

Mary proclaims that the unforeseeable and surprising, unlimited and saving action of God is different from that of man (See Os 11,9). Men act for interest, caprice or habit. God acts only for love. The virgin Mary perceives the Scriptures as the greatest and most suggestive poem of God’s love, the deep heart of the Most High. The Greek word “mercy” (eleos), which we are still using today in the liturgy, asking God to have mercy on us (see Kyrie eleison), encloses a rich Hebrew terminology. In particular, there are two terms in it about the spiritual experience narrated in the Old Testament.

First of all, “mercy” translates the term hesed, which ordinarily is translated into “bounty”, “benevolence”, “faithfulness”: we could express these terms with “grace”, in a strong sense. Moreover, mercy translates also the term rachamîm, which is expressed with “maternal bowels”,  that is, full of emotion for their fruit”, and prevent the mother from forgetting her child. In a famous text of Isaiah, the goodness of God is compared with that of a mother or infinitely more: «Can a woman forget her baby at the breast, feel no pity for the child she has borne? Even if they were to forget, I shall not forget you” (Isaiah: 49,15-16). The two Hebrew terms (hesed and rachamîm) indicate, in different shades, a precise concept of love/tenderness, made up of pure gift, a free gift that welcomes, understands, forgives. It reminds us of the extraordinary benevolence of God, the grace of the covenant, as well as the fatherly/motherly tenderness of God, that prevails over the infidelity of the people to the extent of cancelling the memory of infidelity. Isaiah says: “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson they shall be like wool (Is 1,18).

Verse 50 of Magnificat is evidently connected with various texts of the Old testament, in particular with Psalm 103. This hymnal psalm, considered as one of the most beautiful of the Psaltery, proclaims the mercy of God and anticipates the new-testament definition “God is love” (1 John 4,8.16).

We can say that Psalm 103 is a kind of Magnificat, entirely enclosed in the expression: “Bless Yahweh, my soul”  (verses 1 and 22). It contains three verses of the canticle: “so strong is his faithful love for those who fear him”(verse 11), “the Lord is tender with his faithful” (Verse 13), “his grace extends from father to son for him who does not forget the covenant! (verse 17). In the heart of Psalm 103 we find the self-definition of God offered by the exodus, when JHWH proclaims his own name before Moses: “The Lord is goodness and mercy; he is patient, constant in love  (Ex 34,6 e Sal 103,8). Around this quotation the Psalmist develops the theme of the Covenant grace and that of the Motherly tenderness of JHWH. Both of them, grace and tenderness, “extend on those who fear God”  (verses 11 e 13). Grace extends in space, great and ample like the protective mantle of the sky over the earth; and it extends also for the whole span of time: “from generation to generation, towards the children of children” (verse 17). Tenderness, instead, extends in intensity, depth, totality of man. In fact, God the Father “knows how we are moulded” and remembers “that we are dust” (v. 14).

The fact that God has decided to fill with his bounty and tenderness every distance between himself and man, arouses in the psalmist a contemplative, humble and painful  gaze on the frailty of the human creature:  fault, sickness, death invoke forgiveness, healing, “redemption from the tomb” (vv. 3-4 e 9-10).

THE TODAY OF MERCY

Through this rapid reflection on the texts of the O. T. we can see how the words of Mary (“his mercy from generation to generation on those who fear him”) sum up all its richness. Mary does no longer look at herself; she notices the evolving of God’s mercy along history, from generation to generation, and sees the mercy of God bound to His faithfulness in keeping his promises: “he has remembered the promise he made to our fathers”  (v. 55).

The words of Mary proclaim the today of this mercy, of God’s forgiveness in favour of humanity; the today and for ever of this mercy “from generation to generation”. It is not just the experience of the moment: the mercy revealed in Mary and through Mary in the world is now the mercy that extends through history, from generation to generation, for every man and woman. What was fulfilled in Mary with the Incarnation of the Only Begotten Son is the revelation that the mercy of God is realised in its fullness of forgiveness and grace. God has been faithful to his promises The times of God’s mercy are today. This is what Mary goes on expressing in the Magnificat verse 54: “He has come to the help of Israel his servant, mindful of his faithful love”.  

According to the proclamation of the prophets, the messianic times would be the times of the manifestation of God’s mercy to Israel and through Israel to the entire humanity: “All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of Our God” (See: Is 52,10). Mary proclaims that these times announced by the prophets have now been fully realised: God has remembered his mercy, “According to the promise he made to our Fathers, to Abraham and his descendants for ever” (v. 54).

The canticle of the Magnificat, the most beautiful comment of God’s mercy, cannot leave us indifferent. Each of us and the whole Church are called to develop a high degree of pastoral activity on mercy and compassion. Faith in God, Creator and Father, Saviour and Sanctifier, provokes us to mercy, to goodness towards our brothers and sisters. Remembering that the Father has freed us in his Son from our faults and our sufferings, every believer, feels in his/her depth mercy towards everybody. To sing the Magnificat with Mary, a living image of God’s mercy, “mother of mercy” and consoler of the afflicted, means to do what Paul recommends the Colossians “As the chosen of God, the holy people whom He loves, you are to be clothed in heartfelt compassion, in generosity and humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with one another, forgive each other if one of you has a complaint  against another. The Lord has forgiven you, now you must do the same”.  (Col 3,12-13). Then we shall be persons who, having received mercy, will transmit it, in syntony with God “rich and great in love”, with the motherly heart of Mary, full of tenderness, because we must give to others what we have received free of cost.