Daily Reflection | Connected in Christ

August 15, 2024

The Rev. Anne Williamson

The Feast of Saint Mary the Virgin,

Mother of Our Lord

The Magnificat - Luke 1:46-55

Mary said,

"My soul magnifies the Lord,

and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,

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

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

for the Mighty One has done great things for me,

and holy is his name.

His mercy is for those who fear him

from generation to generation.

He has shown strength with his arm;

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

He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,

and lifted up the lowly;

he has filled the hungry with good things,

and sent the rich away empty.

He has helped his servant Israel,

in remembrance of his mercy,

according to the promise he made to our ancestors,

to Abraham and to his descendants forever."

 Today is the Feast of Saint Mary the Virgin, the mother of our Lord. The humble peasant girl from the hills of Galilee in first century Palestine has become the most famous woman who ever lived, venerated by Christians and Muslims and known by many names: The Blessed Virgin Mary; Mary, the Mother of Jesus; The Madonna; Our Lady and more. Perhaps the most powerful name for me is Mary, Theotokos – Mary, God Bearer. Mary’s yes to God at the Annunciation would give her the role of bearing the son of God, Jesus, Emmanuel, God-with-us. And yet, in her lifetime, Mary was known to those who followed Jesus as his mother Mary, and otherwise she was not known.

 Such was her faithfulness to God, in the first instance at the Annunciation, and then throughout her life with Jesus and after his death, resurrection and ascension, that Mary would become a central figure of faith for many. A woman who walked the walk as well as talked the talk, someone whose yes to God changed the world, a woman whose was told when her son was a baby (by the prophet Simeon) that her heart would be pierced with sorrow – and it was. The scriptures do not record much of Mary’s speech but the little we have is awe-inspiring in is praise, faithfulness and trust in God. To the Angel Gabriel she replied “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.” even though saying yes meant risking her life to have a baby when she was not yet married. Her trust in God to raise up the lowly, be merciful and fill the hungry with good things remains a call to radical discipleship and some of the most beautiful music in the world echoes her words, or words about her – the Magnificat and the Ave Maria. (see below for some links to versions of the Magnificat and the Ave Marie).

The Magnificat, Mary’s song, was inspired by the scriptures of her faith (the song of Hannah in 1 Samuel 2 for example) and has been an inspiration to others through the millennia. One person inspired by these words was a young seminarian from New Hampshire named Jonathan Daniels.

Jonathan Daniels was born and raised in Keene New Hampshire – his family attended the Congregational Church, but he joined the youth group at St. James Episcopal Church in Keene and became an Episcopalian in his late teens with thoughts of going into either medicine – his father was a doctor, or the ministry. After a process of discernment, he became a seminarian at the Episcopal Theological School in Cambridge, MA. In the wake of the bloody Sunday march in Selma in March of 1965, Dr. Martin Luther King invited clergy from around the country to join him in Selma two days later for another march – 11 seminarians from ETS answered the call and travelled to Alabama to participate in the clergy March. After a week in Alabama, they returned to Cambridge to their studies. But Jonathan Daniels decided to return to Alabama – what prompted that decision?

In part, it was the Magnificat, one of the four beautiful songs in the Gospel of Luke: The Benedictus, sung by Zechariah at the birth of his son John, The angels’ chorus on the night of Jesus’ birth, the Nunc Dimittus, sung by Simeon when he meets the infant Jesus with his parents in the temple, and the Magnificat. The Magnificat is part of a traditional Evensong service and in the seminary chapel in Cambridge, at Evensong, Jonathan Daniels heard in this familiar and beloved Song of Mary a call to return to the South, as did one of the other seminarians, Judy Upham.

Mary’s words, Mary’s song became Jonathan Daniels’ inspiration and confirmed to him his calling to return to work for the electoral registration of African-Americans in Alabama. 

‘My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my savior…’ these familiar words were shared by Jonathan, Judy and others during Evening Prayer each night in the midst of the hostility and uncertainty of the work in Selma, and the power and the promise of Mary’s song became Jonathan’s song:

‘He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts; He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly;’ Jonathan wrote: “I knew that I must go to Selma. The Virgin’s song was to grow more and more dear to me in the weeks ahead.” 

When we read the words Mary sang, they are mainly in the past tense, they speak of God’s work done; and yet, in the life of Jonathan Daniels, the words of Mary’s song spoke to him of a work in progress, there was more to be done, and for me, I hear in the Magnificat the glory of that which has been accomplished, but I too hear words that speak of a work in progress, yet to be fulfilled…sweet work as Bishop Rob would call it, the sweet work of bringing hope and love and joy to those who are the least and the last and the lost…

If the Magnificat was the song that inspired Jonathan Daniels to return to Alabama, St. Paul’s letter to the Galatians gives us the theological underpinning of his – and our - faith – When the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, in order to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children. And because you are children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!" So you are no longer a slave but a child, and if a child then also an heir, through God.’ And immediately following the verses for the Feast of the Blessed Virgin Mary are the verses for the Feast of Jonanthan Daniels, which was yesterday, August 14: “ all baptized in Christ have been clothed in Christ, so that there would no longer be any of the differentiations that had separated the people of God heretofore – there would no longer be Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female but all are one in Christ…’

This was the creed by which Jonathan Daniels lived – he could not see how those calling themselves Christians could treat their fellow Christians, indeed any of their fellow human beings, so badly. It is the creed by which he died - protecting a young Black woman, Ruby Sales, age 17, taking the Deputy Sheriff’s shotgun blast aimed at her.

Every year since 1997 there has been a pilgrimage to Hayneville, Alabama, where Jonathan died. When he was Presiding Bishop Elect, The Rt Reverend Michael Curry, led that pilgrimage and said of those gathered “We are not here because we think good thoughts, or simply because we are nice people, although we are. We are here because we who have been baptized – we’re not simply baptized into church membership – we were consecrated to radical discipleship, into the Jesus Movement to change this world…The same movement that called Jonathan, and Mary…, the same movement that moved the world into being.”

I invite you to sit with Mary’s Song, to say the Magnificat and wonder what part you are called to play in the Jesus Movement. What song are you called to sing for the least, the last and the lost?  If listening to music is helpful in hearing from God (which I find it is to me – I often pray with hymns and other sacred music) see below for some online resources. Today, let us give thanks to and for the young girl who said yes to God and the faithful woman she remained, and for all those, including Jonathan Daniels, who accepted and acted on the radical discipleship of loving and accepting and caring for all in the name of Christ.

Collect for the Day: O God, you have taken to yourself the blessed Virgin Mary, mother of your incarnate Son: Grant that we, who have been redeemed by his blood, may share with her the glory of your eternal kingdom; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Blessings on your day.

Anne

 

Ave Maria  - Ashley Wade SJC December 2023

Here are three very different settings of the Magnificat: