by SECAM
Text: Luke 1, 46-55
Comment: The Hymn of Mary
After the Annunciation, Mary visits her cousin Elizabeth. The dialogue between the two women ends with the hymn of Mary, the Magnificat. Mary thinks of the annunciation. She had answered the angel that she is a humble servant. She combines all the aspects of fragility. She is a woman in the patriarchal Jewish society and in the Greco-Roman world where the slave is only an object. She is the daughter of a people crushed by the Romans.
Yet she does not despair but participates in the salvation and liberation of her people. As a disciple, she will be the sign of the newness of God. Mary evokes the upheaval of situations and values that characterise the transition from the old to the new world. The intervention of God that began with the Annunciation will give priority to the humble and the crushed.
Mary, the young woman of Nazareth, is not a submissive young woman. She has the build of the matriarchs, the prophetesses and those that had endurance in the Old and New Testament. She is the symbol of a responsible woman. She represents all the women who challenge death every day and make life bloom.
Continuous meditation: Women in the Church and in the World
You, the Catholic women, you join in the evangelical tradition of the women who assisted Jesus and the apostles (cf. Lk 8, 3)! You are for the local Churches as their “backbone” because your number, your active presence and your organisations are of great support for the Church’s apostolate. When peace is threatened and justice flouted, when poverty is growing, you stand up for human dignity, family, and the values of religion. May the Holy Spirit continually provoke in the Church holy and courageous women who bring their precious spiritual contribution to the growth of our communities! (Benedict XVI, Africae Munus, 58).