Feast of the Assumption (Transferred), Sunday, August 18, 2013
Fr. Todd Bragg
St. Margaret Anglican Church
Indianapolis, Indiana
"And Mary said, My soul doth magnify the Lord" (St. Luke 1:46 ff)
The Gospel passage coming from today's Gospel is referred to the "Magnificat" or "Mary's Canticle." This is the prayer that Our Blessed Lady gives when she goes to visit her cousin St. Elizabeth, whom you will recall was pregnant with St. John the Baptist at the time. When Our Lady enters into the presence of her cousin, St. John leaps for joy inside the womb of St. Elizabeth. Obviously, all three were filled with the Holy Ghost, with the knowledge that they were in the Presence of the coming Messiah. And, being filled with the Spirit of God, Our Lady gives her Magnificat to tell of the greatness of God.
Unfortunately, Our Lady gets a "bum rap" sometimes from those who get the impression that we worship her. And as a result of them not wanting to be guilty of "false worship" they do not give the proper respect that should be owed to Our Blessed Mother. Anglicans have long had a devotion to the Blessed Mother. If you look in many traditional Anglican churches, you will see the "Lady Chapel," which of course named after Our Lady. And, in particular, Anglicans have a devotion to Our Lady of Walsingham. As Anglicans, we certainly respect and show love to Our Lady, but we also take heed of the Ten Commandments, in particular, the command to not worship any other gods. Thus, we do not worship Our Lady but we try to show her the respect that is owed to her as being the Mother of the Messiah. It should always be remembered that the last act that Our Blessed Saviour performed before He died on the Cross was to make sure that His Blessed Mother was to be looked after when He entrusted her to the care of St. John. Our Lord had a special love for His Mother. For that reason alone, we should give her the respect and love that she is owed. Not to worship, but to love.
In today's Gospel passage from St. Luke's first chapter, we focus on three verses, in particular. In verse 51 we hear: "He hath shewed strength with His arm; He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts." Here, Our Lady is pointing out that that God is the One in charge. He is the One that is strong and that those who submit themselves to the Almighty will be the ones who will benefit. Those who think themselves to be in charge will be the ones to ultimately miss out. Those who depend on themselves will soon find that the only One we can depend on ultimately is God. He is the One to Whom we should depend on.
In verse 52 we hear: "He hath put down the mighty from their seats, and exalted them of low degree." If it is one thing that we should learn from the Almighty through the example of the Blessed Mother it is: God uses the lowly to achieve great things. Back in the time before Jesus was born, the Jewish people were long expecting the Messiah to return. But, certainly, they were expecting the Messiah to arrive as a great King, arriving perhaps on a great white horse surrounded by grand armies and banners and trumpets sounding. And, yet, the Messiah came born in the stable of animals born to a lowly, common, ordinary Jewish girl who was not considered powerful or extraordinary by the standards of the world. God used this ordinary, common girl to be the vehicle which He used to come into the world. And, for her part, Our Lady humbled herself to become the vessel of God.
" . . exalt him that is low and abase him that is high." (Ezekiel 21:26) God will bring down those who think of themselves as powerful and almighty and will raise up those who have humbled and submitted themselves to Him. This is certainly what Our Lady did. "Humble yourself the more, the greater you are, and you will find favour with God." (Sirach 3:19)
In verse 53, Mary states: "He hath filled the hungry with good things; and the rich He hath sent away empty." With these words, Our Lady is saying the very same thing that her Son would state many years later: "Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled." (St. Matthew 5:7) Our Blessed Mother is pointing out that her Son fills the void of what is empty. Those who are hungry, Jesus will nourish; those who are devoid of happiness, Jesus will be their happiness; those who are without strength for the trials they endure, He will be that strength for them. Jesus fills the void in our life.
The lesson that Our Lady teaches us is that we must empty ourselves in order to be filled by God. Did you ever hear the expression "He is just full of himself." Well, this expression is true. We are full of ourself when we are full of our accomplishments, and full of what we have achieved, and full of ourself that we are proud and focused solely on ourself. We are so full of ourself that we have no room to for God. It is the same way that a container, whether it be a bottle or a pot, if that container is so full of liquid or water, as long as it is filled up, we will not be able to add anything else to it. We first have to empty some of the contents of the bottle before we can replace it with anything else. So, too, in our spiritual life. We must empty our desires, our vices, our pride, our achievements, etc. We must empty ourselves in order to be filled with God. As long as we are filled with our pride and own accomplishments, there will be no room for God.
St. Ambrose wrote: "Let Mary's soul be in each one of you to proclaim the greatness of the Lord. Let her spirit be in each to rejoice in the Lord. Christ has only one mother in the flesh, but we all bring forth Christ in faith." What St. Ambrose is saying that as a human being, Christ could only be born once and, obviously, will only have one mother. But through faith we can all imitate Our Lady and bring Christ again into the world through our Christian actions. Each time we show compassion, we can bring forth Christ to those whom we are compassionate. Every time we show love to those who are in need of God's love, we bring forth love to that person. Every time we show forgiveness to someone who has wronged us, we are bringing Christ into the world. Mary brought forth her Son physically into the world but we can bring forth Christ into the world spiritually through our actions and prayers.
