From: 1 Samuel 1:24-28
Birth of Samuel (Continuation)
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Commentary:
1:1-28. Samuel’s birth is described with all the elements denoting a miraculous
event, emphasizing divine intervention and the child’s importance. With no hope
of a human solution, a childless woman, humiliated by her husband’s (other)
fertile wife, seeks a way out of her anguish by asking God, her only hope, to
give her a son. Her husband loves her, but he cannot understand her (v. 8); Eli,
the priest and head of the shrine at Shiloh, comes to bless her but even he
cannot understand her (vv. 15-17). God is the only one who listens to her, and
he accepts the vow she has made to him (v. 11). Hannah follows in the line of
Sarah, Rachel and the mother of Samson—other women in whom the action of
God could be seen very clearly when he took away the stigma of their barren-
ness. But, above all, she is he prototype of the devout woman who perseveres
in prayer, convinced that it will be heard. “Why is it necessary to list here all
those who, by praying as they ought to do, won from God the greatest gifts?
For it would be easy for anyone to take an abundant sample of cases based
in holy Scripture.
Hannah gave birth to Samuel, who was to be compared with Moses himself (cf.
Jer 15:1), because although she was sterile, she had faith and prayed to the
Lord (1 Sam 1:9ff). [...] How many favors each of us could tell of if we recalled
with gratitude the gifts we have received in order to praise God for them! Once
they have been watered by the grace of the Holy Spirit through constant prayer,
souls that have gone for a long time without bearing fruit, sterile in the most
noble part of their being and with the signs of death on their souls, think
wholesome thoughts and are filled with the knowledge of the truth” (Origen,
“De Oratione”, 13, 2-3).
Hannah, who will bear Samuel in her womb, is a figure of Mary and also “a
symbol of the Church which carries the Lord. Her prayer is not clamorous,
rather it is calm and refined; she prays in the depths of her heart because she
knows that God listens to her there” ( Cyprian, “De Oratione Dominica”, 5).
Samuel comes into the world as a gift from God; he is the one who was “asked
for of the Lord” (cf. v. 20), according to popular etymology of his name. His
mission on earth will be as exceptional his birth; Hannah presents him at the
shrine: “as long as he lives he is lent to the Lord” (v. 28). Samuel is brought up
by the priest at the shrine of Shiloh (cf. Judg 18:31; 21:19), that is, within the
ancient institutions of the time of the judges; thus, the new institutions he will
establish do not imply any break with or rejection of what went before.
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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.
From: Luke 1:46-56
The Magnificat
[56] And Mary remained with her about three months, and returned to her home.
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Commentary:
46-55. Mary’s “Magnificat” canticle is a poem of singular beauty. It evokes
certain passages of the Old Testament with which she would have been very
familiar (especially 1 Samuel 2:1-10).
Three stanzas may be distinguished in the canticle: in the first (verses 46-50)
Mary glorifies God for making her the Mother of the Savior, which is why future
generations will call her blessed; she shows that the Incarnation is a mysterious
expression of God’s power and holiness and mercy. In the second (verses 51-53)
she teaches us that the Lord has always had a preference for the humble,
resisting the proud and boastful. In the third (verses 54-55) she proclaims that
God, in keeping with His promise, has always taken care of His chosen people
— and now does them the greatest honor of all by becoming a Jew (cf. Romans
1:3).
“Our prayer can accompany and imitate this prayer of Mary. Like her, we feel
the desire to sing, to acclaim the wonders of God, so that all mankind and all
creation may share our joy” ([St] J. Escriva, “Christ Is Passing By”, 144).
46-47. “The first fruits of the Holy Spirit are peace and joy. And the Blessed
Virgin had received within herself all the grace of the Holy Spirit” (St. Basil, “In
Psalmos Homilae”, on Psalm 32). Mary’s soul overflows in the words of the
“Magnificat”. God’s favors cause every humble soul to feel joy and gratitude.
In the case of the Blessed Virgin, God has bestowed more on her than on any
other creature.”Virgin Mother of God, He whom the heavens cannot contain, on
becoming man, enclosed Himself within your womb” (”Roman Missal”, Antiphon
of the Common of the Mass for Feasts of Our Lady). The humble Virgin of
Nazareth is going to be the Mother of God; the Creator’s omnipotence has never
before manifested itself in as complete away as this.
48-49. Mary’s expression of humility causes St. Bede to exclaim: “It was fitting,
then, that just as death entered the world through the pride of our first parents,
the entry of Life should be manifested by the humility of Mary” (”In Lucae Evan-
gelium Expositio, in loc.”).
“How great the value of humility!—”Quia respexit humilitatem.... It is not of her
faith, nor of her charity, nor of her immaculate purity that our Mother speaks in
the house of Zachary. Her joyful hymn sings: `Since He has looked on my
humility, all generations will call me blessed’” ([St] J. Escriva, “The Way”, 598).
God rewards our Lady’s humility by mankind’s recognition of her greatness: “All
generations will call me blessed.” This prophecy is fulfilled every time someone
says the Hail Mary, and indeed she is praised on earth continually, without
interruption. “From the earliest times the Blessed Virgin is honored under the
title of Mother of God, under whose protection the faithful take refuge together in
prayer in all their perils and needs. Accordingly, following the Council of Ephe-
sus, there was a remarkable growth in the cult of the people of God towards
Mary, in veneration and love, in invocation and imitation, according to her own
prophetic words: `all generations will call me blessed, for He who is mighty has
done great things for me’” (Vatican II, “Lumen Gentium”, 66).
50. “And His mercy is on those who fear Him from generation to generation”:
“At the very moment of the Incarnation, these words open up a new perspective
of salvation history. After the Resurrection of Christ, this perspective is new on
both the historical and the eschatological level. From that time onwards there
is a succession of new generations of individuals in the immense human family,
in ever-increasing dimensions; there is also a succession of new generations
of the people of God, marked with the sign of the Cross and of the Resurrection
and `sealed’ with the sign of the paschal mystery of Christ, the absolute
revelation of the mercy that Mary proclaimed on the threshold of her kinswoman’s
house: “His mercy is [...] from generation to generation’ [...].
“Mary, then, is the one who has the “deepest knowledge of the mystery of God’s
mercy”. She knows its price, she knows how great it is.In this sense, we call
her the “Mother of Mercy”: Our Lady of Mercy, or Mother of Divine Mercy; in each
one of these titles there is a deep theological meaning, for they express the
special preparation of her soul, of her whole personality, so that she was able to
perceive, through the complex events, first of Israel, then of every individual and
of the whole of humanity, that mercy of which `from generation to generation’
people become sharers according to the eternal design of the Most Holy Trinity”
(John Paul II, “Dives In Misericordia”, 9).
51. “The proud”: those who want to be regarded as superior to others, whom they
look down on. This also refers to those who, in their arrogance, seek to organize
society without reference to, or in opposition to, God’s law. Even if they seem to
do so successfully, the words of our Lady’s canticle will ultimately come true, for
God will scatter them as He did those who tried to build the Tower of Babel,
thinking that they could reach as high as Heaven (cf. Genesis 11:4).
“When pride takes hold of a soul, it is no surprise to find it bringing along with it
a whole string of other vices—greed, self-indulgence, envy, injustice. The proud
man is always vainly striving to dethrone God, who is merciful to all His creatures,
so as to make room for himself and his ever cruel ways.
“We should beg God not to let us fall into this temptation. Pride is the worst sin
of all, and the most ridiculous.... Pride is unpleasant, even from a human point
of view. The person who rates himself better than everyone and everything is
constantly studying himself and looking down on other people, who in turn react
by ridiculing his foolish vanity” ([St] J. Escriva, “Friends of God”, 100).
53. This form of divine providence has been experienced countless times over the
course of history. For example, God nourished the people of Israel with manna
during their forty years in the wilderness (Exodus 16:4-35); similarly His angel
brought food to Elijah (1 Kings 19:5-8), and to Daniel in the lions’ den (Daniel
14:31-40); and the widow of Sarepta was given a supply of oil which miraculously
never ran out (1 Kings 17:8ff). So, too, the Blessed Virgin’s yearning for holiness
was fulfilled by the incarnation of the Word.
God nourished the chosen people with His Law and the preaching of His prophets,
but the rest of mankind was left hungry for His word, a hunger now satisfied by the
Incarnation. This gift of God will be accepted by the humble; the self-sufficient,
having no desire for the good things of God, will not partake of them (cf. St. Basil,
“In Psalmos Homilae”, on Psalm 33).
54. God led the people of Israel as He would a child whom He loved tenderly:
“the Lord your God bore you, as a man bears his son, in all the way that you
went” (Deuteronomy 1:31). He did so many times, using Moses, Joshua,
Samuel, David, etc., and now He gives them a definitive leader by sending the
Messiah—moved by His great mercy which takes pity on the wretchedness of
Israel and of all mankind.
55. God promised the patriarchs of old that He would have mercy on mankind.
This promise He made to Adam (Genesis 3:15), Abraham (Genesis 22:18),
David (2 Samuel 7:12), etc. From all eternity God had planned and decreed that
the Word should become incarnate for the salvation of all mankind. As Christ
Himself put it, “God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever
believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).
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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.