Daily Mass Gospel Reflection

Friends, in today’s Gospel,
we hear the Magnificat—Mary’s great hymn of praise to Yahweh.

The hymn commences with the simple declaration,
“My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord.”
Mary announces here that her whole being is ordered to the glorification of God.
Her ego wants nothing for itself;
it wants only to be an occasion for giving honor to God.
But since God needs nothing, whatever glory Mary gives to him returns to her benefit,
so that she is magnified in the very act of magnifying him.
In giving herself away fully to God, Mary becomes a superabundant source of life;
indeed, she becomes pregnant with God.

This odd and wonderful rhythm of magnifying
and being magnified is the key to understanding everything about Mary,
from her divine motherhood,
to her Assumption and Immaculate Conception,
to her mission in the life of the Church.

+++Mary said:
“My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord;

my spirit rejoices in God my savior.
for he has looked upon his lowly servant.
From this day all generations will call me blessed:
the Almighty has done great things for me,
and holy is his Name.
He has mercy on those who fear him
in every generation.
He has shown the strength of his arm,
and has scattered the proud in their conceit.
He has cast down the mighty from their thrones
and has lifted up the lowly.
He has filled the hungry with good things,
and the rich he has sent away empty.
He has come to the help of his servant Israel
for he remembered his promise of mercy,
the promise he made to our fathers,
to Abraham and his children for ever.”

Mary remained with Elizabeth about three months
and then returned to her home.+++

Absolutely Jim...
And as Mary said in her Magnificat...

"and Holy is His Name"

But look at the reflection more closely. Just how is it that we "Glorify" the Lord?
The writer IS saying that the Blessed Virgin is announcing her Yes of the Good News,
and In doing so "her whole being is ordered to the glorification of God."
Mary Glorified God in her own, one of a kind way-
but we too must do the same in our life given us.
To glorify God is to reflect His image, which is to love unconditionally
and obey his Will for us.
Through his Grace and Mercy- and the redemption of Christ,
God calls us to Glorify him- in everything we can do.
The heart of the obedient Christian life is a created life centered on glorifying God.
THIS is what is being said in Luke's Gospel of the Virgin Mary.
A role model for the Christian life.

So God calls us to glorify him.
In doing so- in a way we can't understand-
God glorifies himself in calling and enabling us by our Christ centered Life of Faith and Worship.

And so back to that reflection- pun intended-
It is this accepting relationship that the Blessed Virgin...
"is magnified in the very act of magnifying him.
In giving herself away fully to God,..."
And so this exists for us as well...
that one day WE TOO can have GLORIFIED Bodies,
if we can live..

"In fully Giving ourselves away to God"...

a very tall order, for sure

Well, Mary was certainly blessed.

But God’s word directs us to glorify God and not man.

After Jesus’ birth Mary was not longer a virgin as she was married to Joseph and had children by him and Jesus had brothers in the flesh.

The Catholic Church has done many charitable works but it has done Satan’s bidding by glorifying Mary instead of focusing on glorifying Jesus Christ.

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