The Magnificat
Throughout the season of
Advent above the main doors of our church hangs a large scroll with
the first words of the Magnificat. The
Magnificat is the song which, according to the gospel of Luke (1:44-55), Mary
sang to her cousin Elizabeth:
My
soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord; my spirit rejoices in God my savior.
For
he has looked upon his handmaid’s lowliness;
behold,
from now on will all ages call me blessed.
The
Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name.
His
mercy is from age to age to those who fear him.
He
has shown might with his arm, dispersed the arrogant of mind and heart.
He
has thrown down the rulers from their thrones but lifted up the lowly.
The
hungry he has filled with good things; the rich he has sent away empty.
He
has helped Israel his servant, remembering his mercy,
according
to his promise to our fathers to Abraham and to his descendants forever.
The Magnificat echoes the song
of Hannah, the mother of the prophet Samuel, (found in 1 Samuel 2:1-10). Hannah, who is barren, cries out to God in
utter despair for the gift of a child.
God answers her prayer and in return, she offers God a prayer of
thanksgiving. Both the song of Hannah
and the Magnificat celebrate the immense goodness of God. The Magnificat casts a look backwards to the
mercy of God throughout salvation history:
the arrogant have been cast down, the lowly have been lifted high, and
the barren have become pregnant with new life.
The word mercy as it is used in
the Magnificat is translated from a Hebrew word meaning motherly longings. Though
generations have forgotten their covenant with God, God refuses to forget his
yearning for humanity. To magnify the Lord, in Mary’s words, gives
us a hint that God, who had remained largely hidden from sight, now wished to
become visible to humankind by taking flesh in the person of Jesus. The Magnificat, with its themes of hope and
expectation, is worth our prayer and reflection as we anticipate the
celebration of Christmas. Special thanks
to parishioner Lori Rausch whose calligraphy helps remind all who enter our church
to proclaim the greatness of the Lord!
The Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe
For
centuries, Our Lady of Guadalupe was a symbol of hope for the people of
Mexico. However, in 1999 Pope John
Paul II named her the Patroness of the Americas--North, as well as Central and
South America, and the Caribbean. For
insight into the Pope's declaration, we need to go back a few centuries to the
time of the encounter between Our Lady of Guadalupe and Juan Diego.
The Story
On
December 9, 1531, a native Mexican named Juan Diego was walking to Mass in what
is now Mexico City. Juan lived a simple
life as a weaver, farmer, and laborer.
Mass was to be celebrated at Tlatelolco, once an Aztec center and the
place where the final battle of the Spanish conquest had taken place just 10
years earlier. That morning, as he
passed Tepeyac Hill, he heard music and a woman's voice calling him to the top
of the hill. There he saw a young woman dressed like
an Aztec princess. She said she was the Mother
of God and asked Juan to ask the bishop to build a church on that site. The bishop received Juan kindly but
skeptically. The next day, Juan tried again to convince the bishop. The bishop
asked Juan for proof of the Lady's identity.
Before Juan could go back to the Lady, he found out his uncle was dying. Hurrying to get a priest, Juan missed his
meeting with the Lady. The Lady,
however, met him on his path and told him that his uncle had been cured. She then told Juan to climb to the top of the
hill where they first met. Juan was
shocked to find flowers growing in the frozen December soil. He gathered them and took them to the Lady
who arranged them in his cloak and instructed him to take them to the bishop as
the sign the bishop had requested. When
Juan Diego arrived before the bishop, he opened his cloak and the roses fell to
the floor. A portrait of the Lady appeared on the coarse fabric of the Indian's
cloak. The bishop and his whole
household were filled with amazement. A temple was soon built in Mary's honor,
on the site of her appearance, at the center of the Americas.
The Context
The
appearance of Our Lady of Guadalupe occurred during one of the darkest and most
painful periods in the southwestern hemisphere.
Juan Diego grew up under Aztec rule.
The Aztecs were known for their religious practices which included human
sacrifice.
European
explorers ultimately put an end to Aztec oppression by conquering the
land.
However,
they too, were oppressive in their takeover, using rape, robbery, and
exploitation to take control of the land.
Both under the Aztecs and during the Spanish conquest, the native people
suffered death, disease and mistreatment.
It
is no accident that the Pope declared Our Lady of Guadalupe as the Patroness of
the Americas on the eve of the Jubilee year and the new millenium. Two thousand years of celebrating the birth
of Christ would not have been possible without Mary of Nazareth, who gave flesh
and blood to the divine Word. Though
there was massive oppression at the time of Guadalupe's appearance, something
new and hopeful had begun. A new era was
being born as the Europeans mingled with the natives, producing offspring that
would give rise to a new culture. Our
Lady of Guadalupe, then, stands as a symbol that the living Word, God made
flesh in Jesus continues to be an instrument of healing, liberation and unity for
all peoples of the Western Hemisphere.
The brown-skinned Lady of Guadalupe is mestiza--of mixed race between European and Native Americans. Her appearance affirms a new way of living
among different peoples.
The Year of Mark
The first Sunday of Advent ushers in a new liturgical
year. Since the Second Vatican Council,
the readings for Sunday have been expanded from hearing only one gospel
(Matthew) to hearing three gospels over a three year cycle. In Cycle A, we hear Matthew’s Gospel account,
in Cycle B, we hear from the evangelist Mark and in Cycle C, we hear from
Luke. This Advent, we are beginning year
“B,” which means that the gospel which will be proclaimed from now until the
beginning of next Advent will come mostly from the Evangelist Mark. Though the Gospel according to Mark is the
second book of the New Testament, Scripture scholars believe that it is the
oldest of all the gospel narratives. It
was believed to have been written around 65 AD—15 years before Matthew’s Gospel
account and twenty years before Luke’s Gospel account. Both Matthew and Luke are believed to have
used Mark’s Gospel as a source for their own narratives.
Mark was writing at a time when believers were experiencing
hardship and persecution for their Christian faith. Fearing martyrdom, they were questioning the
need to die for their belief in Jesus.
Mark’s Gospel account, with its emphasis on a suffering Jesus, is his
response. He was trying to teach his
audience that although Jesus is the Son of God, Jesus experienced rejection and
persecution but through it all remained faithful to God—accepting the
inevitability of the Cross. For
example, in Mark’s narrative, Jesus tries to tell the disciples the kind of
messiah he will be by saying, “that the Son of Man must undergo great
suffering, be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and
be killed, and rise after three days.” (Mark 8:31) Mark’s audience must do the
same--rather than fearing their persecutors, they are to remain faithful as
Jesus remained faithful. They are to
embrace the cross, and, like Jesus, pass through death to eternal life.
Though Mark’s Gospel account may be the oldest, it seems
timely for us today who have witnessed the horrors of those throughout the
world who are persecuted for their religious beliefs. Let us pray with them this Advent for the
courage to embrace and to witness to our faith—no matter the cost.
Let Us Pray
The phrase
“Let us pray” is heard often during the Mass.
The first time we hear this invitation is at the beginning of the
liturgy just before we sit for the first reading. This prayer, also known as the opening
prayer, is officially named the Collect.
Some say it is named the Collect because it is a prayer that is meant to
collect all the prayers that we as individuals bring to the Mass.
You might
notice that there is a slight pause after the words “Let us pray.” This is not because the Priest forgot the
words. It is because the Church calls
for silence during this particular time.
The instructions in the Roman Missal:
The Priest calls upon the people
to pray and everybody, together with the Priest, observes a brief silence so
that they may become aware of being in God’s presence and may call to mind
their intentions. GIRM #54
Many of our
Collects have been in use since the sixth century. If you listen closely, you will notice that
these prayers are jam-packed. Typically,
there is an invocation that names God, a phrase that speaks of who God is or
something God has done, a petition, a purpose for the petition, and a
conclusion which affirms our prayer in unity with the triune God.
Grant us, we pray, O Lord our
God,
the constant gladness of being
devoted to you,
for it is full and lasting
happiness
to serve with constancy
the author of all that is
good.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ,
your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in
the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
The Collect
above, from this Sunday’s liturgy speaks of the unique joy that we believe
comes from being faithful disciples. This
prayer draws us to the virtue of constancy.
In Latin, the word is canstare, which
means to stand firm. We are called to stand firm in faith. And so we ask for just that – and nothing
more. And we believe that such
unwavering service can result in only one thing: unceasing gladness, “full and lasting happiness,”
joy beyond our imagination. It is the
reward promised to good and faithful servants.
Feast of the Dedication of St. John Lateran
On Sunday, November 9th, we celebrate the Feast of the Dedication of the Basilica of St. John Lateran. This feast falls on a Sunday this year and so
the prayers and readings for the Feast replace those for Ordinary Time. The Lateran Basilica is located in Rome and
was built following the edict of the Emperor Constantine which gave Christians
the freedom to practice their religion.
It was dedicated on November 9th, 324, and is considered the
oldest church in the world. Because of
this status, it is known as the mother church of all Christianity. St. John Lateran, not St. Peter’s, is the
cathedral church of the Diocese of Rome, and therefore of the Bishop of Rome,
who is the Pope.
The
name St. John Lateran is a little confusing.
The church is dedicated to both John the Baptist and John the
Evangelist. The name Lateran refers to
the Laterani family who originally owned the property on which the church was
built.
Perhaps
the Lateran Basilica is most famous for its ancient baptistery—a separate building
with a large font built for full-immersion baptisms. Inscribed in the baptistery is this poem
which speaks of the new life born from baptism:
Here is born in Spirit-soaked fertility
a brood destined for another City, begotten by God’s blowing and borne upon this
torrent by the Church their virgin mother.
Reborn in these depths they reach for heaven’s realm, the born-but-once
unknown by felicity. This spring is life
that floods the world, the wounds of Christ its awesome source. Sinner sink beneath this sacred surf that swallows
age and spits up youth. Sinner here
scour sin away down to innocence, for they know no enmity who are by one font,
one Spirit, one faith made one. Sinner,
shudder not at sin’s kind and number, for those born here are holy. They were drenched in grace.
Today
is a good day to reflect on these words and to think about our baptism. For in baptism, we become the very temple of
God. Today’s feast celebrates the
dedication of a famous church building.
But, as St. Paul reminds us in today’s second reading, “You are God’s
building.”
We,
like our church buildings, are sign and symbol to the world of God’s life and
love.