Posted by The WORD in other words by Fr Xene Sanchez SVD – Kinshasa, Congo
Feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Image: Wikimedia Commons
The song “The Impossible Dream” has powerful lyrics that have inspired millions of people who dare to “fight the unbeatable foe,” “to run where the brave dare not go,” “to right the unrightable wrong.”
Today, feast of the Visitation, we hear of the familiar Canticle of Mary. I imagine the young Mary, together with all those who dream of a better world, who loved to sing the song of Hannah, the mother of Samuel.
The Canticle of Mary was composed at the time of the monarchy, a thousand years before the birth of Christ! It expressed its trust in the power God, not in human strength. God takes side with the humble, the powerless, the hungry and the needy.
Mary, on the occasion of her visit to Elisabeth, arrived at a point where the inspiration of Hannah’s song became a concrete reality in her own life. Bursting with joy she glorified the Lord for the favor he bestowed on his “lowly servant.” The beneficiary of God’s grace extends to all the faithful, to all generations.
If we sing with Mary with all our heart we might tremble and ask ourselves if we mean what we say. God’s mighty deeds have scattered the proud and the arrogant; the rulers pulled down from their thrones and the humble lifted up; the hungry nourished and the rich sent away empty.
Sad to say, millions still suffer hunger, oppression and poverty. If God has done these in the past, he does them then in the present and will do them in the future. No wonder we unceasingly sing with Mary her Magnificat at every close of the day.
One comment