Friday of the Third Week of Advent
Today’s Reflection
Gospel: Lk 1: 46-56
December 22, 2023 | Friday
And Mary said, “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, my spirit exults in God, my savior!
He has looked upon his servant, in her lowliness, and people, forever, will call me blessed.
The Mighty One has done great things for me, Holy is his Name! From age to age, his mercy extends to those who live in his presence. He has acted with power and done wonders, and scattered the proud with their plans. He has put down the mighty from their thrones, and lifted up those who are downtrodden. He has filled the hungry with good things, but has sent the rich away empty. He held out his hand to Israel, his servant, for he remembered his mercy, even as he promised to our fathers, to Abraham and his descendants forever.” Mary remained with Elizabeth about three months, and then returned home.
Today’s Reflection:.
Today’s gospel is the Magnificat, Mary’s canticle of praise to God who has done great things for her. Mary responded to all these great things and privileges she received from God not with self-importance, pride, and arrogance but with humility and gratitude. This echoed the grateful heart of Hannah in today’s first reading when she wholeheartedly accepted the vocation of her son. Concretely, Mary demonstrated her gratitude to God by being at the service of her cousin Elizabeth for three months after she gave birth to John the Baptist. The great Marian Pope St. John Paul II put it succinctly in his 1995 Letter to Women: “Putting herself at God’s service, she also put herself at the service of others: a service of love. Precisely through this service, Mary was able to experience in her life a mysterious, but authentic ‘reign’. It is not by chance that she is invoked as ‘Queen of heaven and earth’. The entire community of believers thus invokes her; many nations and peoples call upon her as their ‘Queen’. For her, ‘to reign’ is to serve! Her service is ‘to reign’!”. / Vulnerasti, 2023
