2021-08-15-All Generations Will Call Me Blessed

Excerpted from homily of 2012-08-15 Feast of the Assumption

 


Today’s gospel account of the visitation includes the Magnificat found in Luke 1:46-55.  The Magnificat tells us that Mary was familiar with the scriptures because what she says is very similar to Hannah’s song in 1 Samuel 2:1-10.  But Mary says something quite peculiar, she says, “Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed.”  On hearing that, with our understanding of the word “blessed”, it sounds a bit arrogant.  However, the word used in the original Greek is, “makariousin”.  In Greek usage, makarios came to refer to the elite, the upper crust of society, the wealthy people. It referred to people whose riches and power put them above the normal cares and problems and worries of the lesser people, who constantly struggle and worry and labour in life. To be blessed, you had to be very rich and powerful.  The blessed were those people and beings, like the gods, who lived above the normal cares, problems, and worries of normal people[1].

 

Luke has Mary use this word in a totally different way, which is reflected in the remainder of the Magnificat.  It is not the elite who are blessed. It is not the rich and powerful who are blessed. It is not the high and mighty who are blessed. It is not the people living in huge mansions or expensive penthouses who are blessed.  Rather, Mary, like Jesus pronounces God's blessings on the lowly─ that is─ the poor, the powerless and the hungry.  Throughout the history of this word, it had always been the other people who were considered blessed: the rich, the filled up, the powerful.  Mary, like her Son, turns it all upside-down. The elite and the blessed in God's kin-dom, are those who are at the bottom of the heap of humanity[2].

 

We so often forget the humanity of Jesus and Mary.  In so doing, we lose some of the more reassuring examples of their faithfulness to God: the faithfulness and holiness of the everyday and mundane things. 

 

We also forget that their humanity made them conscious of the human condition.  They taught us that our God is also concerned with the everyday conditions of the poor and the oppressed.  Jesus didn’t just forgive sins, He healed the sick.  Mary didn’t just pray or go around looking up to the sky, she cooked, she cleaned, she was concerned about people and, she was astute enough to perceive God’s preferential option for the poor.  In other words, they showed us how to love our neighbour and how to be a neighbour.

 

In our times, when asked, “who is our neighbour?” We need to include our planet and beyond.  Our earth is now, among the oppressed more than ever before.  For Mary, like her Son, justice was central to the kin-dom of God.  We use the word kin-dom to denote that all of creation is made of the Breath and the Word of God; hence we are kin to the rocks, trees, fish, animal, waters, air and all that is in the Universe.  So, what does all of this mean for us?    It means that the Universe is God’s estate, and we should help to keep it safe.  It means, we too can find holiness in the everyday.  It means care and concern for the well-being of our neighbour are the ingredients of holiness.


[1]           adapted from The History of the Word “Makarios” (“Blessed”) found at: http://www.crossmarks.com/brian/allsaintb.htm

 

[2]           adapted from The History of the Word “Makarios” (“Blessed”) found at: http://www.crossmarks.com/brian/allsaintb.htm

 

 

 

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