Release Date: December 10th, 2025Mary’s Canticle of Joy and Justice.
- by Peter Niemeyer
In the tradition of Advent, the emphasis for this week is joy.
We hear the words of Mary in the gospel of Luke proclaim, "My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.” (1:47) Mary, within her context- a peasant woman of first century Palestine, living under Roman occupation- doesn’t have much to rejoice over. Her life was set for her in terms of poverty and the patriarchal society she lived in. As it is for the poor today, life involved hardship and vulnerability, especially as a woman. Even going out to do mundane chores, like collecting firewood and water, carried potential danger either from the occupying forces, unjust landowners who exploited the poor, or from men who cared little for a woman’s bodily autonomy. That’s why women, then as now in poorer countries, go out together to do these chores, to reduce the risk.
Here we see a deep trust in God, even amid such turmoil, risk, and the overwhelming political context of her time.
So why does Mary express such joy? The news that the angel Gabriel shared with her, endangered her, so why rejoice? We see in the gospel of Matthew, that Joseph, upon learning that Mary was pregnant, was prepared to, “call off their engagement quietly” to not expose her to public shame. A good intention, but in a small rural village, next to impossible to ensure. The simple fact was that Mary’s life was in danger.
Surely none of this would have been lost on Mary when she responded to God- “I am the Lord’s servant. Let it be with me just as you have said.” Here we see a deep trust in God, even amid such turmoil, risk, and the overwhelming political context of her time. Mary’s canticle of joy proclaims, “With all my heart I glorify the Lord! In the depths of who I am I rejoice in God my savior.” She goes on to then proclaim something that’s even radical for our time:
He has pulled the powerful down from their thrones
and lifted up the lowly.
He has filled the hungry with good things
and sent the rich away empty-handed.
Mary’s words inspire hope even for our time of overwhelming political upheaval in which the rich have become even richer and the powerful solidifying their power. In God’s vision for the world, expressed through Mary, even now, there is an overturning of abusive power structures. It’s interesting to note that the Magnificat was banned during the British rule in India, as well as in countries like Guatemala and Argentina for a period. Mary nurtured Jesus with this vision of God’s hope for the world. When he began his ministry he quoted from his tradition, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me. He has sent me to preach good news to the poor, to proclaim release to the prisoners and recovery of sight to the blind, to liberate the oppressed, and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
-Peter Niemeyer is the pastor of Danforth Mennonite Church