We look at these two great women, Hannah the mother of
Samuel, Mary the mother of Jesus, two days before the celebration
Christmas. We see that what unites them
is praise and gratitude at God’s great blessings: Hannah after decades of
barrenness conceives a son, Samuel. And her immediate reaction is to go to the
temple of God and offer Samuel back to God’s service. There was no selfishness in her offering:
simply total gratitude and total recognition of God’s blessing, and the desire
to adequately seek to praise and thank God for that God.
Mary, only a few days after the conception of Jesus through
the power of the Holy Spirit, upon visiting her cousin Elizabeth, bursts forth
into a song of God’s praise in her beautiful “Magnificat” which echoes Hannah’s
own song of praise.
At the end of the passage we see the most clear link of what
we are about to celebrate: “He has come to the help of his servant Israel for
he remembered his promise of mercy, the promise he made to our fathers, to
Abraham and his children for ever.” The “promise of mercy” was growing in the
womb of Mary. Jesus is not only the fulfillment of the promises to Abraham, but
all the promises made through the prophets.
Encountering the fulfillment of God’s promises, Mary could not help
burst forth in a song of thanksgiving.
Mary shows us, once again, the fundamental attitude of the
Christian, to praise and thank God, for all his blessings, and for who he is.
In the O Antiphon this morning was sung, “O Rex Gentium”—O King
of Nations…Come and save the human race, which you fashioned from clay." In that beautiful antiphon, the Church recalls
mankind’s humble beginnings and our need for a savior. Almost as a direct response to that prayer, Mary proclaims how in Christ, the lowly, the humbled, are lifted up, and that the savior,
the promise of mercy has come.
On this darkest day of the year, the winter solstice, may we
learn from Mary and Hannah how to burst forth in new song, to sing the praises
of Him who comes to save us: to help us, when Christmas comes, to burst forth
in a song of praise and thanksgiving for the glory of God and salvation of
souls.
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