Magnificent Reversal of Fortune

Reversal of fortunes is a theme from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today that connects to our desire to know about the nature of experiencing creativity or a second birth in our journey in life.

Gospel:
Who said this about God?
"He has cast down the mighty from their thrones
and has lifted up the lowly.
He has filled the hungry with good things,
and the rich he has sent away empty."
Karl Marx?
No, Miriam of Nazareth,
aka the Virgin Mary.
Listen to her.
Carefully. pic.twitter.com/aw1g0FP6gt

— James Martin, SJ (@JamesMartinSJ) December 22, 2017

The Book of First Samuel portrays God who acts justly, prospering those who remain faithful and destroying those who reject his ways. The Responsorial Psalm  from 1 Samuel Chapter 2 is the bridge to the hymn in the mouth of Mary, the Magnificat, in the Gospel from Luke. Hannah in the passage from the Book of First Samuel dedicates Samuel under a nazirite vow.

[1:22] Leave him there forever: a Qumran manuscript adds “I will give him as a nazirite forever”; it interprets v. 11 to mean that Hannah dedicates Samuel under a nazirite vow (cf. Nm 6:4–5).

Hannah appeals to a God who maintains order by keeping human affairs in balance, reversing the fortunes of the arrogant in the  Responsorial Psalm from 1 Samuel Chapter 2.

[2:1–10] Hannah appeals to a God who maintains order by keeping human affairs in balance, reversing the fortunes of the arrogant, who, like Peninnah, boast of their good fortune (vv. 1, 3, 9) at the expense of those like Hannah who receive less from the Lord. Hannah’s admission places her among the faithful who trust that God will execute justice on their behalf. The reference “his king…his anointed” (v. 10) recalls the final sentence of the Book of Judges and introduces the kingship theme that dominates the Books of Samuel.

The hymn proclaimed by Mary in Luke 1.46-56 praises the reversal of human fortunes and the fulfillment of Hebrew Testament promises.

[1:46–55] Although Mary is praised for being the mother of the Lord and because of her belief, she reacts as the servant in a psalm of praise, the Magnificat. Because there is no specific connection of the canticle to the context of Mary’s pregnancy and her visit to Elizabeth, the Magnificat (with the possible exception of v. 48) may have been a Jewish Christian hymn that Luke found appropriate at this point in his story. Even if not composed by Luke, it fits in well with themes found elsewhere in Luke: joy and exultation in the Lord; the lowly being singled out for God’s favor; the reversal of human fortunes; the fulfillment of Old Testament promises. The loose connection between the hymn and the context is further seen in the fact that a few Old Latin manuscripts identify the speaker of the hymn as Elizabeth, even though the overwhelming textual evidence makes Mary the speaker. 

Eileen Wirth suggests that we try to create empty space in our lives that God can fill so we will be open to rejoice in the fullness of this season.

 Try to create empty space in our lives that God can fill. We can give ourselves the greatest gift of the season – peaceful time to prepare for the coming of the Lord. Then on Christmas Eve, we will rejoice in the fullness of the season

Rev. Dr. James Hanvey SJ examines a Gerard Manley Hopkins’ poem, The May Magnificat, that declares grace is endlessly creative and recreative.

 In Mary we see that grace is endlessly creative and recreative and this is the life – that capacity for new beginnings – that Hannah Arendt calls our ‘natality’, though for her it remained a purely human, this-worldly, capacity. Hopkins might remind Arendt that, in fact, Mary shows us that to be truly a human capacity, natality is and must be a graced reality. It is not just an endlessly creative resistance to the inevitable destructions of history, matter and human corruption. ‘Natality’ springs from the divine life within us that constantly ‘mothers’ us into the new life of grace. This ‘natality’ also has a face – it is precisely the way which Christ comes alive in us without diminishing of our own uniqueness. Redeemed in Christ we are coming to our fulfilment, coming to be who we are – who God has created us to be. We become transparent to Him in this world, just like Mary:

Jeffrey Champlin picks up the Born Again theme and outlines a philosophic study of Hannah Arendt's “Natality” that was noted by James Hanvey SJ.

 argue that this new conception of freedom in The Human Condition draws its strength from a philosophical and rhetorical transformation of the question of the definition of man in theology and the natural sciences. I follow the lead of scholars who highlight Arendt's relation to Heidegger and Augustine

Friar Jude Winkler links the experience of Hannah and the Magnificat prayer to the anawim of Yahweh. He develops the three months of the visit of Mary to Elizabeth to the resting of the Ark of the Covenant at the house of Obed-edom the Gittite, on way to Zion under the direction of King David.(II Sam. vi. 1-11; I Chron. xiii. 1-13).

Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, shares a reflection from Franciscan sister and scientist Ilia Delio (who in turn presents insights from Rabbi Rami Shapiro) to end a week of reflection on eternity, love, and heaven.

 Heaven is not a place of eternal rest or a long sleep-in, but a life of creativity and newness in love; one with God in the transformation of all things
Christian life requires a conscious decision to shift the mind (metanoia) by training the mind to focus on the central values of the gospel and to dispense with all other things. Without the choice for a new level of consciousness, there can be no new reality or reign of God. Where our minds focus, there our treasure lies. As Rabbi Shapiro writes, “I made the choice for heaven and, having done so, I went in search of tools for living it.” [1] When Teilhard [de Chardin] said that we are evolution made conscious of itself, he indicated a basic lesson of modern science: there is no real “world” apart from us; rather, the world unfolds in and through our choices and actions. The concept of world is like a mirror; empty in itself, it can only reflect to the giver the values it receives.

Many theological links exist between Divine justice, role reversal, Hebrew salvation history, grace and natality, and reality and heaven. The advice to take time to ponder these connections at this time of preparation to celebrate Incarnation is an invitation to continue transformation.