God, you have shown strength with your arm;
you have scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.
You have brought down the powerful from their thrones,
and lifted up the lowly;
you have filled the hungry with good things,
and sent the rich away empty.
—Luke 1.51-53
Mary. She’s no innocent naïf, angel-stunned, subservient:
she’s young, yes, and humble, and not knowing the outcome—
but she knows what she’s doing.
She’s heard Gabriel, heard God in her flesh,
dared to trust the incendiary power of ordinary lives,
and to believe the Divine in her,
seized her power to choose,
to be an agent of God’s re-ordering of the world—
and said Yes. Yes to all of that.
Yes not just to having a baby,
not just to bearing grace and birthing love,
but to raising a son, nursing his imagination,
teaching him, showing him, preparing him
for what she knows he can do.
She takes it on.
And so takes on the Empire,
the toppling of thrones, the lifting of the lowly,
the great reversal of evil itself.
Mighty woman. Dangerous Lover.
Divine womb. Mother of God.
Adore her, not on sweet cards but protest posters.
Not with pallid piety, but in the streets,
in the raising of children baptized with Spirit and fire,
in the heavenly upheaval in your own flesh and soul,
in the Divine presence in your plain, powerful life—
adore her. Learn at her feet.
Be her child.
__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
Dec. 18, 2020