{"id":534,"date":"2005-12-07T07:20:36","date_gmt":"2005-12-07T07:20:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/jesuscreed\/2005\/12\/mary-and-elizabeth-3.html"},"modified":"2005-12-07T07:20:36","modified_gmt":"2005-12-07T07:20:36","slug":"mary-and-elizabeth-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2005\/12\/mary-and-elizabeth-3.html","title":{"rendered":"Mary and Elizabeth 3"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Christmas meant justice for a <em>poor<\/em> woman (Luke 1:46-50)<br \/>\nWhen Mary hears the words of Elizabeth, when she hears that Elizabeth\u2019s little baby leaped in her womb at the very sound of Mary\u2019s voice, when she hears Elizabeth\u2019s blessing on her \u2013 when these various strands come into play, Mary suddenly bursts into song.<!--more|inline--><br \/>\nI am struck again and again at where Mary begins: <em>with her condition<\/em>. God, she says, has \u201cbeen mindful of the humble state of his servant.\u201d This means one thing: Mary is a poor woman. The Greek term here is <em>tapeinosis<\/em> which, if you yank down your Hatch and Redpath, you will know translates <em>anawim<\/em> \u2013 and that is magic! Mary is part of the Anawim clan, the pious poor, those who hoped for Israel\u2019s liberation and justice to be established, those who gathered at the Temple at feasts for prayer and mutual consolation, and who joined one another in expectation \u2013 that is the group out of which Mary comes. (And her son, Jesus, would soon pronounce a big blessing on the \u201cpoor.\u201d)<br \/>\nAnd here we find a tragedy for us Protestants: Mary says this: \u201cFrom now on all generations will call me blessed.\u201d We could translate, as I\u2019ve said many times, \u201call generations (except the Protestants!) will call me blessed.\u201d We\u2019ve just got this thing that we\u2019re worried we\u2019ll sound like Roman Catholics if we start blessing Mary \u2013 and it is the Word of God, inspired by the Spirit in one of the greatest canticles ever, that teaches us to do this. (Try it, right now: \u201cBless you Mary, mother of Jesus.\u201d)<br \/>\nGod has blessed her in assigning her the role of being mother to Messiah.<br \/>\nIn so doing, God is doing great things; God is extending his mercy to those who fear him (like Mary and Elizabeth); God is doing this in a continuous line from the days of Abraham on.<br \/>\nPoverty is a condition \u2013 a condition of the poor who do not have enough for the basics of life, who know their humiliation \u2013 and it is poverty Mary knew. And she sees in the Christmas message a lifting of that humiliation.<br \/>\nAt this Christmas season, may we dedicate ourselves to think of the poor and work for their aid and give of our resources to alleviate their needs. Not just in the Dickens A Christmas Carol sense, but in new and creative ways.<br \/>\nGod\u2019s generosity prompts our own.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Christmas meant justice for a poor woman (Luke 1:46-50) When Mary hears the words of Elizabeth, when she hears that Elizabeth\u2019s little baby leaped in her womb at the very sound of Mary\u2019s voice, when she hears Elizabeth\u2019s blessing on her \u2013 when these various strands come into play, Mary suddenly bursts into song.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":298,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-534","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-advent"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Mary and Elizabeth 3 - Jesus Creed<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2005\/12\/mary-and-elizabeth-3.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mary and Elizabeth 3 - 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