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Manila Bulletin

Opinion

My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord

Opinion

My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord

By Manila Bulletin

REFLECTIONS TODAY

Gospel • Luke 1:46-56

Steeped as he was in Scriptures, the evangelist Luke would know that God’s greatest act—the sending of his Son in the fullness of time—would have to be celebrated in a song. For minstrel, he has found someone most fitting, one who had experienced God’s saving action in a very personal way: Mary of Nazareth. The result is the song Magnificat The song celebrates the favors of the Lord who remembers his promises to the patriarchs and the prophets, and crowns his saving acts with the sending of his Son, the Savior of the world.
The Magnificat is an inspired announcement of what God has done to his people in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. It interprets not just the events surrounding the birth of Jesus, but also the Gospel that he would preach as a grown man. Very clear in the song is the theme of “reversal.” The Lord lifts up the lowly and humbles the proud. Mary speaks like the prophets of old, “comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable.” For Luke, this is the heart of the Gospel of Jesus.

Today, we need “new minstrels of God” — people who are capable of reminding us of God’s saving action, so ancient yet still ever new. We need people who, like Mary, remind us that even in our times the Holy Spirit is actively at work to save us.

Source: “365 Days with the Lord 2023.” E-mail: [email protected]; Website: http://www.stpauls.ph.

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REFLECTIONS 365 Days with the Lord

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