We are BLESSED! - Father Dave's Blog

“He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty.” (Luke 1:51-53)

These words are taken from the song of Mary, remembered as ‘The Magnificat’. The title is based on the first word of the Latin translation – “Magnificat anima mea Dominum” (‘my soul magnifies the Lord’). It’s an extraordinary song that has been celebrated in beautiful hymns and has a special place in both Catholic and Anglican liturgical traditions, being said or sung daily in Vespers (Evensong).

When I reflect on how these words have been enshrined by the church over the centuries, I’m not sure whether we’ve been celebrating Mary or trying to domesticate her. Her song is subversive, and I wonder if wrapping it in coloured paper and glorious harmonies isn’t our way of making sure it doesn’t do us too much damage.

“He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly” (Luke 1:52)

We live in a world where the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. This is not a new thing. As Thucydides put it millennia ago, “the rich do as they will while the poor suffer as they must.” Even so, Mary looks back at history and sees another force at work, turning the natural order on its head. God doesn’t buy into this ‘survival of the fittest’ system. God humbles the powerful and lifts up those at the bottom of the pile.

Mary’s words are prophetic in the truest sense of the word. We often confuse prophecy with fortune-telling as both look to the future, but the Biblical prophet was never simply blurting out inspired predictions about coming events.

The Biblical prophets used the past to interpret the present, through which they understood the future. They looked back at key moments in which God had engaged with humanity – the creation of an ordered universe, the liberation of God’s people from slavery, and the giving of the Law – and thus understood both where they stood and where things were heading.

Mary, likewise, starts from her awareness of her own precarious situation – young, pregnant and unmarried, and living in a conservative community. We would understand if she saw herself as cursed, yet she chooses to see herself in the context of the subversive work of God in history, and therefore as blessed!

I’m reminded of Orson Wells’ dictum in 1984, that “whoever controls the past controls the future, and whoever controls the present controls the past.” Mary takes control of her present through her interpretation of the past, which in turn opens up her future. Is this something we could all learn to do?

Christmas is a hard time for many of us. We live with broken families and broken dreams, and with countries collapsing around the world and the imminent threat of global war, things seem especially difficult this year. Even so, we can do as Mary did. We can identity how God has been at work within our history, bringing down the powerful and lifting up the weak. We can recognise that we too are blessed.

Our Sunday Eucharist

We celebrated another wonderful Eucharist last Sunday. A big thank you to my partners on the panel, Karyn Hemming and to Andrew Logan. Andrew deserves special credit, I think, for joining us while simultaneously helping run an academic bootcamp with his partner, Gigi. Keep up the great work, guys!

You’ll find some ‘shorts’ extracted from our discussion below. I’m sorry I didn’t get time to publish more of them this week but you can watch the entire broadcast (and all our broadcasts) on my YouTube channel and see the complete library of shorts, on the Sunday Eucharist Instagram page.

This Sunday I’m looking forward to having my old friends, Andrew Madry and Doug Pyeatt, with me again on the panel. We will also be privileged with a brief reflection on the Magnificat from our beloved Rev. Joy Steele-Perkins. Joy felt that we really needed a woman’s perspective on Mary’s song. I couldn’t agree more. 😊❤️

Join us at noon this Sunday on TheSundayEucharist.com or on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn Instagram, Faithia or Streamyard.

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What’s On?

Sunday, December 22 – Our Eucharist from noon via thesundayeucharist.com (or through Facebook , YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn, Faithia or Streamyard).
Tuesday, December 24^th – Boxing at The Mundine Gym in Redfern, 7 to 9 pm
Friday to Sunday, December 27 to 29 – @Binacrombi. Please join me.

Yes, I am going to attempt a boxing session on Christmas Eve if anyone is keen. I don’t think I can go a whole week without being punched, so join me if you can.

I’m pasting below the protest video, published by the Palestine Israel Ecumenical Network (PIEN), that we contributed to. If you remember, we participated two Sundays back, echoing banners on the screen during our Sunday worship session, calling for an end to the Gaza Genocide.

This is the second year in a row that we’ve done this. That, of course, is a depressing reminder of how long the killing has been going on. The positive though is that many more communities stood up and spoke out this year. The tide of global opinion has turned. Perhaps that will spell a real difference.

Finally, I’m going to add a couple of shorts below from our Prayers for Syria broadcast from last week. I was planning on doing another webinar this week with my friend, Vanessa Beeley, who escaped from Damascus on the night of the rebel takeover. Unfortunately, Vanessa is flat out trying to reorganise her life right now, so we’ll need to give her a bit more time. Even so, watch this space.

This will be my last publication this side of Christmas. I do pray yours will be a good one. If you’re going to be on your own for Christmas lunch and you’re in our vicinity, let me know. We always try to make room for extra guests at our Christmas table.

Whatever you do, don’t give up the fight. Take Mother Mary as your inspiration – a woman who reconstructed her narrative, transforming it from one of despair into one of hope and blessedness. I do pray for strength and for blessing for you this Christmas, and for all those you love and serve.

Your brother in the Good Fight,