46 Mary said,
“With all my heart I glorify the Lord!
47 In the depths of who I am I rejoice in God my savior.
48 He has looked with favor on the low status of his servant.
Look! From now on, everyone will consider me highly favored
49 because the mighty one has done great things for me.
Holy is his name.
50 He shows mercy to everyone,
from one generation to the next,
who honors him as God.
Reflection
I have always had trouble with these verses. Mainly it’s verse 48. In the NIV, and most other translations, Mary calls herself blessed. But in the CEB, Mary says she will be highly favored. To me, there is a dramatic difference between the two. Was she blessed? Certainly. But it was not anything she did. It is what God did.
I grew up Catholic, and we called Mary the Blessed Virgin. The Holy Spirit impregnated her, so she was a virgin giving birth to Jesus. But we weren’t told that Mary had three or four other sons. If I remember correctly, the Catholic bible called them Jesus’ cousins.
I think what I don’t like about Mary being called blessed is that it sets us up to pray to her, and not Jesus or God.
Was Mary highly favored? Most certainly. But should we pray to her? Absolutely not. We have God and Jesus. We do not need anybody else.
by Rick Reed
For Pondering and Prayer
What is the takeaway from all this? We always have God and Jesus to pray to. We don’t need anyone else. I don’t care if Mary was Jesus’ mother. We have the same ear of God that she had. Unfortunately for me, I don’t pray to God near enough. So that is my takeaway for all this. I need to pray repeatedly. Lord please help me to pray to you, repeatedly.
Prayer: Almighty and heavenly Father, help me to continue to pray to you all day long. Jesus is the beginning and the end, I don’t need anyone else. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.
