«MAGNIFICAT», THE GREAT HARD ROCK OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY ON THE SOLEMNITY OF THE ASSUMPTION

Even the heresiarch Martin Luther, that the Blessed Virgin was always very devoted - which most of the Catholic faithful, But also many scholars ignore -, In the 1521 he composed an intense little book entitled The Magnificat translated into German and commented.

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On Christmas Day 1886 the young writer and poet, agnostic at the time, Paul Claudel, pass through the portal of Our Lady from Paris and the song of the Magnificat, evangelical text of the liturgy of Vespers.

He later confessed that he emerged from that experience transformed, destined to become the singer of the Christian faith known to all; many know his drama: Announcement made to Mary. Years after, In the 1913, will narrate:

«On that day I believed with such strength of adhesion, with such an elevation of my entire being, with such a strong belief, with such certainty, with such an absence of doubt that later nor the books, nor the reasoning, nor could the fate of a troubled life shake my faith".

The 15 August of each year, the calendar commemorates the solemnity of the assumption into heaven of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the mother of the Lord, despite the widespread secularized denomination of "Ferragosto". Well, that one enters a solemn cathedral like Our Lady or in a small chapel lost in the mountains, each one, on this day, will hear that song of the Magnificat which distinguishes the Holy Mass of this Solemnity. Here is the passage reported by the evangelist Luke.

«In those days Mary got up and went quickly towards the mountainous region, in a city of Judah. Entry into the house of Zaccarìa, greeted Elizabeth. As soon as Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the baby leapt in her womb. Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and exclaimed in a loud voice: “Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb! To what do I owe the mother of my Lord to come to me? there, as soon as your greeting reached my ears, the baby leapt for joy in my womb. And blessed is she who believed in the fulfillment of what the Lord told her”. Mary said: “My soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God, my savior, because he looked at the humility of his servant. From now on all generations will call me blessed. The Almighty has done great things for me and Holy is his name; his mercy to those who fear him from generation to generation. He explained the power of his arm, he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts; he has overthrown the mighty from their thrones, he raised up the humble; he has filled the hungry with good things, he sent the rich away empty-handed. He helped Israel, his servant, remembering his mercy, as he had told our fathers, for Abraham and his descendants, forever”. Maria stayed with her about three months, then he returned to his home" (LC 1,39-56).

Maria, pregnant with Jesus, while he is visiting his relative Elizabeth, pregnant in turn with John the Baptist, intones this extraordinarily long hymn that Luke reports. It is the only time that the words of the Mother of Christ expand to the point of understanding well 102 words in Greek, including articles, pronouns and particles. The other times, only five in total, Mary's sentences reported in the Gospels are short and almost halting, as in Cana during the wedding in which his Son also participates: «They have no more wine» and «Whatever I tell you, do it" (GV 2, 3.5). Let's follow, At that time, the poetic flow of this Marian psalmody woven onto a palimpsest of biblical allusions.

Ideally the singing is for soloist and choir. The first movement is intoned by Maria's "I".: «My soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God, my savior, because he looked at the humility of his servant. From now on all generations will call me blessed. The Almighty has done great things for me." (LC 1,46-49). Origen asks (III):

«What did he have, the mother of the Lord, humble and low, she who carried the Son of God in her womb? Saying: “She looked at the humility of her handmaid”, it's as if he were saying: he looked upon the righteousness of his handmaiden, he looked at his temperance, he looked at his strength and his wisdom" (Origene, Homilies on Luke).

In the second movement of the hymn the voice of a choir enters into which Mary's voice joins, just like a soprano who lets her singing emerge. It is the choir of Christians, heirs of those "poor" of the Old Testament, the grapes (Anawim), those who are stooped, not only under the oppression of the powerful, but also in the humility of adoration towards God, thus overcoming the arrogance of the proud. These, socially poor, but above all faithful and just, they celebrate, ideally uniting with the voice of Mary, the particular divine choices that differ from worldly logic, privileging not the strong or the powerful, but the last and the marginalized; thus overturning historical hierarchies. The Evangelista Luca, using the Greek aorist tense called «gnomic», because it refers to experiences acquired beyond their temporal character, describes through seven verbs, a number that indicates fullness, the singular divine choices:

«He explained the power of his arm, / he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts, / he has overthrown the mighty from their thrones, / he raised up the humble, / he has filled the hungry with good things, / he sent the rich away empty-handed, / he has helped his servant Israel" (LC 1,51-54).

It is a constant logic of God which we also find on the lips of Jesus: «So the last will be first and the first, last" (Mt 20,16) and “Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted" (LC 14, 11).

The charm of Mary's words, In the Magnificat, it has been imprinted in Christian spirituality ever since, informing the lives of many saints and has given rise to a myriad of comments of all kinds and many works of art, both pictorial, how musical. Even the heresiarch Martin Luther, that the Blessed Virgin was always very devoted - which most of the Catholic faithful, But also many scholars ignore -, In the 1521 he composed an intense little book entitled The Magnificat translated into German and commented.

This beautiful song of Magnificat it is placed by the Liturgy as the setting of the Solemnity of the Assumption of Mary which is celebrated everywhere, in the East, as in the Christian West. Since the Dormition-Assumption of Mary is a sign of the ultimate realities, of what must happen in a future that is not so much chronological but rather meaningful, a sign of the fullness that our limits yearn for: in her we sense the glorification that awaits the entire cosmos at the end of time, when "God will be all in all" (1Color 15,28) and in everything. She, the Vergine Maria, it is the portion of humanity already redeemed, figure of that promised land to which we are called, strip of earth transplanted into the sky. A hymn of the Serbian Orthodox Church sings Mary as "land of heaven", earth now in God forever, anticipation of our common destiny.

I would like to conclude with the words of a famous prayer with which Saint Francis greets Mary today remembered as Assumption into heaven:

«Hail Madam, Santa Regina, holy parent of God, Maria, that you are a virgin made Church / and elected by the most holy heavenly Father, who consecrated you together with his most holy beloved Son and with the Holy Spirit Paraclete; / you in whom there was and is every fullness of grace and every good. / Ave, his palace, ave, his tabernacle, ave, your home. / Ave, his clothing, ave, his handmaiden, ave, his Mother. / And I greet you all, holy virtues, that by grace and illumination of the Holy Spirit you are infused into the hearts of the faithful, because they are unfaithful / make them faithful to God" (FF 259-260).

 

From the island of Patmos, 15 August 2025

Solemnity of the Assumption

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