Last week I argued that John the Baptist was one of the two mentors of the Galilean Jesus. This week, we will discuss the other one: Mary of Nazareth.
But first things first: There's something about Miriam we often overlook. We usually say she's Moses's sister. Miriam was a prophet. There's something about Mary we often overlook. We usually say she's Jesus's mother. Mary was a prophet as well. There's something about Miriam and Mary we often overlook. We usually say their names come from the same root. That root is actually Egyptian and many scholars say it means "rebelling against a bitter system."
Mary's Magnificat is probably one of the most powerful prophetic passages in the New Testament. This young woman from Nazareth followed a God who scatters the proud in the thoughts of their hearts; who brings down the powerful from their thrones and lifts up the lowly; who fills the hungry with good things and sends the rich away empty.
This young woman from Nazareth followed a God who takes sides, a God who takes the preferential option for the poor, a God who brings down kings and kingdoms, a God who weeps with those who weep and who cries with those who cry.
This young woman from Nazareth is alive today. Yet the proud, the powerful, and the rich who pretend to venerate her fail to see her among the lowly and the hungry as they struggle against life-negating and death-dealing forces. They fail to see her at work in Sarah Jane Elago, Amanda Echanis, Reina Mae Nasino, Lady Ann Salem, and other women whose lives are dedicated to helping bring about peace based on justice and the realization of God's reign on earth.
Moreover, the proud, the powerful, and the rich who pretend to venerate her tag so many who are working for "life in all its fullness" as enemies of the state or as communists, as if communism were a crime in the country. It is not. Worse, they criminalize dissent and illegally arrest so many on trumped up charges like murder and illegal possession of firearms and explosives.
So, Jesus had John the Baptist as teacher. But before there was John, there was young Mary of Nazareth: The Prophet. And she taught her son well. Very well indeed.
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*image "The Annunciation. Gabriel and Mary." JESUS MAFA (Vanderbilt Divinity Library digital archives)
