Magnificat

Today is the Feast of the Visitation in the Episcopal Church: Mary, pregnant under mysterious circumstances, went to visit her cousin Elizabeth, who was also miraculously with child. When the women met, they knew from deep within themselves that God was doing something extraordinary through them; and they spoke aloud their confidence and praise.

I’d like to share a translation of the Magnificat (Luke 1:46–55) that I’m working on: in honor, particularly, of those who are fighting to end the murders of Black men and women at the hands of the state. As @kmaustinyoung tweeted, “Who radicalized you? Mary, the mother of our Lord.”

Mary said:

Let my soul magnify my saving God,
and all my breath sing wonder to my lord
who only raises up the broken slave.
Look back, you generations, and remember
joy. Tell how the strong one made me strong,
tell over how God’s name is Holy One.

You who come after, you who follow them:
Speak to the gentle doings of our God,
tender tsunami, end of all that is.
Say how you saw God in the beast’s sleek haunch,
God in the fragmenting of clever minds
to madness, God fearsome and God alive.

Say, this I know: God upends emperors
and lifts the little ones, fills up the starved
with plenty, whittles plutocrats to bones.
Yet Israel, God’s child, they restore
with constant care — just as they said they would
before, to Abraham and to his kin:

Beloved, God is merciful for ever.