The Kick-Butt Texas Mamas' Magnificat!
Where is Mary's Magnificat in Texas today?
I have a confession to make: for much of my life, I have never liked Mary’s Magnificat. I know, you may want to take my minister card away from me immediately!
Looking back, I realize now that Mary’s Magnificat was often read and sung on days like today, where everything is beautiful. Mary is lifted up as the Ideal Mother, sacrificing everything she wanted or needed for the sake of her baby.
And while parts of that may be true, what I realize now is that this beautiful, angelic Mary was the creation of the Patriarchal Church seeking to negate the wisdom and fire of the women in their churches. Thus, the sanitized patriarchal church version of Mary was worshiped: virgin, humble servant of God – all around good girl.
Growing up in the south, this patriarchal-church Mary was everything my culture told me I should be - virgin, humble, ideal mother sacrificing her needs for everyone else. YUUUCKKK!!!
But as I began to claim my own feminist identity, I intentionally read biblical scholarship from women, biblical scholars of color and biblical scholars of LGBTQIA+ identity, and I realized Mary’s Magnificat is one of the most revolutionary pieces of writing we have. And it’s not just me as a woman saying it; Dietrich Bonhoeffer, noted German pastor and revolutionary himself, said this in his writings The Mystery of Holy Night:
The song of Mary is the oldest Advent hymn. It is at once – the most passionate, the wildest, one might even say the most revolutionary Advent hymn ever sung. This is not the gentle, tender, dreamy Mary whom we sometimes see in paintings….This song…is a hard, strong, inexorable song about collapsing thrones and humbled lords of this world, about the power of God and the powerlessness of humankind. These are the tones of the women prophets of the Old Testament that now come to life in Mary’s mouth.
Holy Moly! Mary isn’t some docile wallflower in the grand story of God’s liberating love! Mary is the kick-butt refugee mama, who will make a way out of no way for the freedom of her child and her people.
In the Wisdom Commentary, a commentary series written solely by female biblical scholars, Dr. Barbara Reid points out that Mary’s Magnificat is a victory hymn intended to prove and celebrate God’s liberation of God’s people. And actually, Mary’s Victory hymn follows a succession of Victory Hymns in the Hebrew Scriptures – Deborah, Judith, Miriam, and Hannah. Each of these women, including Mary, are seen as prophets, who like their male counterparts proclaim God’s liberation of the people in their past, remind them of God’s vision through God’s power and protection, and proclaims the birthing of a new future, where justice and equity are realized.
Throughout history, there have been Victory Hymns, but many focus on the military might of the Victor over the conquered. However, in these Victory Hymns of the female prophets such as Mary, it’s not a military victory but a liberation of the conquered people to freedom by God.
That’s why so many Latin American countries have venerated Mary as the liberator of the poor; her hymn lauds the poor with the dignity and worth they deserve as equal to the rich and fully loved by God.
In fact, in the 1970’s and 80’s, at the height of political corruption on the backs of the poorest citizens of Latin American countries, the poor began to rise up and demand justice, heralding Mary as their patron saint of their liberation movement. A 1993 Chicago Sun-Times article reported:
In Guatemala, the mother of Jesus became a fulcrum for liberation theology’s social justice movement, compelling the government to ban the singing of…the Magnificat as subversive.
Can you imagine? A government banning Mary’s Magnificat because the message is too liberating for the people. That’s why Bishop Oscar Romero likened Mary to the poorest people in his community: they were mad as hell, and they weren’t going to take it anymore.
In India, British authorities banned Mary’s Magnificat from being sung or read because – well, you know why. In Argentina, when men began to suddenly disappear, mothers of these men would post Mary’s Magnificat throughout the plaza de Mayo and demand the return of their sons.
Now THIS is the song I want to sing! A song so revolutionary, it causes governments to ban it out of their fear of how the people will demand their freedom!
Where is Mary’s Magnificat today? I see it in Israel and Gaza, Ukraine and Russia and desolate places around the world.
But what about Texas? Where is Mary’s Magnificat being sung as a demand for our freedom in the state of Texas?
I believe we are living at the height of political corruption in the state of Texas with the epicenter at the capital. And this political corruption comes on the backs of the poorest citizens of Texas neighborhoods in rural, urban, and suburban communities. Where are the kick-butt mamas demanding freedom for their children and community?
Two years ago, I ran for the Texas House of Representatives District 150. There’s a lot I learned about Texas during my campaign including the fact that politics in the Church prepared me well for Texas politics. But I want to tell you about the best part of my campaign experience. Every time there was an issue that I thought, “This is hopeless, we’re not going to be able to make a difference on this issue,” I met a group of fierce mamas, who were actively living out Mary’s Magnificat.
From the suburban moms in the wealthiest neighborhoods of the Woodlands going to school board meetings because they were fed up with threats of book banning and CRT to the black grandmothers in neighborhoods fighting for gun safety.
From the moms of Trans teenagers, who drove to the capital over and over and over again – and even invited elected officials to their house to have dinner with their family as they demanded their Trans youth should have the same rights as their straight children; to the black sororities, who held voting registration events at the high schools to make sure all eligible, young people of age, know their rights to vote.
From the Austin mama who held up a sign that said Mothers Against our current governor and now has thousands of Mothers for Democracy; to the Houston Gen-Z woman body-shamed by our current senator, and she used it to raise $1 million for reproductive freedom organizations.
These women run the spectrum of income, political ideology, and political activism, and they are demanding Mary’s Magnificat be heard and realized now for their children and the entire state of Texas.
Mary’s Magnificat hasn’t been banned here in Texas – yet.
But I believe these fierce kick-butt Texas mamas are making a way out of no way, piercing the oppression of our political and religious powerful so that God’s liberating love may be born and God’s justice will finally be realized for the poor, the people of color, the trans youth of God’s creation.
This is the kick-butt Texas Mamas’ Mary’s Magnificat! Woohoo!!!