Mary, A Woman of Justice

In the third chapter of The Real Mary McKnight focuses on the Magnificat, Mary's Song, found in Luke 1:47-55. Luke informs us that when Mary visited her cousin Elizabeth, Mary burst forth with this song not only because she is pregnant and will bear a son, but this son, according to the angel's words, will become the Davidic king who will bring justice and righteousness to a world filled with injustice and evil.

It was an act of political courage because she was challenging the powers of Herod and behind him Caesar. When she sings that God "has brought down rulers from their thrones," she has in mind real rulers who were ruling at the time. He notes that in Guatemala in the 1980's the Magnificat was banned from public reading because it was considered of a politically subversive nature. It was, no doubt, just a politically subversive on Mary's lips.

McKnight believes that we can learn a great deal about Mary's character through this song. He writes,

If this is what Mary's song was really like, the image we have of Mary needs an upgrade. We need a Real Mary 2.0. When we think of Mary, the first thing that should come to mind is the kind of courage we find among informed protesters--and, by reading the Magnificat in context, we can imagine Mary to be wiry and spirited and resolved and bold and gusty. Maybe we should call her the Blessed Valorous Mary instead of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Some think of her as tender; we might instead think of her as tenacious. Some think of her song as a splendid piece of spirituality that could be tucked away in a pew hymnal, but her song belongs instead on the shelf with socio-spiritual songs of protest against unjust rulers.

McKnight actually compares her song favorably with the song "We Shall Overcome" sung by the African American community as it addressed the injustices of the civil rights era. He says specifically that Mary's song is that kind of song. He asks, "Have we tamed Mary into the passive, pious mother of Jesus?" What do you think?