A reading of the holy gospel according to Saint Luke. Mary said, this of course is the She's down. She is now replying to her cousin Elizabeth. And this took place in the town of Ayn Karri, as it is known today. So Mary replied to her cousin Elizabeth, my being proclaims the greatness of the Lord.
My spirit finds joy in God my savior, for he has looked upon his servant in her lowliness. All ages to come shall call me blessed. God who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name. His mercy is from age to age on those who fear him. He has shown might with his arm.
He has confused the proud in their inmost thoughts. He has deposed the mighty from their throes and raised the lowly to high places. The hungry, he has given every good thing, while the rich, he has sent away empty. He has upheld Israel, his servant, ever mindful of his mercy. Even as he promised our fathers, promised Abraham and his descendants forever.
Mary remained with her cousin Elizabeth about three months and then returned home. And this is the gospel of the lord. In the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit, amen. Every time I read or recite the Magnificat in English, I cannot help remembering the Latin. And it's a very it's a minor point, but it it to me, it it is very significant, really.
See, the Latin begins with. That's the verb. The subject of the verb is comes but it comes afterwards. So the first word that hits you on this magnificent hymn of our blessed lady. I'm not saying that she recited this just as we have it here.
I'm only saying this is what we have in the book. In the Latin and in the Greek, the first word is the verb, and the second is the subject of the verb. Where in the English translation, you know what comes first? Me. My soul magnifies the Lord.
Now I you know, there are a great a great deal, a great difference hangs on that on that language. Because when you when that when you when you say the Latin verb or the Greek verb, the thing that smacks you is praise of God, magnificat. Whereas in the English, what hit you first? My soul. And if you want a big difference let's take another contrast.
Read Saint Thomas in English or Latin or Greek or Hebrew or any any language you want. Just count how often the pronoun I occurs. Almost never. You can read the whole of the Summa and practically never find Thomas Aquinas referring to himself where he says, I believe or I think or I it is my opinion that. You don't find that at all.
Pick up Descartes. Pick up Luther. Pick up any modern philosopher or modern theologian. I think this. I tell you this.
You know, there's a tremendous difference here in perspective. How often do we think of the first commandment to honor and love God Almighty? How often is that brought home to you? How often is it brought home to me? How often do I bring it home to myself?
You take some of these magazines, I will not mention their names, you can guess, which are coming out from some of our missionary orders. You can go through that book, that the latest issue from the page one to the last page. And in some instances, it could be written by somebody who didn't believe in God at all. You know, philanthropy does not require God. Altruism is a replacement of Christian charity.
Don't forget it. If you want to contrast the the the world what we call the modern world, which which in the Western world we usually begin with Descartes, sixteenth century. Here is the tremendous difference. What is at the center of the universe? Me or God?
If you'll pardon the use misuse of the pronoun in the accusative case when it should be nominated. But this is a fact. What makes Rousseau such a great guy? Read it. What what makes Augustine's Confessions such an appealing book in the twentieth century?
They'll say because it has such a modern flavor. I confite confite or I confess to God as Augustine does. And it is an extraordinary book, and one of its most extraordinary characteristics is the I part of it. That Augustine in the fifth century pours out his soul to God to magnify God. That's that's absolutely right.
No question about it. The confidior there means I praise God. But the point is that that putting the self, revealing the self, letting the self overflow, talking about myself so much that was not typical of the Western world until about, well, what we call modern times, wherever you want to begin it. A lot philosophically, we've usually put Descartes down as the date. And this is a tremendous difference, that in one case men and women looked to God and saw themselves reflected in God.
Now we look within ourselves and try to find God in me. And you see, when a man like Luther tried to find God in himself, he couldn't. All he found was what was what happened to man by original sin was destroyed man's goodness. And all he found was something very vile and evil and sinful. And so this magnificat in the there's a beautiful church here in Ayn Karim.
When I was there a few years ago, the town was almost abandoned. It was on the Western Bank and the Arabs had left it and it had not yet been taken over by anybody. It was a kind of a desolate scene, almost looked like walking in Pompeii. But the church is still a beautiful church, a magnificent church, and around the portico they have the in practically every language of our contemporary world. But what I want to impress upon me, because I'm talking to myself, is we've got to put God first.
We see we hear we hear so much about Christ becoming man. The son of God became became what for? To save me. Fine. But that's not the truth.
The truth is the son of God became man to worship his father. That's the first thing. That's the first How often do you hear that stressed? You see, we following Rousseau and company and, of course, Descartes, we have gotten so embroiled with me. And out of this, you know, came the whole area of period of enlightenment and all that stuff that that we with the with the great importance of little old me that we have forgotten God.
It's you see that the problem is that God is not out there to touch. God's not out there to see. God's not out there to smell. We can't get a hold of God. Where everything else in the universe is right at our right there to be touched.
It's tangible. It is it it is perceivable by my senses. It moves me emotionally. I've just been reading Luther's catechism. I read the darndest things.
But anyway, the very first sentence in that catechism, was he brought that out in about 1529, great thrust of that catechism was to bring home truth, religious truth to man. And the first thing that Luther hits is you you must know and love God. Right in the first sentence of his little catechism. You can't quarrel with that. But you see, it's so easy to forget God and to love humanity.
It is so easy to lose ourselves in the creatures of God and not remember the creator. It is so easy. It's almost inevitable. Let's face it. Almost and almost inevitable, but not inevitable.
Not inevitable. We have got to pull ourselves back once in a while and say, look, what is religion all about? What is it all about? What are we trying to do? Here, you're here this morning.
Why are you here? What are you trying to do? What makes it sensible for you to leave your warm home, your warm bed, to face all the hazards of coming down here in the morning in the dark? Why do this? Why are you doing it?
Now that's you do it, you ought to have a good answer to this. Now, I am not urging anyone to play games. We are not Pelagians. I don't have to get all hyped up to believe in God and feel emotionally. It isn't an emotion which gets me out of bed in the morning when I have every emotion to stay in the bed.
It's something else. It's not sentiment and feeling which make parents sacrifice as they do in so many instances for their children. It's not what they want to do in many instances. In most instances, what they don't want to do. And if you want a good example of it, look at Christ in the Garden Of Gethsemane.
When he begged God not to have to drink that cup. So we're not talking here about fear and neither was Newman. If we God is beyond our perception. He is beyond all the positivistic approaches we can make to it. If I can have an experience of God, it's in a proof that he doesn't exist.
If he's a spirit, you certainly can't experience spirit. And so as we edge into this great, great feast, as we call it, of Christmas, you know what we're talking about? We are talking about God almighty becoming a human being. In the name of the father, and of the son, and of holy spirit. Amen.