1. Inspired by the Old Testament tradition, with the canticle of the Magnificat Mary celebrates the wonders wrought in her by God. The canticle is the Virgin's response to the mystery of the Annunciation: the angel had invited her to rejoice, now Mary expresses the exultation of her spirit in God the Saviour. Her joy stems from her personal experience of God's benevolent gaze upon her, a poor and uninfluenced creature in history.
With the expression Magnificat, a Latin version of a Greek word of the same meaning, the greatness of God is celebrated, who with the angel's announcement reveals his omnipotence, exceeding the expectations and hopes of the people of the Covenant and even the noblest desires of the human soul.
Before the Lord, powerful and merciful, Mary expresses the feeling of her own littleness: "My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit exults in God, my Saviour, because he has looked upon the humility of his handmaid" (Lk 1:47-48). The Greek term 'tapéinosis' is probably borrowed from the canticle of Anna, mother of Samuel. It indicates the "humiliation" and "misery" of a barren woman (cf. 1 Sam 1:11), who entrusts her sorrow to the Lord. With such an expression, Mary makes known her situation of poverty and her awareness of being small before God who, with a gratuitous decision, laid his gaze on her, a humble girl from Nazareth, calling her to become the Mother of the Messiah.
2. The words "henceforth all generations shall call me blessed" (Lk 1:48) start from the fact that Elizabeth first proclaimed Mary "blessed" (Lk 1:45). Not without audacity, the canticle predicts that the same proclamation will extend and expand with unstoppable dynamism. At the same time, it testifies to the special veneration for the Mother of Jesus, present in the Christian community since the first century. The Magnificat constitutes the first fruits of the various expressions of worship, transmitted from one generation to the next, with which the Church manifests its love for the Virgin of Nazareth.
3. "Great things have the Almighty done in me, and holy is his name: from generation to generation his mercy is poured out on those who fear him" (Lk 1:49-50).
What are the "great things" wrought in Mary by the Almighty? The expression recurs in the Old Testament to indicate the deliverance of the people of Israel from Egypt or Babylon. In the Magnificat, it refers to the mysterious event of Jesus' virginal conception, which took place in Nazareth after the angel's announcement.
In the Magnificat, a truly theological canticle because it reveals Mary's experience of God's face, God is not only the Almighty to whom nothing is impossible, as Gabriel had declared (cf. Lk 1:37), but also the Merciful One, capable of tenderness and faithfulness towards every human being.
4. "He has unfolded the power of his arm, he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts; he has overthrown the mighty from their thrones, he has lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, he has sent the rich empty-handed" (Lk 1:51-53).
With her sapiential reading of history, Mary introduces us to discover the criteria of God's mysterious action. He, reversing the world's judgements, comes to the rescue of the poor and the little ones, to the detriment of the rich and the powerful and, in a surprising way, fills the humble with goods, who entrust their existence to him (cf. John Paul II, Redemptoris Mater, 37).
These words of the canticle, while showing us in Mary a concrete and sublime model, make us realise that it is above all humility of heart that attracts God's benevolence.
5. Finally, the canticle extols the fulfilment of the promises and God's faithfulness to the chosen people: 'He has come to the rescue of Israel, his servant, remembering his mercy, as he promised our fathers, for Abraham and his descendants, for ever' (Lk 1:54-55).
Filled with divine gifts, Mary does not stop her gaze at her personal case, but understands how these gifts are a manifestation of God's mercy for all his people. In her, God fulfils his promises with superabundant faithfulness and generosity.
Inspired by the Old Testament and the spirituality of the daughter of Zion, the Magnificat surpasses the prophetic texts at its origin, revealing in the 'full of grace' the beginning of a divine intervention that goes far beyond Israel's messianic hopes: the holy mystery of the Incarnation of the Word.
[Pope John Paul II, General Audience 6 November 1996]
