Our Blessed Mother can teach us so much about the virtues and living a virtuous life. No matter where we are in our spiritual lives, we can learn to grow in virtue by the example of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Her example is so powerful that the greatest personal devotion in the Church is the Rosary. This devotion is a meditation on Christ through Mary’s eyes. We could spend an entire lifetime trying to know Mary better, and there would still be more we could learn.
In this exploration, we are going to look at a single aspect of our Blessed Mother: how Mary magnifies the Lord, and how we can learn to do the same.
The Magnificat is one of the most beautiful and astounding parts of scripture, but we’re going to focus on just a small part. That part is more than sufficient to provide a guide for our lives.
And Mary said: My soul doth magnify the Lord. And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour. Because he hath regarded the humility of his handmaid; for behold from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed. Because he that is mighty, hath done great things to me; and holy is his name. And his mercy is from generation unto generations, to them that fear him.
Luke 1: 46-50, Douay-Rheims Bible
This short passage is packed with revelations about Mary and about God, but our focus will be on just a few words.
Mary tells Elizabeth “My soul doth magnify the Lord.”
Other translations use the word proclaim in place of magnify. Both words point to the same reality, but I find “magnify” helps me understand this better.
What does it mean that Mary magnifies the Lord?
There is an obvious literal meaning. Our Lord Jesus, the Son of God, is growing in Mary’s womb when Mary speaks these words. Her body is building the Savior physically, from a single cell to the baby born in Bethlehem.
Meditating on this is worthwhile and fruitful. It points tangibly to how God uses us to accomplish His plans. The Word made Flesh did not spontaneously come down from heaven as a man. God becoming Man in this way would have been incredible beyond our comprehension, but what God did was even more astounding. He chose to become like us by starting as a single cell. God relied on Mary to be the Mother of Jesus, the Son of God, making Mary the Mother of God.
For nine months, Mary carried the Lord within her. She nurtured, supported and provided everything He need to grow. Starting with a tiny cell, Mary magnified the Lord.
Jesus did not come into the world in this way because of a limitation of God, but as a gift to humanity and specifically to Mary. Mary recognizes and acknowledges that “he that is mighty hath done great things to me.” Mary doesn’t take credit for anything accomplished through her. She sees that the work being done, through her body, is God’s work.
We could stop here and dwell on Mary’s humility and how God relied on her to be born into the world. That could serve as a lifetime of inspiration for greater understanding, wisdom and virtue, but for this path to virtue, we’re going to focus on what it means for us to magnify the Lord. No one else has ever or will ever give birth to the Son of God, and yet we can all magnify the Lord.
The literal meaning related to Mary’s motherhood is only one aspect of the Magnificat. The other aspect is how Mary magnifies the glory of God, and this is what we can emulate.
God is perfect. He doesn’t possess virtues as we might, but instead He is each of the virtues. We see this in His name revealed to Moses: “I AM”. God isn’t a being but being itself. The same holds true for the virtues. God isn’t humble, He is Humility. God isn’t loving, He is Love. God isn’t merciful, He is Mercy. We can say this for every virtue.
We see this also when Thomas asks Jesus how they will know the way that Jesus is going.
Jesus saith to him: I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No man cometh to the Father, but by me.
John 14:6, Douay Rheims Bible
Jesus doesn’t tell Thomas that He has a way, but that He is the Way. This is an astounding statement. Jesus spoke and taught of virtues, but not like anyone else in history. He doesn’t offer information but Himself. Jesus is virtue, and the path we are called to walk is Him. He is the Way. There are many people we may want to emulate due to their virtue. Mary is at the top of the list followed by the saints, but each of these is a glimpse into some aspect of Christ. He is virtue. He is the Way.
The virtues exist perfectly in God. We can glorify God and magnify God by exhibiting any of the virtues. Mary is the pinnacle of this in humanity, but Mary is only allowing the perfection of God to show forth in her.
Mary is created to become a lens to magnify and focus the virtues of God. The virtues of God become visible and are amplified through the life of Mary. She magnifies the Lord. She proclaims the Lord. She puts on display the Lord for all of creation to see.
In this way, Mary is like an amplifier and speaker that projects a sound to the world. The sound is some aspect of God, but the manifestation of that aspect of God is revealed and magnified by Mary.
Mary magnifies and proclaims the Lord. This is divinely revealed in Sacred Scripture, but it isn’t an exclusive privilege for Mary to do this. Certainly, Mary fulfills a unique role greater than any other human, but we can magnify and proclaim the Lord too! Actually, that’s what we are here to do. That is our purpose, to give glory to God!
How Can the Lord be Magnified?
It may be difficult to think of magnifying God. We typically magnify something small. When you put a person next to God, it isn’t God who is small. Actually, we are insignificantly small compared to the Almighty. How can we, tiny creatures that we are, magnify God who is greater than the entire universe?
God is infinite. Even the idea that we can magnify something infinite may be difficult to grasp. Without getting into abstract theories on infinities, we can answer this.
The Lord is humility and all He does is humble. He never does something by Himself when He can bring about the same thing through us. It is an incredible gift and privilege that God enables us to act on His behalf.
God also gives us free choice. We don’t have to do what He wants us to do. We can reject God, insult God or ignore God. He allows us the free choice.
This means the glory of God is hidden with God relying on us to reveal His glory.
We can see another example of Jesus’ humility God’s reliance of others to proclaim His glory during the Palm Sunday procession into Jerusalem:
And as he went, they spread their clothes underneath in the way. And when he was now coming near the descent of mount Olivet, the whole multitude of his disciples began with joy to praise God with a loud voice, for all the mighty works they had seen, Saying: Blessed be the king who cometh in the name of the Lord, peace in heaven, and glory on high! And some of the Pharisees, from amongst the multitude, said to him: Master, rebuke thy disciples. To whom he said: I say to you, that if these shall hold their peace, the stones will cry out.
Luke 19:36-40, Douay Rheims Bible
Jesus enters Jerusalem as a king, but doesn’t proclaim His greatness Himself. Instead, He relies on His disciples. The Pharisees object, but it is ordained by God that His glory be proclaimed at that time. The disciples have the free will to be silent, and Jesus has the power to silence them, but the proclamation will occur even if God must bring it about through stones crying out. The glory of God will be magnified and proclaimed, but it will be by someone or something other than God.
The glory of God is projected and magnified through us in a particular way. We can’t magnify the totality of God. God is infinite. We can only magnify some small aspect of God. It is like a diamond cut with numerous facets. When we magnify the Lord, we magnify a particular facet of God. We’re too small to magnify all of God at once, but we can magnify and proclaim some detail of God.
Pick a virtue. For example: mercy. How do we see God’s mercy? We see it through our own actions or the actions of others. All of this is done by the grace of God. It is His life and power that give us the ability to be merciful, but we are the ones that proclaim and magnify that to the world by allowing the mercy of God to be enacted through us. When someone is cruel to us or hurts us, and we forgive them, we are magnifying the mercy of God.
The mercy is God’s but we get to participate in it and proclaim it.
I need images and analogies to understand things like this, although I know that they are imperfect and flawed. One flawed image is to consider God as a singer in the middle of a giant stadium. Being God, He could project His voice to every corner of creation, but in His humility and love, He doesn’t. Instead, he puts us like speakers throughout the stadium. When the Lord speaks or sings, it is up to us to magnify and proclaim what He has said or done to the area of creation we are in.
Elijah is a good example for this. He was a prophet that proclaimed the Word of God. God didn’t need Elijah to speak for Him, but chose to use him. Elijah magnified and proclaimed the Lord.
And he said to him: Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the Lord: and behold the Lord passeth, and a great and strong wind before the Lord over throwing the mountains, and breaking the rocks in pieces: the Lord is not in the wind, and after the wind an earthquake: the Lord is not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake a fire: the Lord is not in the fire, and after the fire a whistling of a gentle air. And when Elias heard it, he covered his face with his mantle, and coming forth stood in the entering in of the cave, and behold a voice unto him.
1 Kings 19:11-13 Douay-Rheims Bible
In this passage, we hear God call to Elijah to wait for him. Then there is a strong wind, an earthquake and a fire, but God is not in those. He is in the gentle air that follows. God uses a small voice that only Elijah can hear. God’s voice is so small that only when Elijah is quiet and strives to listen can he hear God.
It is then up to Elijah to magnify the Lord.
We can do the same. With every thought, word and deed, we have the opportunity to proclaim the Lord.
Ambassadors for the Virtues of God
We are like ambassadors that represent the Lord to others. God is virtue, and when we exhibit a virtue, we are revealing, magnifying and proclaiming an aspect of God. Every moment, we have the choice to represent God and proclaim some aspect of God.
As an ambassador, think if a king or president or prime minister had selected you to go to a foreign land to represent him and his kingdom/country. Would you take such a responsibility seriously? How would you act? What would you say?
An ambassador represents the person and nation that sent him. It isn’t up to the ambassador to project and display his own characteristics, thoughts or views, but to magnify to those he visits the characteristics, thoughts and views of the person that sent him.
We are ambassadors for God. Each of us by baptism is anointed to share in Christ’s roles as priest, prophet and king. We share in those roles such that we represent Christ to the world. The prophetic role is extremely important.
Some get confused by the role of a prophet and think a prophet predicts the future. That’s not the role of a prophet. Instead, a prophet speaks the Truth of God. We share in that responsibility. We are called to speak Truth. We are ambassadors representing the King of Kings and speaking His Truth to the world.
A Great Stage to Display Virtue
With another flawed analogy, let’s consider creation as a great stage. We are like actors on the stage representing God. When we get our lines right, we proclaim the Lord. When we sin, we misrepresent God, confuse those around us and disrupt the performance.
Our behavior in the performance is how God reveals Himself to the world.
Now, with the amount of evil in the world, it is easy to point a finger at God and accuse Him of the evil. God, in His humility, will allow us to get angry with Him and even to reject Him. It pains Him greatly because He loves us dearly, but He will not force us to act or think in a particular way.
The evil that exists is not from God. It is entirely from the free will choices of creatures (humans and fallen angels) that choose to reject God.
God will always bring about a greater good from whatever evil is done. This is something we must accept on a matter of faith because we often cannot see the good that God works from the ashes of sin. Part of this is due to our time constrained lives. We only focus on the immediate results, but don’t see how those results grow and change over long periods of time.
On this great stage of creation, we have the opportunity to proclaim some good of God. The greater the darkness, the greater an act of virtue stands out as a light. The light is God, but we are like the lens on a lighthouse that projects, focuses and magnifies the light to be a beacon to the world.
How to Live this Path of Virtue?
If we proclaim and magnify the Lord by thoughts, words and actions, then every moment of our lives is an opportunity to follow this path of growth in virtue.
There is never a time when we don’t have an opportunity to proclaim God’s virtue.
What do we see from Mary in Scripture?
She believed what the angel said. Her faith and trust in the Lord magnified the Lord. Every time we are faced with a challenge, trusting in God honors and glorifies Him.
Mary went to help Elizabeth as Elizabeth approached giving birth. This was an act of service and charity. In every act of charity when we help someone else, we proclaim the love, charity, compassion and humility of the Lord.
Mary trusted in God when Harrod sought to kill her Son. No matter what adversity we face, we proclaim the Lord with our hope.
In Cana, Mary was focused on the needs of the groom and bride when the wine ran out. She interceded on their behalf to ask her Son to help. It seems they didn’t even know they were out of wine. The good we do for others is reflection and magnification of the love of God.
Mary held the things she experienced in her heart. She was contemplative and meditated on the words of the angel and the other events. Simply thinking of something about God, especially about the life of Jesus, magnifies that event in creation. We become a speaker or a projector that repeats that event. Now, I’m not saying that the event happens again. It doesn’t but when we remember and contemplate that event, we become present to it and it becomes present to us and the world around us in some way. The is a real impact and effect of this. It is a mystery of how this work and what results from simple thought, but we must have faith that there is far more happening than we can see.
When we meditate on a moment from the lift of Jesus, we are proclaiming that moment in our minds to the world.
This is like watching a championship game highlight reel. The game isn’t replayed, but we relive in some way that moment. How trivial is reliving a sports event compared to entering into and reliving the life, Passion, death and resurrection of our Savior? Additionally, with God being infinite and omnipresent, our thought somehow includes God in some real present manner.
I’ve wondered what would happen if every person on earth thought God at the same time. What if we all, for just a moment worldwide, thought of the birth of Christ, of the crowning with thorns, the crucifixion or the Resurrection? How that would honor and please our Lord! If every person did that, even though we may consider it just a thought, I am certain the world would be transformed in a way we can’t imagine.
Our thoughts are extremely important. Some saints talk of how meditation may be essential for salvation, and many talk about how meditation is essential for spiritual growth. Thinking about God is far more important than we realize. Just a simple act of considering Christ at a particular moment, perhaps when the crowd cried out for His crucifixion and he humbly accepted this tortuous execution, is an extremely powerful act.
We see Mary at the foot of the cross. None of her words are recorded. She simply stayed with her Son when His suffering was greatest. Her sorrow for the suffering of her Son magnified the Lord. Any time we comfort someone else, we are magnifying the Lord as Mary did.
An Easy Path to Growing in Virtue
The path to virtue laid out by Mary is very simple. To grow in virtue, we need to strive to represent God, to reveal His virtue in our thoughts, words or actions, in some manner, as frequently as we can.
For the great saints, we read of many who prayed constantly. Their minds were focused on God every minute. This made acting virtuously much easier because they held in their minds an image of perfect virtue.
I am easily distracted. It’s taken many years for me to think about God and pray as much as I do, but I am still far from holding Christ in my thoughts every instant.
No matter where you are in this, work to get a little better. Perhaps you struggle to pray even a little each day. If that’s the case, find something that will help you remember Christ. A holy card on your desk or bathroom mirror, a medal on your key chain or daily reminder on your phone might help. I have specific things that I use to remind me to pray or think of God. Every time I get in the car, I pray. It has been traditional to pray before meals – food is a great reminder to pray, and I’m working on doing this more consistently. I also schedule specific times for prayer. I have holy cards and images in a variety of places.
By praying more and more frequently, I find that I’m able to remember to act virtuously more often. I’m far from perfect, but I know prayer and meditation have helped me.
Don’t let meditation intimidate you. When I read of the great mystics and contemplatives of the Church, they astound me with their focus and capacity to meditate. I assure you, if starting today, you began considering Christ’s Passion for 30 seconds each day, that would please our Lord greatly. Hopefully, that 30 seconds grows to a minute and then more, but start with what you can do.
Prayer and meditation can be very hard to remain focused. Many saints talk of the struggle with distractions. It’s amazing how many different thoughts can pop into our minds when we try to contemplate God. Don’t be discouraged. Some of the saints known for practicing exceptional meditation and contemplation talk of the struggles with distractions.
Another thing that is important is to remember is that everything good we do is a gift from God. Yes, we did the action, but it was by God’s grace. Give Him credit and thank Him for letting you be the actor doing His work.
If you consider occasionally that you are an ambassador for God, representing Him to all of creation, it will hopefully humble you and help you appreciate how God is working in your life.
If you are in challenging times, struggling with pain, sorrow or other difficulties, simply trusting in God is a great act of faith and hope.
We have great saints to look up to – Peter and the other Apostles, all the martyrs, modern saints like St. Pio and St. Teresa of Calcutta and many others. They conformed themselves to God and His virtue in particular ways, but they did nothing on their own merit or power. All of them were also given special graces for those roles.
You have been given special graces as well, graces that are uniquely chosen by God for you.
We can’t judge the interior life of anyone. A person who faces a mountain of adversity and hardship might glorify God more by their simple trust in God and choice to love others in their hardships than someone who outwardly looks far holier. We see this in Jesus’ story of the Pharisee and the tax collector in the Temple. The tax collect likely committed many more sins and sins that were much worse than the Pharisee, but it is the tax collector that bows his head in humility and begs for mercy. Jesus makes it clear the humility and repentance of the tax collector, despite all his sins, are more pleasing than the Pharisee with his pride and self-righteousness.
Seek each day to magnify the Lord. Do this in your thoughts, in your words and in your deeds.
Remember, Jesus said there is more rejoicing in heaven when one sinner repents than for 99 people who are righteous. Why is that? First, because a child of God turns back to God and His infinite love for us leads to infinite joy. Second, the sinner that repents rejects all the shallow and unfulfilling temptations of the world for God. Now that is a magnification of the Lord so loud that all of heaven celebrates!