Daily Lectio: Thursday Morning, June 4

“My soul magnifies the Lord” (Luke 1:46)

What does this mean?  All my life I think I have read this pericope, this little section, and have thought it meant to praise or celebrate.  But, that’s not actually what it means.  This morning, I’m sitting with just this one little piece…..wondering….

My soul magnifies the Lord.

When looking at the Greek, there is an interesting thing to note.  This word can mean to make something conspicuous.  I love that…make something conspicuous….enlarge it…expand it….

My soul makes the Lord conspicuous.

My soul enlarges the Lord, makes the Lord even more expansive.

Interesting…

We’re talking about participation here…embodiment….radical embodiment of God that then leads to an expansion of God’s presence in the world around us.  Being a megaphone for God…perhaps.  Being a prism through which the rays of God’s love expand and shine out into the world…

I think we’re getting close to the realm of what it means for Mary to be the Theotokos, the God-bearer…and we recognize that we all are invited into this space of God-bearing…of giving birth to the presence in our own day and age…

And maybe there’s no place for politeness here…for fitting in….for trying to make God “fit in.”  How can we do that if our image is

“My soul makes the Lord conspicuous?”

Our God-bearing is going to make us conspicuous….it’s going to make us stand out….be noticed… and it’s important here to remind ourselves that this is not about our ego or our own agenda.  It’s about our being willing to magnify the Lord…to expand this awareness, this Presence…not ourselves.  And, that’s an interesting space to explore, I think…

And here we see “I must decrease so he can increase.”

So, I’m going to continue chewing on this today….this call to “make the Lord conspicuous.”  Oh, is there so much here…

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