Christmas songs have a way of staying with us from childhood. In fact, if you were to ask someone their favorite Christmas song it may range from, "Silent Night" to "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus." Many Christmas songs do carry the element of the holy in their lyrics and sometimes in the melody. Most of all, though, Christmas stands alone from all other holidays by the fact that it carries its own genre of music. The message of this season can be sung as well as spoken. The world has come to know the all-important story of Jesus, perhaps more due to the tunes, than the spoken word or reading of messages.

I have experienced the power of the secular and religious Christmas song. A few years ago, my wife, an Austrian, and I visited friends in Purgstall, Austria. We stayed at our friends' kneippkurhaus (inn and spa). One evening, we were sitting around a large table in the kitchen. The word had gotten around that an American was staying a few days (Purgstall is not on the tourist trail) and one of the longtime guests, a retired schoolteacher, wanted to meet me. She also wanted me to hear her sing. She brought her guitar and played folk songs from Hungary, Germany, and Austria. Before she left, she wanted to sing an American song, and since everyone's native language, except mine, was German, we had to put some thought into what could be sung in English. The one song that everyone knew was a most unlikely tune, "Jingle Bells." Soon we were off dashing through the snow in the middle of September. I was reminded how powerful our songs, seasonal or religious, really are. On this trip to Austria, I was reminded that "Silent Night" was translated into English, having been written by an Austrian priest. It is clear to me that in all cultures there is a history and tradition of our Christmas songs which is cherished.

There is a song that is maybe the best known in the world, and we call this song, "Mary's Magnificat." It is also clear that most of our exposure to this song is found sometime during the Advent season. If we have time we may even include it in our Christmas Eve service. It has a holy and almost mysterious sound. What do you do with Mary's Magnificat?

The Magnificat is the great New Testament song of liberation — personal, social, moral, and economic — a revolutionary document of intense conflict and victory. It leads to everything we would learn about Jesus himself. This is truly magnificent when viewed not only from the birth story, but also the death story.

Through this song of Mary we feel her expressing her faith and vision, and asking the right questions. In an old biography of Francis of Assisi, the story is told of a night he spent in the castle of an Italian nobleman. The host was curious as to the secret of Francis' remarkable vitality, so he arranged to have Francis spend the night in the chamber adjacent to his own. As soon as they retired, the nobleman watched to see what Francis would do, and it turned out to be quite simple. He knelt by his bed and prayed over and over again, "O Lord, who art thou, and who am I? Who art thou and who am I? Who art thou and who am I?" The biographer concludes that this is one of the clues of Francis' greatness. All his life he continued to ask the right questions, he never tired of trying to penetrate ever more deeply into the core of our existence. After all, the God-question and self-question are the ultimate realities. If we would grow in spiritual intensity, here are two frontiers on which the Magnificat is built.

The telling of the Magnificat can be of great help to us. In what transpired long ago we get a telling insight, not only into the nature of God, but also into human nature and how the two interact together so that great creativity can result. Here one can discover illuminating answers to the question: "Who art thou, O Lord, and who am I?"

As we ponder Mary's song we cannot forget the struggle Mary is going through. God had asked this young woman to do the impossible, to give birth without a man, and this pregnancy would bring the redemption of the world. This scandal would bring true righteousness. On the outset, Mary's song seems like it is out of place. God may have found favor in Mary, but what does God ask her to do? He asked her to risk her body, her marriage, her reputation, and even her life. Mary must have thought to herself: "What a strange kind of God this Yahweh is! What on earth is important enough to him to warrant this kind of sacrifice? What objective is there sufficient enough to justify such an endeavor?"

I am afraid that we have heard the song of deliverance and the love of God so often that "the wonder of it all" has worn off. This must never happen. I enjoy the Christmas poster which describes the season as the time, "when God cared enough to send the very best!" This message out of the Magnificat comes to express the very best on behalf of the very worst. Where else in the world do you see this kind of exchange, when the best people are asked to sacrifice on behalf of the worst? In our culture it is usually the other way around. The worst of humanity are sacrificed in order to preserve the best. With God, it is the opposite. The best, such as Mary and Jesus, are asked to sacrifice and suffer so that those who least deserve it are granted another opportunity to be helped.

This is the meaning of Mary's response to the momentous proposal. To be sure, a great deal was asked of her, but look at what was being offered to her! A chance to share with God in the most exciting adventure of — the adventure of changing enemies into friends, of turning darkness into light, and transforming a death-wish into the will to live again. This enterprise of restoring and finishing the creation is one to which all are invited, in fact you can hear Mary's song if you listen closely.

The good news of the Magnificat is that it is not too late to find the salvation of which Mary spoke. A relationship that comes not with an overpowering force, but a relationship that comes with a change of heart, a change that leads us to spiritual awakening. It was one of those moments that changed the life of Augustine. He was struggling with his own soul, searching for something more in life and how the whole thing could have meaning. He was reading his Bible one day, when a strong breeze suddenly opened it to Romans 8. He began to read the very thing of which Mary sang. Down through the ages, those who would become influential servants of God have told their stories over and over again. I recall the story of the Baptist preacher, D. L. Moody. He said: "I heard an evangelist one night: This century has yet to see what God could do with one person wholly committed to his will." Moody said in his heart of hearts, "By the grace of God, I'll be that person." He emerged from the obscurity of selling shoes into an influence that effected a great portion of a nation. It is obvious from Mary's song that we can participate in the miracle of his kingdom coming and his will being done on earth as it is in heaven.

Here is why Mary's Magnificat is relevant to the growing edge of our spiritual lives. Saint Francis never stopped asking, "Who art thou, O Lord, and who am I?" As he came to know the song by the young Jewish woman engaged to Joseph, his words came clearly, "He is the one who made all things and who loves everything he has made. It is not the will of this Father that any should perish, but that all should be won back to life." To this end, our God still reminds us of the wondrous event we call Christmas when we hear Mary's Magnificat.

As you think of Mary this day, the question arises: Could there be a higher challenge than receiving a vision as she did, then responding in the timeless song? Mary challenges us with her words:

My soul glorifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant. From now on all generations will call me blessed for the Mighty One has done great things for me — holy is his name. His mercy extends to those who fear him, from generation to generation. He has performed mighty deeds with his arm, he has scattered those who are proud in their innermost thoughts. He has brought down rulers from their thrones, but has lifted up the humble; he has filled the hungry with good things, but has sent the rich away empty. He has helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful to Abraham and his descendents forever, even as he said to our fathers. —  Luke 1:47-55

It is enough that we sing our way though this Advent season and remember a song that lifts our hearts during Christmas. — Tom M. Garrison