In the play Fiddler on the Roof the Jewish people of Anatevka are going through (another) period of oppression, persecution, pogrom. Tevye, the main character, moans: “I know we are the chosen people but once in a while couldn’t God choose somebody else?” Mary’s prayer we call the Magnificat (from the first word of the prayer in Latin) contains the line: The Almighty has done great things for me. I wonder if Mary had to say that prayer with gritted teeth when her husband wanted to divorce her, when she was homeless and nine months pregnant, when forced into exile as an immigrant to Egypt, when the king was seeking her death and that of her son, when she held the dead body of her beloved son. The Church says the prayer of Mary every day to remind us that even in the midst of what we perceive as negative things God continues to be at work. The great things God does for us might not be obvious but if we share Mary’s faith then we have the blessed assurance that all will be well.
