Magnificat
Advent 3A - Isaiah 35:1-10, (Canticle 15 - Luke 1:46-55), James 5:7-10, Matthew 11:2-11
The ad hominem attack, logically speaking, is a weak attack. It distracts attention from the merits of an argument and is of little use in a debate competition. But in real life, ad hominem attacks are frightening. They obscure and distract from the truth. They discredit and demonize good people.
“Blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me.”
Jesus seems to be worried about an ad hominem attack. I’m not sure why. Some say it was because no one could say for sure who his father was.1 Maybe. It’s hard to believe that someone who has given sight to the blind, cleansed lepers and raised the dead could be discredited because of questionable paternity. But that’s the power of ad hominem. It tricks us into not believing what we ourselves have seen and heard.
We may hear the Magnificat this Sunday — Mary’s song of praise upon learning that she would bear a child. Surely she knew that given the circumstances, there would be ad hominem attacks coming at her. Nonetheless, she sang a song of praise, putting together verses from Hebrew Scripture, mostly the psalms. I imagine that every verse had a story behind it, a story of her own or one she had learned from family or friends.
Sharon Salzberg writes: “Faith is not a commodity we either have or don’t have – it is an inner quality that unfolds as we learn to trust our own deepest experience.”2
We learn to trust our experience – especially the deepest ones – when we hear someone else speak of something similar in their own life. That helps us know what’s real, what is reliable and that we are not alone. Where there is that kind of connection, community and faith — where we trust that we can know what’s real and true, ad hominem attacks don’t stand a chance. As the grand jury that refused to indict Leticia James on Thursday showed us.
When we have challenges to face, and there can be lots of challenges in Advent, Mary’s Magnificat is a good thing to hear — a centering thing. The song of what we ourselves know and trust — our Magnificat — is a wonderful thing to share anytime.
Peace.
Bruce Chilton believes Jesus would have been socially ostracized because of the paternity issue. Bruce Chilton, Rabbi Jesus: An Intimate Biography, (Image/Doubleday Books, New York, N.Y. 2022) kindle edition at p.13.
Salzberg, Sharon. Faith: Trusting Your Own Deepest Experience. (Riverhead Books, New York, N.Y. , 2003) kindle edition, at p.xiii.