Spending time this Advent with Mary, and women in general, we can discover women are truthful. We hear Mary sing a song from the Gospel of Luke, the Magnificat. The Magnificat is the classic rendition of speaking truth to power, but, since Mary is power, it is really about speaking truth to control, speaking truth to the treacherous. In the Magnificat the treacherous are “rulers on their thrones,” who truthtellers “remove” while they “lift up the lowly.” They are “the rich,” who truthtellers “send empty away,” while they “fill the hungry with good things.”
Truthtellers, from Mary on, risk speaking the truth to the treacherous, for example, a current treacherous ruler with treacherous cronies and supporters. They have cast down the lowly and sent the poor empty away while they have filled themselves with bad things. Many of the treacherous call themselves ‘Christian,’ but they betray the mother of Christ and her Magnificat. Her testimony to the lowly and her rebuke of the rulers who make them so, reverberates through all generations, including this one. Her testimony is not only for a treacherous political party but for a treacherous empire. No matter the party, the U.S. Empire will always cast down the lowly and send the poor empty away because it will always fill its treacherous with bad things. How is this empire’s nearly 1 trillion dollars in military treachery even to be considered? The 1 trillion dollars can be considered as free health care for all people living in the U.S., AND as healthy nutrition and plentiful food for all, AND as clean renewable energy for every home, AND as a refurbished infrastructure, AND rural hospitals, AND free college, AND free child care, AND community housing programs, AND improved primary education, AND so much more. Instead, 1 trillion dollars is weapons for the treacherous in the Pentagon’s treacherous war departments which includes the National Intelligence Agency. The Agency takes health care, food, clean energy, rural hospitals, and so much more away from the people and bestows it on its own 17 war departments, including the CIA. It is the same CIA whose treacherous rulers and staff tortured human beings at Abu Ghraib under President Bush and killed innocents in drone attacks under President Obama. The CIA torture and drone programs were staffed and supported by Avril Haines. It is the same Avril Haines just named by President-elect Biden to be the first woman ruler of the National Intelligence Agency. At her nomination Avril Haines betrayed Mary and she betrayed the truth of Mary’s Magnificat. Ms. Haines also betrayed African American civil rights truthteller Bayard Rustin, who first coined the phrase ‘truth to power’ Ms. Haines spoke. Ms. Haines lied when she said, “You know I have never shied away from speaking truth to power.” But of course she has consistently shied away from speaking truth for Ms. Haines has been one of the treacherous. She has been a rich warmaker who has sent the poor peacemakers empty away. Feminism is a betrayal of all women when it is but an augmentation of Militarism. The world does not need more women joining Militarism’s ranks of the treacherous. It needs more women and more men speaking truth to control, to the treacherous, as Mary did in her Magnificat.
“It is possible and imperative that we learn A brave and startling truth… When we release our fingers From fists of hostility… When we let the rifles fall from our shoulders… When land mines of death have been removed… When religious ritual is not perfumed By the incense of burning flesh… We, this people, on this minuscule and kithless globe Who reach daily for the bomb, the blade and the dagger Yet who petition in the dark for tokens of peace… In whose mouths abide cankerous words… Yet out of those same mouths Come songs of such exquisite sweetness That the heart falters in its labor And the body is quieted into awe… We, this people… Have the power to fashion for this earth A climate where every man and every woman Can live freely… We must confess that we are the possible We are the miraculous, the true wonder of this world.” (A Brave and Startling Truth – Maya Angelou)
Prayer: Spirit, may we be magnificent speakers of truth.
Question: How am I complicit with the treachery of this empire and when have I spoken truth to its treacherous ones?
December 13, 2020 Gospel John 1:6-8, 19-28 Third Sunday in Advent