Explore "My Spirit Rejoices" by Dietrich Bonhoeffer on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
London, Third Sunday in Advent, December 17, 1933.
The verses just before the text for this Sunday in Advent describe the visit between Mary, with Jesus in her womb, and Elizabeth, her aged cousin, who also is pregnant with the one who is to be John the Baptist. Elizabeth tells Mary that on hearing her greeting, "The child in my womb leapt for joy" (Luke 1: 44). Mary responds by bursting forth with a song of praise. These two women of strong faith, neither of whom was normally expected to be pregnant, were quite ready to accept the miracle and lift up their voices joyfully. Bonhoeffer points out what many women in oppressed countries, like Palestine in Mary's time and in our time, have noticed how revolutionary Mary's words are, describing how society as we know it will be turned upside down and the oppressed will be liberated. She echoes prophetic women of the Old Testament: Deborah (Judges 4 and 5), Judith, who took a murder upon herself to liberate her people, (Judith 8-16 in the Apocrypha), and Miriam (Exodus 15: 20-21). But for Bonhoeffer, the revolution could begin anytime, in the way we celebrate Christmas, if we are willing to see as God sees.