They Dance Alone

Luke 1:46b-55

And Mary said,

“My soul magnifies God, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, who has looked with favor on my lowliness. Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed; for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is God’s name. God’s mercy is for those who give respect from generation to generation. God has shown strength and scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. God has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly. God has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty. God has helped Israel by offering mercy, according to promises made to our ancestors, to Abraham and Sarah and to their descendants forever.”

Yes, we are back to the Mary text--the so-called, "Magnificat." I am drawn to this text more than any other part of the Christmas story because of the revolutionary words. In this birth, God has "brought down the powerful" and "lifted up the lowly."

I was reminded of this text when I heard the Sting song, "Dance Alone" played over the sound system of a store. Listen HERE

Perhaps you know the background for this song. Sting is referring to women who dance a two-person Cueca alone.

Two-person Cueca:

Here is an explanation from Emilia Aguilera:

The Widow Cueca:

Year after year a woman is dancing cueca, the Chile’s national dance . . . however she does it alone, dressed in severe black without that usual smile that accompanies this dance.
They have a picture or photo of a husband, lover, son, brother, or father that has gone missing. They are wives, mothers, and sisters of those who can no longer accompany them in the “pie de cueca” (how is called a piece of this dance) because they were arrested during the Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship (since 1973 until 1990), and decades later, they are still waiting for an answer about the whereabouts of their loved ones, at least, to mourn in peace. However, and shamefully, in my country still gives no or much less a decent answer.

Still in Chile the cueca dancing just with the company of a white handkerchief and a portrait of who should be accompanying this stomping.
 

National Day of the Disappeared Detainees
 Santiago de Chile, August 2011 by Emilia Aguilera

The "Widow Cueca:"

Rather than the beatific and beautifully renditions of the Magnificat, I sometimes wonder whether it might be sung as a heart-wrenching version:

To end this reflection on a gentler note, here is poet Joy Cowley's "Modern Magnificat:"

My soul sings in gratitude.

I’m dancing in the mystery of God.

The light of the Holy One is within me

and I am blessed, so truly blessed.

This goes deeper than human thinking.

I am filled with awe

at Love whose only condition

is to be received.

The gift is not for the proud,

for they have no room for it.

The strong and self-sufficient ones

don’t have this awareness.

But those who know their emptiness

can rejoice in Love’s fullness.

It’s the Love that we are made for,

the reason for our being.

It fills our inmost heart space

and brings to birth in us, the Holy One.

Our Advent Exploration question for today is: How do you hear the words of Mary?