Everything turns upside down

She is just a teenage girl from a small town.

And suddenly she is at the very center of God's plan for the universe.

The amazement of the Blessed Virgin Mary is quite evident in today's Gospel (Luke 1:46-56): in the exultant words of her Magnificat.

...he has looked upon his lowly servant.

From this day all generations will call me blessed:
the Almighty has done great things for me,
and holy is his Name.

A little later, as she reflects on the mercy of God, she observes how the Lord turns the ways of the world upside down.

He has shown the strength of his arm,
and has scattered the proud in their conceit.

He has cast down the mighty from their thrones
and has lifted up the lowly.

He has filled the hungry with good things,
and the rich he has sent away empty.

Sometimes things happen in our lives that seem to turn our little corners of the universe upside down.

Yet, like Mary, if we keep the Lord as the center of our lives, no matter what happens, no matter how the world may spin and churn around us, we will be eternally secure and internally peaceful in the tender, unconquerable mercy of our God.