However, through such terrible pain and emptiness, we experience mercy. What feels like death is actually the first opportunity to surrender, enabling those initial stirrings of recovery. The Steps themselves are a series of smaller “bottoms,” places where we come to accept our limitations and weaknesses and are able to surrender to God. Therefore, we need not fear these “bottoms.” Perhaps we can even learn to welcome their darkness, for from them we can find Jesus. As Mary proclaims, He does not wait for strength, clarity, or even sobriety, but comes all the way down into our brokenness. From these places, He lifts us, loosens what binds us, and slowly releases us from the bondage of self. He fills us with good things. And we realize that the Magnificat continues to unfold in our own recovery. Again and again, we, the lowly, are lifted. We, the hungry, are filled. And what we once feared as the end for us becomes, in Jesus, the beginning of a new life.
Reflection Questions
- How has recovery helped you recognize the ways you were “proud,” “mighty,” and “rich” in self? Mary points not to herself but to the Lord. How can the story of your “bottom” magnify the Lord to others in recovery?
- Mary’s song celebrates God lifting the lowly and filling the hungry. Are you willing to embrace hunger and emptiness this Advent? How might the Steps help you do this?
Daily Mass Readings
First Reading: 1 Samuel 1:24-28
Responsorial Psalm: 1 Samuel 2:1, 4-5, 6-7, 8abcd
Gospel: Luke 1:46-56
Reflection by Ann A.