Luke 1:52

Ver. 52. From the moral contrast between the proud and the faithful, Mary passes to a contrast of their social position, the mighty and those of low degree. The former are those who reign without that spirit of humility which is inspired by the fear of Jehovah.

The third antithesis (Luke 1:53), which is connected with the preceding, is that of suffering and prosperity. The hungry represent the class which toils for a living artisans, like Joseph and Mary; the rich are men gorged with wealth, Israelites or heathen, who, in the use they make of God's gifts, entirely forget their dependence and responsibility. The abundance which is to compensate the former certainly consists the contrast requires it of temporal enjoyments. But since this abundance is an effect of the divine blessing, it implies, as its condition, the possession of spiritual graces. For, from the Old Testament point of view, prosperity is only a snare, when it does not rest on the foundation of peace with God. And so also, the spoliation which is to befall the rich is without doubt the loss of their temporal advantages. But what makes this loss a real evil is, that it is the effect of a divine curse upon their pride.

The poetic beauty of these three verses is heightened by a crossing of the members of the three antitheses, which is substituted for the ordinary method of symmetrical parallelism. In the first contrast (Luke 1:51), the righteous occupy the first place, the proud the second; in the second, on the contrary (Luke 1:52), the mighty occupy the first place, so as to be in close connection with the proud of Luke 1:51, and the lowly the second; in the third (Luke 1:53), the hungry come first, joining themselves with the lowly of Luke 1:52, and the rich form the second member. The mind passes in this way, as it were, on the crest of a wave, from like to like, and the taste is not offended, as it would have been by a symmetrical arrangement in which the homogeneous members of the contrast occurred every time in the same order.