[Transcript of video]

And Mary said, “My soul magnifies my God, and my spirit rejoices in you, God my Savior, for you have looked with favor on the lowliness of your servant. Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed; for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is your name. Your mercy is for those who fear you from generation to generation. You have shown strength with your arm; you have scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. You have brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; you have filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty. You have helped your servant Israel, in remembrance of your mercy, according to the promise you made to our ancestors, to Abraham and his descendants forever.”

Joy is an abiding happiness that doesn't rely on whether things are going well or going terribly. Joy is like the pilot light in the stove. It is always on, even when the stove is cold, but when it is time to roast turnips or bake the buckle, what the pilot light does not only warms the oven, it warms the kitchen. It not only warms the kitchen, it warms the whole house. Joy is dying embers banked in the stove over a cold night, and it’s their next-day fire kindled and crackling. It's the evergreen and the holly and the wintergreen berries buried in snow that the farm children dug up on the south slope. It is enduring. It is nourishing.

Joy is Hope. Joy keeps hope company in the dark and the cold. (And hope spoon-feeds joy from a small tin bowl.) Joy is peace. Joy fuels peace, it is both what makes us want to do peace in the first place, and it is our reward:

I slept and dreamt that life was joy.

I awoke and saw that life was service.

I acted and behold, service was joy. (Rabindranath Tagore)

Mary is a poor, homeless woman-child. She is both sexually suspect and exploited sexual survivor. She is nothing, has nothing in her world, no one. But Mary knows joy that is a steadfast presence with her – a presence defined by compassion, correction, rightness, rebalance. Mary's joy transforms and animates her, if not her circumstances, and then also her circumstances. A poor, homeless, sexually suspect exploited survivor woman-child delights in life for herself and with expectation of change for the world. She is distributive justice’s target audience. She is us: delivered by river and rain from our deserts, and called to action – called to carry goodness or goodness into the world through our own bodies. So that truly and fully, our joy is transposed as love, and as blessing.

The poet Jan Richardson says, You
who are
yourselves
a blessing who know
that to feed
the hungering
is to bless and to give drink
to those who thirst
is to bless. who know
the blessing
in welcoming
the stranger and giving clothes
to those
who have none. who know
to care
for the sick
is blessing and blessing
to visit
the prisoner: may the blessing
you have offered
now turn itself
toward you to welcome and to embrace you at the feast of the blessed. (Painted Prayerbook, https://paintedprayerbook.com/2011/11/15/you-who-bless/)