The Great Commentary of Cornelius a Lapide: S. Luke
Symbolically, Toletus says, The Blessed Virgin rightly says my soul — 1. Because she alone had her soul in her own power, and was mistress over it, because she possessed it in patience, having dominion over all its affections and passions. But we do not possess our souls, because we are ourselves possessed by anger, pride, concupiscence or some other like passion. 2. Because she had wholly delivered up her soul to her Son ; and those things which belonged to her Son were hers also. Whence her soul having been delivered up to her Son returned entirely to her own power, and she truly calls it my soul. 3. On account of her loving affection for it; for the more any one loves God, the more he loves his own soul. Since, therefore, the Blessed Virgin loved God chiefly above all men, and had never committed any sin, she loved her own soul very greatly. And that which we love, on account of our love for it we call our own. She therefore who so loved her own soul, truly called it her own.
And my spirit hath rejoiced. Exultavit. The Blessed Virgin, admiring the divine power, holiness, justice, benignity of the Spirit of God incarnate in her, exults and leaps and sings for joy. Euthymius (in Ps. 9) says, “Exultation is, as it were, an intensified joy, which causes the heart to leap up vehemently with excess of joy, and to be raised on high.” Cajetan also says, " Exultation is an overflowing joy, which breaks forth, modestly however and seriously, in the external signs of gesticulation, singing, and jubilation.”
There is an allusion here to Isaiah lxi. 10, I will greatly rejoice in the Lord; and my soul shall be joyful in my God ; and still more to the words of Anna, 1 Sam. ii. 1., My heart rejoiceth in the Lord, &c., for as Anna, who was barren, rejoiced in conceiving Samuel by the miraculous help of God, so the Blessed Virgin rejoiced in conceiving Emmanuel (of whom Samuel was a type) by the power of the Holy Spirit.
S. Augustine, writing on the Magnificat, shows that the Virgin here does two things : first, she praises the goodness and mercy of God, as in the preceding verse she had praised His power and majesty ; secondly, she pours forth the expression of the sweetness and delight which she had received in the conception of her Son ; and in this he says that the Mother of God imitated the angels, who in heaven perform these two things, viz., meditate on the incomprehensible majesty of God, and enjoy His ineffable goodness and sweetness ; and they so admire them as to rejoice in and love them. His words are, “Thou hast seen His majesty, thou hast tasted His sweetness ; therefore that which thou hast received inwardly, thou hast poured forth abroad, and thou hast rejoiced in His justice. My spirit hath rejoiced ; the soul magnifies ; the spirit rejoices. In God my Saviour : the word God denotes His power; the word Saviour (or salvation) denotes His mercy. For these are two things which the spirits of angels and saints in that fountain of good drink in by eternal contemplation ; viz., the incomprehensible Majesty of God, and His ineffable goodness; the one of which produces a sacred fear, and the other love ; they venerate God for His majesty; they love Him for His goodness; so that love being joined with reverential fear may not be lost, and fear being joined with love may not have torment”
Lastly, as in the conception of the Word the very highest of blessings was bestowed upon the Virgin, so she experienced the very highest exaltation on account of it, so that her spirit seemed to leap forth for joy from her body, and to hasten forth towards God; and perhaps it would have done so, had not God by His power kept it in her body. For when she died several years after, she died not of sickness, but of love, joy, and the desire of seeing her Son, as Suarez and other theologians think. Moreover this exaltation , Albertus says, was not transient, but remained as a habit through the whole of her life. He adds, that on account of her possessing this continual exultation in God, she was above all entirely dead to the world and to this mortal life ; so that her life was always hid with Christ in God, and being present in the angelic court she dwelt in the sanctuary of God, and she could say in a more excellent manner than Paul or any other creature, “I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.” Gal. ii. 20.
My Spirit . That is, my soul, as Euthymius and others say; as if my Spirit hath rejoiced, &c., were the same as my soul doth magnify , &c. But the opinion of Toletus and others is better, who think that the spirit is more than the soul ; wherefore by the soul they understand the intellect, and by the spirit the will. More simply, by the soul you may understand the lower part of the soul, which regards natural objects; by the spirit the superior part, which beholds spiritual and divine things. The soul, therefore, is natural and contemplates natural things ; the spirit is supernatural and contemplates heavenly things. The spirit, therefore, signifies — 1. the mind ; 2. the vehement and fervent impulse of the mind towards joy ; 3. that this impulse is inspired by the Holy Spirit. Moreover, the Spirit, as being the superior, draws the soul and body along with it, so that they likewise may exult with joy, according to the saying in Psalm 84, “ My heart and my flesh rejoice in the living God.”
In God my Saviour. Vulgate, salutari meo; Greek, σωτῆρί μου.
The Syriac renders the words in God my Lifegiver (vivificatore meo). Who will bestow life, i.e. liberty, grace, and glory on me and all the faithful. She says my Saviour — 1. Because Jesus is my son. 2. Because He is also my Saviour, both because He has preserved me above others from all sin, and filled me with all grace, and because He has made me the mediatrix of salvation for all men, so that I am as it were the cause and the mother of salvation to all who are to be saved.
S. John of Damascus, when the hand with which he had written the defence of the worship of sacred images had been cut off by Leo the Isaurian, and had been miraculously restored by the Blessed Virgin, sang the words, " My spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour, and in His Mother, for He that is mighty hath done to me great things.”
Ver. 48. — For He hath regarded , &c. S. Augustine (super Magnificat ) says, “This is the grace of her exultation, that He hath regarded the low estate of His handmaiden : it is as if she said, because I exult in His grace, therefore my exultation is from Him ; and because I love His gifts on account of Himself, therefore I exult in Him.” S. Bernard (Serm. 57 in Cant.) says, “God regards the earth and causes it to tremble; He regards Mary and infuses grace. He hath regarded, she says, the lowliness of His handmaiden, for, behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed. These are not the words of one lamenting or fearing, but of one rejoicing. Hence He says to her, Arise quickly, my love, my dove, my fair one, and come away.”
Lowliness , or low estate. Vulgate, humilitatem ; Greek, ταπείνωσιν. Humility here properly means lowliness of estate, not the virtue of humility as opposed to pride, for this is called ταπεινοφροσύνη; for humility alone among virtues is ignorant of itself ; and he who boasts of his humility is proud, not humble.
Secondly, however, by humility may be understood the virtue itself of humility ; for on account of this God had regard to the Blessed Virgin, and chose her for His mother ; for a humble person recognises his virtues as being the gifts of God ; wherefore among them he sees also his own humility, but he ascribes it not to his own strength, but to the grace which he had received from God.
As, therefore, the Blessed Virgin here recognises her election to be the Mother of God (which was a far greater thing), so likewise she recognises that she was fittingly adorned for so great a dignity by her humility, virginity, and other virtues which had been imparted to her by God. For a humble person recognises his own low estate, his misery, his poverty, yea, even his own nothingness, and ascribes all that he is and has to God, Whose he is, and says with the Psalmist, Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto Thy Name give the glory.
Listen to S. Augustine (Serm. 2 de Assump.), “O true humility which hath borne God to men, hath given life to mortals, made new heavens, and a pure earth, and given liberty to the souls of men. The humility of Mary was made the heavenly ladder by which God came down to earth. For what does regarded mean but approved ? For many seem in the sight of men to be humble, but their humility is not regarded by the Lord. For if they were truly humble, then they would not wish to be praised by men, and their spirit would not rejoice in the world but in God." And S. Chrysostom (Hom. 2 in Ps. 50) says, "The greatest sacrifice of all is humility, for the same man who by sinning has separated himself from God, subjects himself to Him by humility, when he is converted to penitence.” And lastly S. Bernard says, “ It is humility which truth begets for us, and it has not heat, and it is humility which love forms and inflames. The latter consists in affection, the former in knowledge: by the former we learn that we are nothing, and we learn it from ourselves and our own weakness; by the latter we tread underfoot the glory of the world, and we learn it from Him Who emptied Himself, and Who, when men sought to make Him a king, fled ; but when He was sought for reproaches and for the Cross, He did not flee, but offered Himself willingly.” The Blessed Virgin had both these (humility and love) in an eminent and heroic degree.