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The desire to be able to welcome Our Lady, through whom to find God, the invitation to care for others and the hope of a rebirth for all humanity. These are the indications of the Pope to the faithful, in the homily for the solemnity of Mary Most Holy Mother of God, read by the Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, who presided over the mass instead of Francis, who was forced to rest due to to sciatica.
Francesca Sabatinelli – Vatican City
Bless, be born and find: these are the three verbs of today’s liturgy, of which the Pope, in the first homily of the year, on the occasion of the feast of the Mother of God and on the occasion of the 54th World Day of the Peace, give the faithful the ‘interpretation. The blessing, Francesco explains, is not intended to be a pious exhortation, but a specific request:
And it is important that even today the priests bless the People of God, without tiring; and that all the faithful are also bearers of blessings, they bless. The Lord knows that we need to be blessed: the first thing he did after creation was to say good about everything and say very good about us.
World polluted by slander and bad thoughts
The blessing of God enters the life of everyone every time they open their hearts to Jesus, the invitation is to welcome Mary, since it is she who “brings us God’s blessing”, through her we are blessed, but we also learn to bless, because it is Our Lady who teaches “that the blessing is received to give it”:
We too are called to bless, to say good in the name of God. The world is seriously polluted by saying bad things and thinking badly of others, of society, of ourselves. But gossip corrupts, degenerates everything, while blessing regenerates, gives strength to start over.
Women give the world a future
Nacer is the second verb. What the Bible tells us is that the Son of God “was born of a woman” like men, “after nine months in the womb of his Mother, from whom humanity allowed itself to be woven.” It is from that moment that “Mary unites us to God, because in her God is linked to our flesh and has never abandoned it”, it is she who is “the bridge between us and God”:
Through Mary we find God as he wants: in tenderness, in intimacy, in the flesh. Yes, because Jesus is not an abstract idea, he is concrete, incarnate, born of a woman and grew up with patience. Women know this patient concretion: men are often abstract and want something immediately; women are concrete and know how to patiently weave the threads of life. How many women, how many mothers in this way give birth and are reborn, giving the world a future!
It will be a good year if we take care of others
The teaching of Mary is that one is in the world to generate life and not to die and that “the first step to give life to what surrounds us is to love it within us.” Good comes from a heart that must be kept clean, one must “take care of the interior life, prayer”. You have to educate the heart “to care, to take care of people and things”, you have to take care of “others, the world, creation”, since it does not matter, Francisco explains, knowing people and things “if we don’t take care of them. be careful”:
This year, as we await a rebirth and new treatments, we are not neglecting the cure. Because, in addition to the vaccine for the body, the vaccine for the heart is needed: it is the cure. It will be a good year if we take care of others, as Our Lady does with us.
Give time to others
Find is the third and last verb. The shepherds found Mary, Joseph and the child, a “simple family”, in which they nevertheless found “God who is greatness in smallness, strength in tenderness.” It was an angel who called the shepherds, while it is “grace” that calls men to find a God “who is born of a woman and revolutionizes history with tenderness”, who with his forgiveness “gives birth”, whose consolation ” enlightens hope ”and whose presence“ gives irrepressible joy. ”This God is never lost from sight, because“ he is not found once and for all: he must be found every day. ”Therefore, it is not possible to remain passive, “To welcome grace, one must remain active.” This beginning of the year, thanks to Our Lady’s teaching, therefore calls us to “find time for someone”:
Time is the wealth that we all have, but we are jealous, because we want to use it only for ourselves. We must ask for the grace to find time for God and for others: for those who are alone, for those who suffer, for those who need listening and attention. If we find time to give, we will be amazed and happy, like shepherds. May Our Lady, who brought God through time, help us to give our time.
