HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS
Vatican Basilica
Thursday, 1st January 2015
Thursday, 1st January 2015
Today
we are reminded of the words of blessing which Elizabeth
spoke to the Virgin Mary: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed
is the fruit of your womb! And why has this happened to me, that the mother of
my Lord comes to me?” (Lk1:42-43).
This
blessing is in continuity with the priestly blessing which God
had given to Moses to be passed on to Aaron and to all the people: “The Lord
bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be
gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace”
(Num 6:24-26). In celebrating the Solemnity of Mary Most Holy, the
Holy Mother of God, the Church reminds us that Mary, more than anyone else,
received this blessing. In her the blessing finds fulfilment, for no other
creature has ever seen God’s face shine upon it as did Mary. She gave a human
face to the eternal Word, so that all of us can contemplate him.
In
addition to contemplating God’s face, we can also praise him and glorify him,
like the shepherds who came away from Bethlehem with a song of thanksgiving
after seeing the Child and his young mother (cf. Lk 2:16). The
two were together, just as they were together at Calvary, because Christ
and his mother are inseparable: there is a very close relationship between
them, as there is between every child and his or her mother. The flesh (caro)
of Christ – which, as Tertullian says, is the hinge (cardo) of our
salvation – was knit together in the womb of Mary (cf. Ps 139:13).
This inseparability is also clear from the fact that Mary, chosen beforehand to
be the Mother of the Redeemer, shared intimately in his entire mission,
remaining at her Son’s side to the end on Calvary.
Mary
is so closely united to Jesus because she received from him the knowledge of
the heart, the knowledge of faith, nourished by her experience as a mother and
by her close relationship with her Son. The Blessed Virgin is the woman of
faith who made room for God in her heart and in her plans; she is the believer
capable of perceiving in the gift of her Son the coming of that “fullness of
time”(Gal 4:4) in which God, by choosing the humble path of human
existence, entered personally into the history of salvation. That is why Jesus
cannot be understood without his Mother.
Likewise
inseparable are Christ and the Church – because the Church and Mary are always
together and this is precisely the mystery of womanhood in the ecclesial
community – and the salvation accomplished by Jesus cannot be understood
without appreciating the motherhood of the Church. To separate Jesus from the
Church would introduce an “absurd dichotomy”, as Blessed Paul VI wrote (Evangelii Nuntiandi, 16). It is not possible “to love Christ but
without the Church, to listen to Christ but not the Church, to belong to Christ
but outside the Church” (ibid.). For the Church is herself God’s great
family, which brings Christ to us. Our faith is not an abstract doctrine or
philosophy, but a vital and full relationship with a person: Jesus Christ, the
only-begotten Son of God who became man, was put to death, rose from the dead
to save us, and is now living in our midst. Where can we encounter him? We
encounter him in the Church, in our hierarchical, Holy Mother Church. It is the
Church which says today: “Behold the Lamb of God”; it is the Church, which
proclaims him; it is in the Church that Jesus continues to accomplish his acts
of grace which are the sacraments.
This,
the Church’s activity and mission, is an expression of her motherhood. For she
is like a mother who tenderly holds Jesus and gives him to everyone with joy
and generosity. No manifestation of Christ, even the most mystical, can ever be
detached from the flesh and blood of the Church, from the historical
concreteness of the Body of Christ. Without the Church, Jesus Christ ends up as
an idea, a moral teaching, a feeling. Without the Church, our relationship with
Christ would be at the mercy of our imagination, our interpretations, our
moods.
Dear
brothers and sisters! Jesus Christ is the blessing for every
man and woman, and for all of humanity. The Church, in giving us Jesus, offers
us the fullness of the Lord’s blessing. This is precisely the mission of the
people of God: to spread to all peoples God’s blessing made flesh in Jesus
Christ. And Mary, the first and most perfect disciple of Jesus, the first and
most perfect believer, the model of the pilgrim Church, is the one who opens
the way to the Church’s motherhood and constantly sustains her maternal mission
to all mankind. Mary’s tactful maternal witness has accompanied the Church from
the beginning. She, the Mother of God, is also the Mother of the Church, and
through the Church, the mother of all men and women, and of every people.
May
this gentle and loving Mother obtain for us the Lord’s blessing upon the entire
human family. On this, the World Day of Peace, we especially implore her
intercession that the Lord may grant peace in our day; peace in
hearts, peace in families, peace among the nations. The message for the Day of Peace this year is “No Longer Slaves, but Brothers
and Sisters”. All of us are called to be free, all are called to be sons
and daughters, and each, according to his or her own responsibilities, is
called to combat modern forms of enslavement. From every people, culture and
religion, let us join our forces. May he guide and sustain us, who, in order to
make us all brothers and sisters, became our servant.
Let
us look to Mary, let us contemplate the Holy Mother of God. I suggest that you
all greet her together, just like those courageous people of Ephesus, who cried
out before their pastors when they entered Church: “Holy Mother of God!” What a
beautiful greeting for our Mother. There is a story – I do not know if it is
true – that some among those people had clubs in their hands, perhaps to make
the Bishops understand what would happen if they did not have the courage to
proclaim Mary “Mother of God”! I invite all of you, without clubs, to stand up
and to greet her three times with this greeting of the early Church: “Holy
Mother of God!”
