Apologies for the blog gap, our blogger has been on the move!
This past weekend, Pope Francis consecrated the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. this was a principle celebration within the Year of Faith when the Church gathers around Mary as the model of faith. The homily of Pope Francis is a beautiful catechesis on Mary, the Mother of Jesus
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
This event of the
Year of Faith is devoted to Mary, the Mother of Christ and the Mother of the
Church, our Mother. The statue of Our Lady which has come from Fatima helps us
to feel her presence in our midst. It is a fact: Mary always brings us to
Jesus. She is a woman of faith, a true believer. But we can ask: What was
Mary’s faith like?
1. The first
aspect of her faith is this: Mary’s faith unties the knot of sin (cf. Lumen
Gentium, 56). What does that mean? The Fathers of the Second Vatican Council took
up a phrase of Saint Irenaeus, who states that "the knot of Eve’s
disobedience was untied by the obedience of Mary; what the virgin Eve bound by
her unbelief, the Virgin Mary loosened by her faith" (Adversus Haereses,
III, 22, 4).
The
"knot" of disobedience, the "knot" of unbelief. When
children disobey their parents, we can say that a little "knot" is
created. This happens if the child acts with an awareness of what he or she is
doing, especially if there is a lie involved. At that moment, they break trust
with their parents. You know how frequently this happens! Then the relationship
with their parents needs to be purified of this fault; the child has to ask
forgiveness so that harmony and trust can be restored. Something of the same
sort happens in our relationship with God. When we do not listen to him, when
we do not follow his will, we do concrete things that demonstrate our lack of
trust in him – for that is what sin is – and a kind of knot is created deep
within us. These knots take away our peace and serenity. They are dangerous,
since many knots can form a tangle which gets more and more painful and
difficult to undo.
But we know one
thing: nothing is impossible for God’s mercy! Even the most tangled knots are
loosened by his grace. And Mary, whose "yes" opened the door for God
to undo the knot of the ancient disobedience, is the Mother who patiently and
lovingly brings us to God, so that he can untangle the knots of our soul by his
fatherly mercy. We all have some of these knots and we can ask in our heart of
hearts: What are the knots in my life? "Father, my knots cannot be
undone!" It is a mistake to say anything of the sort! All the knots of our
heart, every knot of our conscience, can be undone. Do I ask Mary to help me
trust in God’s mercy, to undo those knots, to change? She, as a woman of faith,
will surely tell you: "Get up, go to the Lord: he understands you".
And she leads us by the hand as a Mother, our Mother, to the embrace of our
Father, the Father of mercies.
2. A second aspect
is that Mary’s faith gave human flesh to Jesus. As the Council says:
"Through her faith and obedience, she gave birth on earth to the very Son
of the Father, without knowing man but by the overshadowing of the Holy
Spirit" (Lumen Gentium, 63). This was a point on which the Fathers of the
Church greatly insisted: Mary first conceived Jesus in faith and then in the
flesh, when she said "yes" to the message God gave her through the
angel. What does this mean? It means that God did not want to become man by bypassing
our freedom; he wanted to pass through Mary’s free assent, through her
"yes". He asked her: "Are you prepared to do this?" And she
replied: "Yes".
But what took
place most singularly in the Virgin Mary also takes place within us,
spiritually, when we receive the word of God with a good and sincere heart and
put it into practice. It is as if God takes flesh within us; he comes to dwell
in us, for he dwells in all who love him and keep his word. It is not easy to
understand this, but really, it is easy to feel it in our heart.
Do we think that
Jesus’ incarnation is simply a past event which has nothing to do with us
personally? Believing in Jesus means giving him our flesh with the humility and
courage of Mary, so that he can continue to dwell in our midst. It means giving
him our hands, to caress the little ones and the poor; our feet, to go forth
and meet our brothers and sisters; our arms, to hold up the weak and to work in
the Lord’s vineyard, our minds, to think and act in the light of the Gospel;
and especially to offer our hearts to love and to make choices in accordance
with God’s will. All this happens thanks to the working of the Holy Spirit. And
in this way we become instruments in God’s hands, so that Jesus can act in the
world through us.
3. The third
aspect is Mary’s faith as a journey. The Council says that Mary "advanced
in her pilgrimage of faith" (ibid., 58). In this way she precedes us on
this pilgrimage, she accompanies and sustains us.
How was Mary’s
faith a journey? In the sense that her entire life was to follow her Son: he –
Jesus – is the way, he is the path! To press forward in faith, to advance in
the spiritual pilgrimage which is faith, is nothing other than to follow Jesus;
to listen to him and be guided by his words; to see how he acts and to follow
in his footsteps; to have his same sentiments. And what are these sentiments of
Jesus? Humility, mercy, closeness to others, but also a firm rejection of
hypocrisy, duplicity and idolatry. The way of Jesus is the way of a love which
is faithful to the end, even unto sacrificing one’s life; it is the way of the
cross. The journey of faith thus passes through the cross. Mary understood this
from the beginning, when Herod sought to kill the newborn Jesus. But then this
experience of the cross became deeper when Jesus was rejected. Mary was always
with Jesus, she followed Jesus in the midst of the crowds and she heard all the
gossip and the nastiness of those who opposed the Lord. And she carried this
cross! Mary’s faith encountered misunderstanding and contempt. When Jesus’
"hour" came, the hour of his passion, when Mary’s faith was a little
flame burning in the night, a little light flickering in the darkness. Through
the night of Holy Saturday, Mary kept watch. Her flame, small but bright,
remained burning until the dawn of the resurrection. And when she received word
that the tomb was empty, her heart was filled with the joy of faith: Christian
faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Faith always brings us to
joy, and Mary is the Mother of joy! May she teach us to take the path of joy,
to experience this joy! That was the high point – this joy, this meeting of
Jesus and Mary, and we can imagine what it was like. Their meeting was the high
point of Mary’s journey of faith, and that of the whole Church. What is our
faith like? Like Mary, do we keep it burning even at times of difficulty, in
moments of darkness? Do I feel the joy of faith?
This evening,
Mother, we thank you for our faith, the faith of a strong and humble woman; we
renew our entrustment to you, Mother of our faith. Amen.
Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us.
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