OMELIE / Omelie EN

01 gen 2018

01/01/2018 Solemnity of Mary, the Holy Mother of God 

01/01/2018 Solemnity of Mary, the Holy Mother of God 

Reading 1, Numbers 6,22-27 * Psalm 66 * Reading 2, Galatians 4,4-7 * Gospel, Luke 2,16-21

Eight days after birth, Jewish parents are supposed to have their sons cincurcumcised. With this important tradition the new-born joins the allegiance of God with His people! This costume dates back to no less than Abraham, the father of the faith of Israel! Whoever is circumcised gets the “right” to obtain the blessings given by God to the forefather, and he will then be turned towards the one who is awaited by kings and prophets! Jesus too has been circumcised! In His case circumcision acquires a fuller meaning, even better, His circumcision itself gives meaning and value to that of all others Israelites: as a matter of fact, He Himself is the blessing of Abraham and all the peoples, and it is so right because He is one of them, because He is in all and for all part of the people enjoing those promises! It is because of this Baby that the antire people is important in the eyes of God.

In this occasion He receives also His name. Mary and Joseph already know which His name is: both of them were given it in a revelation of the angel, and therefore they call Him «Jesus», that is to say «God saves», «salvation of God»! God is fulfilling the promises, that are promises of mercy and peace: this Child will fulfill the plans of God’s love!

Mary, who, thanks to the angel’s words, knows the intentions of God in his Child’s respect, silently ponders. Her son is, like all the children of the people, poor, little, in need of care and attentions, of food and affection: how can he possibly be the one who “will be king for ever and ever”? Quietly she ponders, she repeats in her heart the words she heard, she relates them to what is happening around her: the visit of the shepherds, amazed and joyful, is a small confirmation that God is working. God keeps acting in His favourite way: he started in the hidden town of Nazareth, he asked the cooperation of an obscure girl, and now he gives confirmations using the poor and insignificant sheep shepherds! Jesus will pay attention to this behavior of His Father’s and He will thank Him for this: “I bless you, Father, Lord of heaven and of earth, for hiding these things from the learned and the clever and revealing them to little children”.

Mary is almost at the very center of the attention: she is the one who is holding the Baby the shepherds are searching for. She is the one introducing Him, she is the one presenting Him to the eyes, she is the one taking care of Him. Everybody looks at Him, and we too know that he is the only, the true «Jesus», our savior. Today however we cannot forget her, the silent mother, we do not want to forget those arms holding and offering to our eyes that sweet burden, we do not want to be so ungrateful to forget that heart that lived every instant only for Him.Today we proclaim the great truth: Mary is «Mother of God»! Yes, because that Child is the incarnation of the love of God, He is God in the flesh, His Son “born of a woman, born a subject of the Law” to make us Children of God as well! While we venerate Mary as Mother of God we know we are strengthening our faith in the divinity of Jesus, and therefore we are consolidating our obedience to the Father! Mary is then still and forever handmaid of the Lord, for us! This festivity coincides with the beginning of a new year: let us welcome this as well as a gift from the Mother’s hands, in a way that we can promise to live it while offering it to her Son. Every beginning must see us concentrated on the One from whom come all good things, in order to thank Him and to be aware that we are only managers of everything, commissioned by God for His kingdom! Let us begin the new year giving thanks, then; we begin it with the meekness of the Mother, who knows that she is important only because her son is necessary to the sinful men! Us too, we are and will be important when we will be able to show something of Him to our brethren, and in this way we will make peace grow, that is to say the communion of the love coming from above!

Mary, mother of Jesus, we thank you for your silence that helps us to welcome with maturity the Son you are offering us. You will keep praying for us, in order for us to be able to offer one another the love of Jesus, that God sent for our peace!