OMELIE / Omelie EN

01 gen 2025

01/01/2025 - Mary Most Holy, Mother of God

01/01/2025 – The Most Holy Mary, Mother of God

Reading 1 NUM 6, 22-27 Psalm 66 Reading 2 GAL 4, 4-7 Gospel LK 2, 16-21

The shepherds of Bethleem today teach us to listen, obey, speak up, share. They listen to the pretty unusual voices of the angels, with unusual readiness they obey their revelation, they are not ashamed to repeat what they have heard and to talk about what they have seen, they find joy in sharing among themselves what they have experienced.

The shepherds are simple people, without culture, without safety net, without glory in the world, pushed aside, humiliated, often despised. This is why they have been chosen by God to be the first, nay, the only ones, to hear the choirs of angels and become those who shared and divulged the content of their song.

They are the first to give joy to the Mother of God, confirming the things she already knew, but which she had no tangible proof of, coming from recent events. She had to endure sufferings and rejections which could have become a temptation for her faith. Those, like the shepherds, who enjoy God’s works, become a source of joy for many other men. The shepherds are talking joyfully and Mary listens, silently. How beautiful is this silence of Mary’s!

“Mary kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart”. It is the Mother of the Child we were waiting for, we welcomed, we will observe all the actions of and will listen to all the words of. She is the Mother, only the Mother. We will never put her in His place: she herself would not want that. On the other hand, if we are welcoming Him, we are welcoming her as well. Who knows how many things she has to tell us, born in that silence which started in front of the shepherds.

It is good for us to be in her company. We will learn how to love Jesus, how to look at the steps He takes and listen to His Words with a pure, selfless and true love. He will feel loved by us if we love Him the way His Mother is loving Him!

Today is the day in which the Son is welcomed among His people, the people of God, through the suffering of the circumcision. His Mother, who is suffering alongside Him, becomes in this way the Mother of all His people. And this is another reason for loving her and looking at how seriously she takes the angel’s words who, regarding the Son, had told her: “He will be holy and called the Son of God”.

That Child who is weighing in her arms and sucks the milk she produces, and cries for the operation done to Him, is the Son of God.

He is the Son of God: I have to welcome Him then as God, I must give Him the love we give God, the adoration and the attention God deserves, even if He is a child. And she is the Mother of the Son of God. So, she is the Mother of God. She remains always humble, as she had sung in Elisabeth’s home, and she still keeps silent. She is the Mother of God, the God who is there, a baby in her arms, the child who is fulfilling the prophets’ promises. They had announced Him “prince of peace”.

How will a child be able to establish peace? They who welcome Him and love Him receive peace, and become someone who operate peace. Their peace is the true one, because it enters the man’s heart and from his heart comes to transform and heal all human relationships. Without Him, peace does not exist. Big promises of peace, signed by powerful men, remain just beautiful words unless they meet Him, the prince of peace.

Let us do so: let us welcome Jesus to give meaning to the men’s desires and the promises they unknowingly make today, the first of a new year. It will be a year of grace and true peace only where Jesus will be able to rule every day.

Come, Lord Jesus: if our hands are still too rough and dirty to stroke You, come anyway, there are those of your Mother to welcome You on our behalf. Come! And stay!