OMELIE / Omelie EN

01 gen 2022

01/01/2022 – Solemnity of Mary Mother of God - C

01/01/2022 – Solemnity of Mary Mother of God - C

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

The shepherds in Bethlehem today are teaching us to listen, obe, speak, share and praise. They listen to the unusual voices of the angels, with uncommon readiness obey their revelation, they are not ashamed of repeating what they have heard and of relating what they have seen, they find joy in sharing among themselves the things they have experienced. The shepherds are simple people, not learned, without certainties, with no dreams of greatness, without glory in the world. This is why they have been chosen by God to be the ones to first hear the songs of the angels and to become the ones to faithfully repeat their tunes. They are the first ones to delight the Mother of God, confirming for her the things she already knew, but regarding which she had no proof coming from real happenings. She had to face sufferings and rejection, and these things could have become temptations for her faith. They who, as the shepherds, enjoy God’s works, become a source of joy for many other men. The shepherds talk, joyfully, and Mary listens silently. How beautiful is Mary’s silence!

“Mary kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart”. She is the Mother of the Child we were waiting for, we have welcomed, whose we will observe all the steps and whose words we will listen to entirely. She is the Mother, and only the Mother. We will never put her in his place: she herself would not want that. On the other hand, if we welcome Him, we also welcome her. How many things she might be able to tell us, refined in her silence started in front of the shepherds! It is good for us to be in her company. We will learn to love Jesus, to take notice of His steps and listen to His words with a pure love, selfless and earnest. He will feel loved by us if we love Him as the Mother does.

Today is the day in which the Son is welcomed by His people, God’s people, through the suffering of circumcision. The Mother, who is suffering with Him, becomes in this way the Mother of the whole people. And this is an extra reason for loving her and looking at how seriously she takes the angel’s words who, regarding the son, has told her: “He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High”.

That baby who weights in her arms and she breastfeeds, and who is crying for what had been done to Him, is the Son of God. He is the Son of God: so I am welcoming Him as God, I give Him the love you give God, the adoration and attention God is worth of, even if He is a child. And she is God’s Son’s Mother. She, therefore, is God’s Mother. She stays always humble, as she had sung in Elisabeth’s house, and she still keeps silent. She is God’s Mother, the God who is a child in her arms, a child who is fulfilling the prophets' promises.

They had announced Him “prince of peace”. How could a baby possibly establish peace? They who welcome and love Him receive peace and become peacemakers. His peace is true, because it enters the man’s heart and comes out of their heart to transform and restore all human relationships. Without Him peace does not exist. The big promises of peace made by powerful men are only flashy words, unless they meet with Him, the prince of peace.

We are doing it: we welcome Jesus to give meaning to the men’s desires and to the promises they unknowingly make today, the first day of a new year. It will be a year of grace and true peace, in which 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 your Mother’s to welcome you in our behalf. Come! And stay!