OMELIE / Omelie EN

26/6/2016

8th/12/2016 Immaculate Conception of the B. V. Mary

8th December 2016 Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary

1st reading Gen 3, 9-15.20 * from Psalm 97 * 2^nd reading Rom 15,4-9 * Gospel Lk 1,26-38

The first reading laid before us the reality of sin, which has put in men the sense of fear, fear of himself, fear from of others, fear of God. Apart of fear, entered to form part of a serene and peaceful living, confusion and the incapacity to dialogue. Sin is truly terrible.

We usually make the difference between mortal and venial sin, and thus we try not to alarm ourselves too much, to justify ourselves and to comfort ourselves with our own reasoning and observations. But both the one and the other, the venial which appears to be lighter and little invisible and the mortal which we consider it to be very dangerous, have the same roots. Our commitment and our fatigue to uproot it must be however constant.

The root is infact poisonous and it expands like a cloth of blood: from venial it soon arrives to be mortal. You know what it the root of sin? Adam and Eve tell us: it is the putting aside the word coming from the mouth of God, ignoring his teaching to proceed to our own reasoning. Our reasoning is based on what our feeling tells us, on what our body desires with superficiality, on the opinions dictated by our egoism. In addition, our egoism finds easily justifications and exit loopholes to our need for pleasure. The reference to ourselves, is already a sin and it produces sin. Because when we do not listen to God himself, we distance ourselves from the only wisdom which can realize in fullness our humanity with all its possibilities of harmony, communion, joy and peace.

God does not abandon man who is imposing life on himself instead of his own word, He gives him, better, gives us the possibility of hoping in that “branch” of the lady who “trounces the head” of the serpent who tempts. The tempter is symbolized like

A serpent, an image which gives us the idea of danger, the venom, its temptation wand the difficulty to defend ourselves from our thoughts and reasoning. God still loves man, his creature, even if he has succumbed to temptation. Thus, salvation comes through her, Eve, the same woman who has initiated the process of sin: from her comes also the woman which the Savior generates. The project of salvation starts immediately because God is merciful. We thus come to know the beauty of his love, and it will become easier for us to adhere to his Word. And he will present his Word in a way we never thought of, when he becomes man, one of us.

Today’s feast is beautiful and holy because it celebrates the mystery of concretization of this event. God prepares this woman who brings in herself the Word who becomes flesh. He prepares her pure and holy, but prepares here not with a magic touch. She, the woman, Mary, is like all the other women. She too has her own thoughts and thus can also be tempted by that egoism which tangles all men. But she does not succumb, and continues to repeat her obedience to the will of the Father: the love for him in her is stable. In this way she was found ready by the angel of God, ready to say her own “here I am”. “Here is the handmaid of the Lord, let it be according to your word”, it is this word which must become the absolute thing in our heart and in our mind. It is the word which converts us, makes us go out of the world dominated by the evil one, makes us enter in that kingdom in which Jesus, the Son of God, sits on the throne. This word is that which capsules with beauty the mother of Jesus. Today we honor her with the title of Immaculate: in her was found no stain, no fault which comes from sin and which keeps men prisoners, suffering and generators of suffering. In her we see only the light which comes from God, because she is obedient only to him. We love Mary, we love her for her true and persevering obedience. We can learn from her and she can be our example in every phase of our life, because she in every situation remained focused with hope and trust to the Father even when she did not understand and could not comprehend what was happening to her. We call her Immaculate, not only before she went to live with Joseph, not only when Jesus was a baby, but also when she saw that the son started to look to be independent, even when, going to Nazareth she started to unite the disciples and the women who served her, and also when the leaders started to manifest strong hostility against him

Mary is Immaculate under the cross: from her heart came no lament, no rebellion against God, rather, even she was united to the Son to offer to the Father the spirit of her only begotten Son. Mary Immaculate is our sustenance, fount of our peace and sureness, help to be faithful to God with Constance, to overcome sin which surround us and which pushes us, she is help to help us understand Jesus to our brothers and to meet him to be saved.

Immaculate Mary, rejoice for God and pray for us!