Feast of Mary Mother of God
Prayer for peace in the world and for the end of every war
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Homily
The liturgy invites us to look at Mary, to celebrate and worship her as the Mother of God. Seven days have passed since Christmas when we looked upon a small child and, in so doing, upon all the little and weak children of this world. Today the Church also feels the need to look upon Mary and celebrate her. It does us well to stress that when we contemplate her we do not find her alone. As soon as the shepherds arrived in Bethlehem, they “found Mary and Joseph and the child” (v. 16). It is beautiful to imagine the baby Jesus no longer in the manger, but in the arms of Mary: she shows him to the humble shepherds and continues to show him to the humble disciples of every era. The image of Mary with Jesus on her lap or in her arms is one of the most familiar and tender images of the mystery of the Incarnation. According to the tradition of the Oriental Church, the relationship between the Mother and the Son is so strong that there are no images of Mary without Jesus. She exists for her Son, and her responsibility is to give birth to him and show him to the world. This is the icon of Mary, the mother of Jesus, as well as the image of both the Church and every believer: to embrace the Lord affectionately and to show him to the world. Just as the shepherds, who departed from the manger glorifying and praising the Lord, so too must today’s believers, with the same energy and enthusiasm, leave the liturgy and enter into the New Year with the same joy and of the shepherds after meeting Mary and her Son. If someone were to write about the Christians of today in the same way that the Evangelist wrote about the shepherds, it would be a great consolation: “All who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them” (v. 18). Unfortunately, the people of our cities are amazed by other things! Perhaps we should ask ourselves if there are “shepherds” (and I am not referring only to priests - every believer is in his or her way a “pastor”) who know how to communicate to the people of our cities the joy of meeting the Child.
That the Church, on the first day of the year, gathers together in prayer to invoke peace is by now a well-established tradition. The pope, with his message, continues to exhort all believers and all people of good will to walk along the paths of justice and peace. We know, however, that peace is a gift that comes from above, a fruit of the Spirit of love that works in the hearts of men and women. May the Spirit of the Lord come and transform the hearts of believers so that their hard hearts may be softened before the Child’s weakness. May the Spirit transform the hearts of all in our cities and our countries so that hatred, jealousy, slander, injustice and indifference may be dispersed and solidarity may grow. May the Spirit transform the heart of all in our country, so that it may not be crossed by individualism, single-interest groups and crime May the Spirit illumine all minds so that forgiveness, mercy and a sense of the common good may abound. May the Spirit transform the heart of the nations and peoples at war so that the violent spirits may be disarmed and the peace-workers be strengthened. May the Spirit transform the hearts of the rich peoples so that they may not be blind to the needs of the poor peoples and may they rather compete in generosity. May the Spirit transform the heart of nations so that they may abandon the way of violence and set the poor upon the path of development. May the Spirit transform the heart of every man and woman so that they may rediscover the face of the one God, father of all.
Prayer is the heart of the life of the Community of Sant'Egidio and is its absolute priority. At the end of the day, every the Community of Sant'Egidio, large or small, gathers around the Lord to listen to his Word. The Word of God and the prayer are, in fact, the very basis of the whole life of the Community. The disciples cannot do other than remain at the feet of Jesus, as did Mary of Bethany, to receive his love and learn his ways (Phil. 2:5).
So every evening, when the Community returns to the feet of the Lord, it repeats the words of the anonymous disciple: " Lord, teach us how to pray". Jesus, Master of prayer, continues to answer: "When you pray, say: Abba, Father". It is not a simple exhortation, it is much more. With these words Jesus lets the disciples participate in his own relationship with the Father. Therefore in prayer, the fact of being children of the Father who is in heaven, comes before the words we may say. So praying is above all a way of being! That is to say we are children who turn with faith to the Father, certain that they will be heard.
Jesus teaches us to call God "Our Father". And not simply "Father" or "My Father". Disciples, even when they pray on their own, are never isolated nor they are orphans; they are always members of the Lord's family.
In praying together, beside the mystery of being children of God, there is also the mystery of brotherhood, as the Father of the Church said: "You cannot have God as father without having the church as mother". When praying together, the Holy Spirit assembles the disciples in the upper room together with Mary, the Lord's mother, so that they may direct their gaze towards the Lord's face and learn from Him the secret of his Heart.
The Communities of Sant'Egidio all over the world gather in the various places of prayer and lay before the Lord the hopes and the sufferings of the tired, exhausted crowds of which the Gospel speaks ( Mat. 9: 3-7 ), In these ancient crowds we can see the huge masses of the modern cities, the millions of refugees who continue to flee their countries, the poor, relegated to the very fringe of life and all those who are waiting for someone to take care of them. Praying together includes the cry, the invocation, the aspiration, the desire for peace, the healing and salvation of the men and women of this world. Prayer is never in vain; it rises ceaselessly to the Lord so that anguish is turned into hope, tears into joy, despair into happiness, and solitude into communion. May the Kingdom of God come soon among people!
For the sick, in memory of the dead, for peace
