Feast of the Immaculate Conception of Mary
Beginning of the extraordinary Holy Year of Mercy
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Homily
The feast of the Immaculate Conception, which falls on the anniversary of the closing of the Second Vatican Council, marks the beginning of the jubilee year of mercy. This liturgical feast day," Pope Francis writes in the Bull of Indiction, "recalls God’s action from the very beginning of the history of mankind. After the sin of Adam and Eve, God did not wish to leave humanity alone in the throes of evil. And so he turned his gaze to Mary, holy and immaculate in love." Today the Pope opens the "Gate of Mercy." And today we also remember the closing of the Second Vatican Council, which took place fifty years ago. By celebrating the Holy Liturgy outside of the Basilica for the first time, in St. Peter Square, Blessed Paul VI gave a visible sign of the Church’s movement out towards the world. This beginning of the Jubilee wants to encourage a new energy in mission in order to show the saving mercy of God to all.
Mary is in front of us. She, the first of the believers, was the first to be enveloped by God’s mercy not because of her merits, but indeed for grace, for mercy. The Gospel of Luke shows her in Nazareth, a village of the far periphery of the Empire. God’s gaze rested on her since her conception. Mary was born without the original sin and therefore she was preserved from the tragedy of the distance from God that marks each man and woman. She who would become the mother of the Son of God could not be wounded by the original sin.
Mary’s mystery illumines the very mystery of the Church. Just as God looked on her at the moment of her conception, God has also looked on the community of believers, as the Apostle Paul writes, "He chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love" (Eph 1:4). God chose Mary and us with her, before creation to be holy and immaculate. It is not by accident that the Apostle says, "He chose us" and not "we chose him." God spoke each of our names and we came into existence. Yes, we are first of all the fruit of God’s love; God thought of us in his heart and we came into the light. Our parents took part in this process of love. Our life began in God’s heart and we abide there forever. That is why we believe that life is holy, from the beginning and forever. The Lord never forgets our names; woe to those who want to erase them! Every man and woman is in God’s heart.
In today’s feast the Church has us contemplate how great the Lord’s love is and what marvels he is able to work through us, obviously as long as we do not betray his favour. Formed to become Jesus’ mother, Mary fully accepted her vocation. It was not easy, nor was her acceptance taken for granted. When the angel brought to her the Lord’s greeting, Mary was perplexed. She did not think highly of herself, contrary to the feelings that usually dwell in our hearts. This is the very core of original sin: pride and a sense of self-sufficiency rooted in all of us. From a heart disconnected from God arises the evil in the world.
At the words of the angel, Mary did not exalt herself. Rather, she was perplexed. So it should be for us each time we listen to the Gospel. The angel comforts Mary: "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favour with God. And now, you will conceive a son... and [you] will name him Jesus" (v. 30). To tell the truth, these words upset her even more, in part because she had not yet gone to live with Joseph. But, the angel adds, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you" (v. 35). We do not know what Mary’s thoughts were in that moment. If she says "no", then she continues tranquilly with her normal life. If she responds "yes" then her entire life is turned upside down. Mary, different from us, does not rely on her own strength, but on the Word of God. This is why she says: "Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word" (v. 38). Mary, the first to be loved by God, is also the first to answer, "yes" to the call the angel proclaimed to her. Today she stands before us, before the eyes of our hearts, so that by contemplating her we can imitate her and we, too, may sing of the love the Lord has poured in our hearts.
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
