MARY, MOTHER OF GOD

Excerpts from the Homily of His Holiness Pope Francis

Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God,  January 1, 2017

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To celebrate Mary as Mother of God and our mother at the beginning of the new year means recalling a certainty that will accompany our days: we are a people with a Mother; we are not orphans.

Mothers are the strongest antidote to our individualistic and egotistic tendencies, to our lack of openness and our indifference. . . . I have learned much from those mothers whose children are in prison, or lying in hospital beds, or in bondage to drugs, yet, come cold or heat, rain or draught, never stop fighting for what is best for them.  Or those mothers who in refugee camps, or even the midst of war, unfailingly embrace and support their children’s sufferings. . . . Where there is a mother, there is unity, there is belonging, belonging as children.

. . . We become all the more debased, inasmuch as nobody belongs to us and we belong to no one.  I debase the earth because it does not belong to me; I debase others because they do not belong to me; I debase God because I do not belong to him, and in the end we debase our very selves, since we forget who we are and the divine “family name” we bear.  The loss of the ties that bind us, so typical of our fragmented and divided culture, increases this sense of orphanhood and, as a result, of great emptiness and loneliness.  The lack of physical (and not virtual) contact is cauterizing our hearts (cf. Laudato Si’, 49) and making us lose the capacity for tenderness and wonder, for pity and compassion.  Spiritual orphanhood makes us forget what it means to be children, grandchildren, parents, grandparents, friends and believers.  It makes us forget the importance of playing, of singing, of a smile, of rest, of gratitude.

. . . Celebrating the Holy Mother of God reminds us that we have a Mother.  We are not orphans.  We have a Mother.  Together let us all confess this truth.  I invite you to acclaim it three times,  like the faithful of Ephesus: Holy Mother of God, Holy Mother of God, Holy Mother of God.