First Mass of the year: “Mary teaches us to find time for God and others”

Argentina



[ad_1]

On the occasion of the solemnity of Saint Mary, Mother of God, during the first Mass of the year, Cardinal Pietro Parolin presided over the Eucharistic celebration in Saint Peter’s Basilica, replacing Pope Francis who did not may have been present due to the discomfort of sciatica. The cardinal delivered the Pontiff’s homily while reflecting on three verbs which highlight the readings of the liturgy of the day and which are accomplished in the Mother of God: “to bless, to be born and to find”.

Vatican City

January 1, 2021, on the occasion of the solemnity of Saint Mary Mother of God and the World Day of Peace; Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin was responsible for presiding over Mass in the Vatican Basilica at 10 a.m. local Rome time, replacing Pope Francis who was unable to attend due to complaints of sciatica.

Cardinal Parolin read the homily of the Pontiff which underlines three striking verbs in today’s readings and which are fulfilled in the Mother of God: bless, be born and find.

Bless

Regarding the first verb, to bless, the cardinal indicated that today we celebrate the Son of God, the Blessed by nature, “who comes to us through the Mother, the blessed by grace”:

“Mary thus brings us the blessing of God. Where she is, Jesus is coming. That is why we must welcome her, as Saint Elizabeth, who brought her to her home, immediately recognized the blessing and said: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!” (Lk 1,42), which are the words that we repeat in the Hail Mary “

In this sense, the cardinal explained that we too are called to bless, “to speak well in the name of God”.

“The world is severely contaminated by saying bad things and thinking badly about others, about society, about themselves. But the curse corrupts, it causes everything to degenerate, while the blessing regenerates itself, it gives the strength to start over. Let us ask the Mother of God for the grace to be joyful bearers of God’s blessing for others, as she is for us “

Be born

The second important verb in the homily is to be born.

“Saint Paul notices that the Son of God was“ born of a woman ”(Ga 4,4). In short, it tells us a wonderful thing: that the Lord was born like us. He does not appear as an adult, but as a child; He did not come into the world alone, but from a woman, after nine months in the womb of the Mother, to whom he allowed to form his own humanity. The heart of the Lord began to beat in Mary, the God of life took oxygen from her. Since then, Mary has united us to God, for in her God has been united to our flesh forever. Mary – liked to say Saint Francis – “made the Lord of Majesty our brother” (Saint Bonaventure, Legenda major, 9,3) “

In this sense, Parolin underlined that through Mary we find God as He wills: “in tenderness, in intimacy, in the flesh. Yes, because Jesus is not an abstract idea, he is concrete, incarnate, born of woman and growing patiently. “Likewise, the Blessed Mother of God teaches us that the first step in giving life to what surrounds us is to love it within us:

“This year, while awaiting recovery and new treatments, let’s not neglect care. Because, in addition to the vaccine for the body, we need the vaccine for the heart, which is care. It will be a good year if we take care of others, as Our Lady does with us “

Find

The third verb is to find.

Just as the shepherds found the newborn Son of God because they were called by an angel, so too can we find God because we have been called by his grace.

At this point, the Cardinal Secretary of State stressed that although we have already found God, we must not lose sight of him: “The Lord, in fact, is not found once and for all: we must find him every day”.

Before concluding, the cardinal raised a question to reflect on … And what should we find at the start of the year?

“It would be nice to find time for someone,” said Parolin, indicating that time is an asset that we all have, but of which we are jealous, because we only want to use it for ourselves.

“We must ask for the grace to find time for God and for our neighbor: for those who are alone, for those who suffer, for those who need to be heard and cared for. If we find the time to give gifts, we will be surprised and happy, like the Pastors ”, the cardinal concluded, asking the Virgin, (who led God in time), to help us be more generous and dedicate the new year to him: “You who know how to keep our hearts, take care of us”.

.

[ad_2]
Source link

Tags

Powered by https://naaju.com/argentina | Designed by Naaju
© Copyright 2024, All Rights Reserved