Pope at January 1 Mass: Mary, Mother of God, Mother for all
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis welcomed the new year Wednesday with a solemn morning
mass in St. Peter’s Basilica, calling the faithful to look to Mary as a Mother to
all and messenger of hope.
In his homily for this, the Solemnity of the Mother
of God, Pope Francis said “there is no more meaningful time than the beginning of
a new year” to hear God’s blessing “The Lord bless you and keep you…. The Lord lift
up his countenance upon you and give you peace.”
These "words of strength,
courage and hope" "will accompany our journey through the year opening up before us,”
the Pope said.
But, the Pope warned, this is not “an illusory hope based on
human frail promises, or a naïve hope which presumes that the future will be better
simply because it is the future.” Rather, he reminded the faithful, it is a hope
based on God’s blessing, containing the “greatest message of good wishes there can
be and this is the message which the Church brings to each of us.”
The message
of hope in God’s blessing, the Pope stressed, “was fully realized in a woman, Mary,
who was destined to become the Mother of God.”
“Mother of God is the first
and most important title of Our Lady,” Pope Francis said, noting that in their devotion
to her from early times, the faithful had understood this “from the beginning.”
Pope
Francis recalled the ancient Council of Ephesus which “authoritatively defined” the
divine motherhood of the Virgin Mary and later “the first Marian shrine in Rome and
the entire West” which was erected in devotion to her in the Basilica of Saint
Mary Major.
Mary is our Mother too, the Pope reminded us, “ever since Jesus,
dying on the Cross, gave her to us as our Mother, saying ‘Behold your Mother!’”
Through
the most difficult and trying times, Mary’s “sorrowing heart was enlarged to make
room for all men and women, whether good or bad,” the Pope said, and she communicates
“her maternal affection to each and every person… a source of hope and true joy.”
Inviting
the faithful to entrust to her “the journey of faith, the desires of our heart, our
needs and the needs of the whole world, especially of those who hunger and thirst
for justice and peace," Pope Francis said by Mary’s “example of humility and openness
to God’s will she helps us to transmit our faith in a joyful proclamation of the Gospel
to all, without reservation.” And turning towards the statue of Our Lady near the
high altar, Pope Francis invoked her three times, repeating forcefully: “Holy Mother
of God!”
Listen to the report by Tracey McClure...
Below
we publish the official English translation of Pope Francis’ Homily:
Solemnity
of Mary, Mother of God 1 January 2014
In the first reading we find the
ancient prayer of blessing which God gave to Moses to hand on to Aaron and his sons:
“The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you, and be
gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace” (Num
6:24-26). There is no more meaningful time than the beginning of a new year to hear
these words of blessing: they will accompany our journey through the year opening
up before us. They are words of strength, courage and hope. Not an illusory hope,
based on frail human promises, or a naïve hope which presumes that the future will
be better simply because it is the future. Rather, it is a hope that has its foundation
precisely in God’s blessing, a blessing which contains the greatest message of good
wishes there can be; and this is the message which the Church brings to each of us,
filled with the Lord’s loving care and providential help.
The message of hope
contained in this blessing was fully realized in a woman, Mary, who was destined to
become the Mother of God, and it was fulfilled in her before any other creature.
The
Mother of God! This is the first and most important title of Our Lady. It refers
to a quality, a role which the faith of the Christian people, in its tender and genuine
devotion to our heavenly Mother, has understood from the beginning.
We recall
that great moment in the history of the ancient Church, the Council of Ephesus, in
which the divine motherhood of the Virgin Mary was authoritatively defined. The truth
of her divine maternity found an echo in Rome where, a little later, the Basilica
of Saint Mary Major was built, the first Marian shrine in Rome and in the entire West,
in which the image of the Mother of God – the Theotokos – is venerated under the title
of Salus Populi Romani. It is said that the residents of Ephesus used to gather at
the gates of the basilica where the bishops were meeting and shout, “Mother of God!”.
The faithful, by asking them to officially define this title of Our Lady, showed that
they acknowledged her divine motherhood. Theirs was the spontaneous and sincere reaction
of children who know their Mother well, for they love her with immense tenderness.
Mary
has always been present in the hearts, the piety and above all the pilgrimage of faith
of the Christian people. “The Church journeys through time… and on this journey she
proceeds along the path already trodden by the Virgin Mary” (Redemptoris Mater, 2).
Our journey of faith is the same as that of Mary, and so we feel that she is particularly
close to us. As far as faith, the hinge of the Christian life, is concerned, the
Mother of God shared our condition. She had to take the same path as ourselves, a
path which is sometimes difficult and obscure. She had to advance in the “pilgrimage
of faith” (Lumen Gentium, 58).
Our pilgrimage of faith has been inseparably
linked to Mary ever since Jesus, dying on the Cross, gave her to us as our Mother,
saying: “Behold your Mother!” (Jn 19:27). These words serve as a testament, bequeathing
to the world a Mother. From that moment on, the Mother of God also became our Mother!
When the faith of the disciples was most tested by difficulties and uncertainties,
Jesus entrusted them to Mary, who was the first to believe, and whose faith would
never fail. The “woman” became our Mother when she lost her divine Son. Her sorrowing
heart was enlarged to make room for all men and women, whether good or bad, and she
loves them as she loved Jesus. The woman who at the wedding at Cana in Galilee gave
her faith-filled cooperation so that the wonders of God could be displayed in the
world, at Calvary kept alive the flame of faith in the resurrection of her Son, and
she communicates this with maternal affection to each and every person. Mary becomes
in this way a source of hope and true joy!
The Mother of the Redeemer goes
before us and continually strengthens us in faith, in our vocation and in our mission.
By her example of humility and openness to God’s will she helps us to transmit our
faith in a joyful proclamation of the Gospel to all, without reservation. In this
way our mission will be fruitful, because it is modeled on the motherhood of Mary.
To her let us entrust our journey of faith, the desires of our heart, our needs and
the needs of the whole world, especially of those who hunger and thirst for justice
and peace. Let us then together invoke her: Holy Mother of God!