OMELIE / Omelie EN

01/01/2012 – Mary, Mother of God

01/01/2012 – Mary, Mother of God

01/01/2012 – Mary, Mother of God

1Reading Num 6, 22-27 Psalm 66 2Reading Gal 4, 4-7 Gospel Lk 2, 16-21

Today we receive the blessing that the Israelites had received from Aaron. A special blessing, because the words are dictated by God himself. This is therefore the model of all the blessings. How many blessings we receive! Every time I go to Mass and every time that I take part in a liturgical action, I receive a blessing. Even so we give little attention to the blessings received! We are more attentive to curses, that terrify us, they hit us and destroy in our understanding the grace received from the blessings.

Blessings come from God, curses from the evil one. We are to be at peace, even proud of having received the blessing from God and never to be scared from any curse. God is more powerful that the evil one. This one was over thrown in the power of the weakness of Jesus. From him comes to us every blessing, even during this year we have started. Jesus, the one who blesses, like today is in Mary’s arms, his silent mother, and helped by her, we receive peace and power from the Lord.

Mary is venerated in all the churches and in all the homes of the believers. This is right and healthy, because she presented him as a child and we were trusted to her from him nailed to the cross. Mary was present in the weak moments of Jesus. This is why we call her Mother of God: for her presence in those moments in which the love of God was more than ever visible in

. And God himself likes it that everyone welcomes his Mothers in his home, like John the disciple. We are sinners? We are unworthy? Mary is not shy to stay close to us to present us to the Saviour, the one who forgives, the one who love the sinner for whom he offerred his life. She is therefore for all, even for those who feel excluded from others, becomes a security of that blessing that God wants to be proclaimed to his children.

“The Lord bless you and keep you.
The Lord shine his face and be gracious to you.
The Lord show you his face and bring you peace.

Blessed and we carry blessings. Today, the beginning of the civil year, we are particularly attentive to the blessing of God. Wishes are not enough, we risk to make out of them empty and useless words that bear no fruit. If God himself make them his, therefore they are of value, so that they will benefit from them. Let us put into the hands of God our good intentions for our brethren, our parents, for friends and enemies alike. If we have enemies, we are to bless them even more. We want to be at peace with all of course, even if not all want to be at peace with us. Even so, upon them we pray for a shower of blessings from God: it is the only way that in us his blessing becomes peace.

We start the new year with Mary, we start it with peace. Certainly we pray for peace in the world and bless all the peoples, because from the peace of the world comes even our well being. But this prayer cannot be heard and bear fruit if we dont start to love ourselves and our enemies.

The blessing we receive today becomes our life, a new life that becomes a blessing to whoever we come across. Let us make sure that our faces reflect the splendor of the love of the Father, and therefore we consecrate to him some time every day. If there will be no prayer in our days, if we dont open for the light that comes from the Father and Jesus, we ourselves, we wont be a blessing for no body and wont contribute to that peace that we want to flourish in the world. We propose to do like Mary: we hold dear to our hearts the facts of the life of Jesus, we relive them in us, to love Jesus and with his love we meet with our other brothers and sisters.