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Illustration: Madonna of humility by Fra Angelico, c. 1430.
Pope Francis’ Homily for Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God
( 58th world day of peace)
Saint Peter’s Basilica – Wednesday, 1st January 2025
“Jesus, our Savior, became flesh and is revealed in the frailty of the flesh”
At the beginning of this new year that the Lord has given us, we would do well to turn our eyes and hearts to Mary. Like a mother, she points us to her Son.
She brings us back to Jesus; she speaks to us of Jesus; she leads us to Jesus.
The Solemnity of Mary, the Holy Mother of God, immerses us once again in the mystery of Christmas.
In Mary’s womb, God became one of us, and we, who have opened the Holy Door to inaugurate the Jubilee, are reminded today that “Mary is the door through which Christ entered this world” (St. Ambrose,Ep. 42, 4: PL, VII).
The Apostle Paul sums up this mystery when he tells us that “God sent forth his Son, born of a woman” (Gal 4:4). These words – “born of a woman” – echo in our hearts today.
They remind us that Jesus, our Savior, became flesh and revealed himself in the frailty of the flesh.
Born of a woman. These words bring us back to Christmas, because the Word became flesh.
The Apostle Paul, in saying that Christ was born of a woman, almost feels the need to remind us that God truly became man through a human womb.
There is a temptation, which is attractive to many people, but which can also lead many Christians astray, to imagine or invent a God “in the abstract”, associated with some vague religious feeling or fleeting emotion.
No. God is tangible, he is human, he was born of a woman; he has a face and a name and calls us to have a relationship with him.
Christ Jesus, our Savior, born of woman, has flesh and blood.
Coming from the bosom of the Father, he became flesh in the womb of the Virgin Mary.
From the highest heaven, he comes down to earth. Son of God, he becomes the Son of Man.
The image of the Almighty God, Christ came among us in weakness; though he was without blemish, “for our sake, God made him to be sin” (2 Cor 5:21).
Born of woman; he is one of us. That is why he can save us.
Born of a woman. These words also speak to us of the humanity of Christ, to tell us that he is revealed in the frailty of flesh. Born of woman, he comes to us as a little child.
That is why the shepherds who went to see what the angel had announced did not find extraordinary signs or great wonders, but “Mary and Joseph and the Child lying in the manger” (Lk 2:16).
They found a tiny, helpless child in need of his mother’s care, clothing and milk, caresses and love.
St. Louis-Marie Grignon de Montfort tells us that divine Wisdom “did not wish to give herself directly to man, though she could have done so, but chose to do so through the Blessed Virgin. Nor did he wish to come into the world as a grown man, without need of others, but as a little child, in need of a mother’s care and nourishment” (Treatise on True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin, 139).
In the life of Jesus, we see that this is how God chooses to act: through smallness and hiddenness.
Jesus never gave in to the temptation to perform great signs and to impose himself on others, as the devil had suggested.
Instead, he revealed God’s love in the beauty of his humanity, dwelling in our midst, sharing our daily lives, our efforts and our dreams, being compassionate to those who suffer in body and spirit, giving sight to the blind and strength to the discouraged.
The three attitudes of God are mercy, closeness and compassion.
God comes close to us and is merciful and compassionate. Let us not forget this.
Through the frailty of his humanity and his concern for the weak and vulnerable, Jesus shows us the face of God.
Sisters and brothers, it is indeed good for us to reflect on how Mary, the young woman of Nazareth, constantly brings us back to the mystery of Jesus, her Son.
She reminds us that Jesus has came in the flesh, and that we meet him above all in our daily lives, in our own fragile humanity and that of all those whom we meet every day.
When we pray to Our Lady as the Mother of God, we proclaim that Christ was begotten by the Father, but was also truly born of a woman.
We proclaim that He is the Lord of time, yet He dwells with His loving presence in our time, in this New Year.
We proclaim that he is the Savior of the world, and yet we can meet him and are called to seek him in the face of every human being.
If he, who is the Son, became so small that he could be held, cared for and nurtured in the arms of a mother, this means that today he also comes among us in all those who need similar care: in every sister and brother we meet, in everyone who needs our attention and tender care.
Let us entrust this New Year to Mary, Mother of God.
May we learn, like her, to discover God’s greatness in the little things of life.
May we learn to care for every child born of a woman, especially by protecting, like Mary, the precious gift of life: life in the womb, the lives of children, the lives of the suffering, the poor, the elderly, the lonely and the dying.
Today, on this World Day of Peace, we are all invited to take up the invitation that flows from Mary’s maternal heart: to value life, to care for wounded life – there are so many wounded lives – to restore the dignity of life to every person “born of woman”, because this is the basis for building a culture of peace.
For this reason, “I ask for a firm commitment to respect for the dignity of human life from conception to natural death, so that each person may cherish his or her own life and all may look to the future with hope.” (Message for the LVIII World Day of Peace, 1 January 2025).
Mary, the Mother of God and our Mother, awaits us there, at the manger.
She points out to us, as she did to the shepherds, the presence of the God who always surprises us, who does not come in the majesty of the heavens, but in the humanity of a manger.
Let us entrust to her this new Jubilee Year.
Let us entrust to her our questions, our sorrows, our sufferings, our joys and all the worries that we bear in our hearts. She is our mam, our mother!
Let us entrust to her the whole world, so that hope may be reborn and peace may finally come to all the peoples of the earth.
History tells us that in Ephesus, when the bishops entered the church, the faithful who were present, with clubs in hand, cried out: “Mother of God!”.
Surely the clubs were a promise of what would happen if the bishops did not proclaim the “Mother of God” dogma.
Today we have no clubs, but we have the hearts and voices of children.
Therefore, let us all together acclaim the Holy Mother of God.
Let us all say together, emphatically: “Holy Mother of God”, three times..
Together: “Holy Mother of God! Holy Mother of God! Holy Mother of God”!
