At 6:00pm this evening (12:00 noon EST), inside the Vatican Basilica, the Holy Father, Pope Francis presided over the Eucharistic celebration on the occasion of the liturgical Feast of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Guadaloupe.
My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God, my saviour, for he has looked with kindness on the lowliness of his servant (Lk 1:46-48). Thus begins the song of the Magnificat and, through it, Mary becomes the first pedagogue of the Gospel (CELAM, Puebla, 290). It reminds us of the promises made to our fathers and invites us to sing of the mercy of the Lord.
Mary teaches us that, in the art of mission and hope, so many words and plans are not necessary, her method is very simple: she walked and she sang.
Mary walked
This is how the gospel presents the story after the Angel's proclamation. Hurried - but not anxiously -she walked to Elizabeth's house to accompany her in the last stage of pregnancy; hurriedly, she walked towards Jesus when wine was lacking at the wedding; and already with gray hair earned over the years, she walked to Golgotha to be at the foot of the cross: in that threshold of darkness and pain; she did not fade or leave; she walked in order to be there.
She walked to Tepeyac to accompany Juan Diego and continues walking the Continent whenever, through an image or stamp, a candle or a medal, a rosary or a Hail Mary, she enters a house, a prison cell, the ward of a hospital, a nursing home, a school, a rehabilitation clinic ... to say: Am I not here, I who am your mother? (Nican Mopohua, 119). She, more than anyone, knew about commuter trains. She who is a woman, who walks with the delicacy and tenderness of a mother, is made to lodge in family life, unties one or another knot of the many wrongs that we manage to generate, and teaches us to stand in the midst of the storms of life.
In the school of Mary we learn to be on the way, getting there, where we have to be: standing among so many lives that have lost or stolen hope.
In the school of Mary we learn to walk through the neighbourhood and the city not with slippers filled of magic solutions, instant answers and immediate effects; not with fantastic promises of pseudo-progress that, little by little, only manages to usurp cultural and family identities, and to empty ourselves of the vital fabric that has sustained our peoples, and furthermore, with the pretentious intention of establishing unique and uniform thinking.
In the school of Mary we learn to walk the city and we nourish our hearts with the multicultural wealth that inhabits the Continent; when we are able to listen to that resounding heart that beats in our villages and that keeps - like a small fire under apparent ashes - the meaning of God and his transcendence, the sacredness of life, respect for creation, bonds of solidarity, the joy of the art of living well and the ability to be happy and to celebrate without conditions, there we come to understand what America is at her deepest levels (see Encounter with the Steering Committee of CELAM, Colombia, September 7, 2017).
Mary walked and Mary sang
Mary walks carrying the joy of one who sings the wonders that God has done with the smallness of his servants. In her wake, as a good Mother, she provokes singing by giving voice to so many who in one way or another have felt that they could not sing. She gave this word to John - who leapt in his mother's womb - she gave this word to Elizabeth - who immediately began to bless - she gave this word to old Simeon - and made him prophesy and dream - she teaches the Word so that he in turn could begin to speak his first words.
In the school of Mary we learn that her life is marked not by protagonism but by the ability to make others protagonists. She gives us courage, she teaches us to speak and above all, she encourages us to live the audacity of faith and hope. In this way she becomes the transparency of the face of the Lord who shows his power by inviting us to participate and summons us into the construction of his living temple. He did it with the indigenous Juan Diego and with so many others who, by taking them out of anonymity, gave them a voice, made them know their own faces and history and made them protagonists of our salvation story. The Lord does not seek selfish applause or worldly admiration. His glory lies in making his children protagonists of creation. With the heart of a mother, she seeks to raise and dignify all those who, for different reasons and circumstances, were immersed in abandonment and oblivion.
In the school of Mary we learn the protagonism that does not need to humiliate, mistreat, discredit or make fun of others in order to feel valuable or important; the work that does not resort to physical or psychological violence in order to feel safe or protected. It is the leadership through service that is not afraid of tenderness and caresses, and which knows that its best face is service. In her school we learn authentic protagonism, how to dignify all those who are fallen and to do so with the omnipotent strength of divine love, which is the irresistible strength of its promise of mercy.
In Mary, the Lord denies the temptation to give prominence to the force of intimidation and power, to the cry of the strong or to assert oneself based on lies and manipulation. With Mary, the Lord guards the believers so that their hearts are not hardened and they can constantly know the renewed and renewing strength of solidarity which is capable of listening to the heartbeat of God in the hearts of the men and women of our time.
Mary, the pedagogue of the gospel, walked and sang throughout our Continent and, thus, the Guadalupana is not only remembered as indigenous, Spanish, Hispanic or African-American. She is simply Latin American: the Mother of a fertile and generous land in which all people, in one way or another, can find ourselves playing a leading role in the construction of the Holy Temple of the family of God.
Sons and brothers of Latin America, fear not, sing and walk just as your Mother did.
(Original text in Spanish)
Homily of the Holy Father, Pope Francis
for the Mass celebrated on the occasion of the
Liturgical Feast of Our Lady of Guadaloupe
My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God, my saviour, for he has looked with kindness on the lowliness of his servant (Lk 1:46-48). Thus begins the song of the Magnificat and, through it, Mary becomes the first pedagogue of the Gospel (CELAM, Puebla, 290). It reminds us of the promises made to our fathers and invites us to sing of the mercy of the Lord.
Mary teaches us that, in the art of mission and hope, so many words and plans are not necessary, her method is very simple: she walked and she sang.
Mary walked
This is how the gospel presents the story after the Angel's proclamation. Hurried - but not anxiously -she walked to Elizabeth's house to accompany her in the last stage of pregnancy; hurriedly, she walked towards Jesus when wine was lacking at the wedding; and already with gray hair earned over the years, she walked to Golgotha to be at the foot of the cross: in that threshold of darkness and pain; she did not fade or leave; she walked in order to be there.
She walked to Tepeyac to accompany Juan Diego and continues walking the Continent whenever, through an image or stamp, a candle or a medal, a rosary or a Hail Mary, she enters a house, a prison cell, the ward of a hospital, a nursing home, a school, a rehabilitation clinic ... to say: Am I not here, I who am your mother? (Nican Mopohua, 119). She, more than anyone, knew about commuter trains. She who is a woman, who walks with the delicacy and tenderness of a mother, is made to lodge in family life, unties one or another knot of the many wrongs that we manage to generate, and teaches us to stand in the midst of the storms of life.
In the school of Mary we learn to be on the way, getting there, where we have to be: standing among so many lives that have lost or stolen hope.
In the school of Mary we learn to walk through the neighbourhood and the city not with slippers filled of magic solutions, instant answers and immediate effects; not with fantastic promises of pseudo-progress that, little by little, only manages to usurp cultural and family identities, and to empty ourselves of the vital fabric that has sustained our peoples, and furthermore, with the pretentious intention of establishing unique and uniform thinking.
In the school of Mary we learn to walk the city and we nourish our hearts with the multicultural wealth that inhabits the Continent; when we are able to listen to that resounding heart that beats in our villages and that keeps - like a small fire under apparent ashes - the meaning of God and his transcendence, the sacredness of life, respect for creation, bonds of solidarity, the joy of the art of living well and the ability to be happy and to celebrate without conditions, there we come to understand what America is at her deepest levels (see Encounter with the Steering Committee of CELAM, Colombia, September 7, 2017).
Mary walked and Mary sang
Mary walks carrying the joy of one who sings the wonders that God has done with the smallness of his servants. In her wake, as a good Mother, she provokes singing by giving voice to so many who in one way or another have felt that they could not sing. She gave this word to John - who leapt in his mother's womb - she gave this word to Elizabeth - who immediately began to bless - she gave this word to old Simeon - and made him prophesy and dream - she teaches the Word so that he in turn could begin to speak his first words.
In the school of Mary we learn that her life is marked not by protagonism but by the ability to make others protagonists. She gives us courage, she teaches us to speak and above all, she encourages us to live the audacity of faith and hope. In this way she becomes the transparency of the face of the Lord who shows his power by inviting us to participate and summons us into the construction of his living temple. He did it with the indigenous Juan Diego and with so many others who, by taking them out of anonymity, gave them a voice, made them know their own faces and history and made them protagonists of our salvation story. The Lord does not seek selfish applause or worldly admiration. His glory lies in making his children protagonists of creation. With the heart of a mother, she seeks to raise and dignify all those who, for different reasons and circumstances, were immersed in abandonment and oblivion.
In the school of Mary we learn the protagonism that does not need to humiliate, mistreat, discredit or make fun of others in order to feel valuable or important; the work that does not resort to physical or psychological violence in order to feel safe or protected. It is the leadership through service that is not afraid of tenderness and caresses, and which knows that its best face is service. In her school we learn authentic protagonism, how to dignify all those who are fallen and to do so with the omnipotent strength of divine love, which is the irresistible strength of its promise of mercy.
In Mary, the Lord denies the temptation to give prominence to the force of intimidation and power, to the cry of the strong or to assert oneself based on lies and manipulation. With Mary, the Lord guards the believers so that their hearts are not hardened and they can constantly know the renewed and renewing strength of solidarity which is capable of listening to the heartbeat of God in the hearts of the men and women of our time.
Mary, the pedagogue of the gospel, walked and sang throughout our Continent and, thus, the Guadalupana is not only remembered as indigenous, Spanish, Hispanic or African-American. She is simply Latin American: the Mother of a fertile and generous land in which all people, in one way or another, can find ourselves playing a leading role in the construction of the Holy Temple of the family of God.
Sons and brothers of Latin America, fear not, sing and walk just as your Mother did.
(Original text in Spanish)
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