“There is a need for people capable of weaving threads of communion, which contrast the too many barbed threads of divisions”. The Pope said this in the homily of the Mass on 1 January 2022 dedicated to Mary, mother of God. «Mothers – continued Pope Francis – know how to overcome obstacles and conflicts, they know how to instill peace. Thus they manage to transform adversity into opportunities for rebirth and growth opportunities. They do it because they know how to keep, they know how to keep the threads of life together ».
No more violence against women, it is an outrage to God
“How much violence there is against women, that’s enough. To hurt a woman is to outrage God, who took humanity from a woman, not from an angel, ”Pope Francis observed, during the homily of the mass from the Vatican Basilica of St. Peter. “While mothers give their lives and women guard the world, let us all work to promote mothers and protect women,” said the Pontiff. “Mothers, women, look at the world not to exploit it, but so that it has life, looking with the heart, they manage to keep dreams and concreteness together, avoiding the drifts of aseptic pragmatism and abstractness”. The Church “is mother, the Church is woman”, Pope Francis emphasized in his homily. 2022, Pope Francis said, “must be in the sign of the mother”.
For Jesus, no preferential lane
The poverty of Jesus, the Pontiff said in his homily, is “good news for everyone, especially for those on the margins, for the rejected, for those who don’t count in the world. God comes there: no fast track, not even a cradle! Here is the beauty of seeing him lying in a manger ». For «the Mother of God, it was not like that. She had to bear ‘the scandal of the manger’ “, Bergoglio added, explaining:” She too, well before the shepherds, had received the announcement of an angel, who had said solemn words to her, speaking to her about the throne of David: ‘ You will conceive a son, you will give birth to him and you will call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High; the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David. ‘ And now she has to place it in an animal feeder. How to keep the king’s throne and the poor manger together? How to reconcile the glory of the Most High and the misery of a stable? Let us think of the discomfort of the Mother of God. What is harder for a mother than to see her child suffer misery? There is to feel disheartened ».
Like Mary, we face ‘manger scandals’
«We learn this attitude from the Mother of God: to guard by meditating. Because we too happen to have to endure certain ‘manger scandals’ “, said Pope Francis. «Maria could not be reproached if she complained of all that unexpected desolation. But she – he said again – does not lose heart. He does not let off steam, but is silent. He chooses a different side than the complaint ». A way of doing things different from that of the shepherds and the people, Pope Bergoglio observes. «They tell everyone what they saw: the angel who appeared in the middle of the night, his words about the Child. And people, hearing these things, are taken by amazement: words and wonder. Maria, on the other hand, appears thoughtful. He guards and meditates in the heart. They are two different attitudes that we can also find in us ». And, again: «The faces of mothers who care for a sick or troubled child come to mind. How much love there is in their eyes, which while they cry know how to instill reasons for hope! Theirs is a conscious gaze, without illusions, yet beyond pain and problems it offers a broader perspective, that of care, of love that regenerates hope. This is what mothers do: they know how to overcome obstacles and conflicts, they know how to instill peace. Thus they manage to transform adversity into opportunities for rebirth and growth. They do it because they know how to keep, they know how to keep the threads of life together ».
For peace to be lasting, work that gives dignity is needed
Then the Pope’s tweet: «I would like to propose three ways to build lasting peace: dialogue between generations, the basis for shared projects; education, a factor of freedom, responsibility and development; and work, for the realization of human dignity “.