OLEMNITY OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION
OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY
ANGELUS POPE FRANCIS
Saint Peter's Square
Thursday, 8 December 2016
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| PHOTO: L'OSSERVATORE ROMANO |
Dear
Brothers and Sisters, Happy feast day!
The
readings for today’s Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed
Virgin Mary present two crucial passages in the history of the relationship
between man and God: we could say that they lead us towards the origin of good
and evil. These two passages lead us to the origin of good and evil.
The
Book of Genesis shows us the first no, the original ‘no’, the human ‘no’, when
man preferred to gaze upon himself rather than on his Creator; he wanted to go
his own way, and chose to be self-sufficient. However, in so doing, forsaking
communion with God, he lost his own self and began to fear, to hide himself and
to accuse those who were close by (cf. Gen 3:10, 12). These are symptoms: fear
is always a symptom of a ‘no’ to God, and indicates that I am saying ‘no’ to
God; accusing others and not looking at ourselves indicates that I am
distancing myself from God. This is the sin. Yet, the Lord does not leave man
at the mercy of his sin; immediately He looks for him, and asks a question that
is full of apprehension: “Where are you?” (v. 9). It is as if He is saying:
“Stop, think: where are you?”. It is the question of a father or a mother
looking for a lost child: “Where are you? What situation have you gotten
yourself into?”. And God does this with great patience, to the point of
bridging the gap which arose from the origin. This is one of the passages.
The
second crucial passage, recounted today in the Gospel, is when God comes to
live among us, becomes man like us. And this was made possible through a great
‘yes’ – that of the sin was the ‘no’; this is the ‘yes’, it is a great ‘yes’ —
that of Mary at the moment of the Annunciation. Because of this ‘yes’ Jesus
began his journey along the path of humanity; he began it in Mary, spending the
first months of life in his mother’s womb: he did not appear as a man, grown
and strong, but he followed the journey of a human being. He was made equal to
us in every way, except one thing, that ‘no’. Except sin. For this reason, he
chose Mary, the only creature without sin, immaculate. In the Gospel, with one
word only, she is called “full of grace” (Lk 1:28), that is, filled with grace.
It means that, in her, full of grace from the start, there is no space for sin.
And when we turn to her, we too recognize this beauty: we invoke her, “full of
grace”, without a shadow of evil.
Mary
responds to God’s proposal by saying: “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord”
(v. 38). She does not say: “Well, this time I will do God’s will; I will make
myself available, then I will see...”. No. Hers is a full, total ‘yes’, for her
entire life, without conditions. And just as the original ‘no’ closed the
passage between man and God, so Mary’s ‘yes’ opened the path to God among us.
It is the most important ‘yes’ in history, the humble ‘yes’ which reverses the
prideful original ‘no’, the faithful ‘yes’ that heals disobedience, the willing
‘yes’ that overturns the vanity of sin.
For
each of us too, there is a history of salvation made up of ‘yeses’ and ‘nos’.
Sometimes, though, we are experts in the half-hearted ‘yes’: we are good at
pretending not to understand what God wants and what our conscience suggests. We are also crafty and so as not to say a true ‘no’ to God, we say:
“Sorry, I can’t”; “not today, I think tomorrow”. “Tomorrow I’ll be better;
tomorrow I will pray, I will do good tomorrow”. And this cunning leads us away
from the ‘yes’. It distances us from God and leads us to ‘no’, to the sinful
‘no’, to the ‘no’ of mediocrity. The famous “yes, but ...”; “yes, Lord, but
...”. In this way we close the door to goodness, and evil takes advantage of
these omitted ‘yeses’. Each
of us has a collection of them within. Think about it: we will find many
omitted ‘yeses’. Instead, every complete ‘yes’ to God gives rise to a new
story: to say ‘yes’ to God is truly “original”. It is the origin, not the sin,
that makes us old on the inside. Have you thought about this, that sin makes us
old on the inside? It makes us grow old quickly”! Every ‘yes’ to God gives rise
to stories of salvation for us and for others. Like Mary with her own ‘yes’. In
this Advent journey, God wishes to visit us and awaits our ‘yes’. Let’s think: I, today, what ‘yes’ must I say to God? Let’s think about
it; it will do us good. And we will find the Lord’s voice in God, who asks
something of us: a step forward. “I believe in you; I hope in you. I love you;
be it done to me according to your good will”. This is the ‘yes’. With
generosity and trust, like Mary, let us say today, each of us, this personal
‘yes’ to God.
After
the Angelus:
Dear
brothers and sisters, yesterday a strong earthquake struck the island of
Sumatra, Indonesia. I wish to assure my prayer for the victims and their
families, for the injured, and for those who lost their homes. May the Lord
give strength to the population, and sustain the rescue efforts.
This
afternoon in Piazza di Spagna I will renew the traditional act of homage and
prayer at the monument of the Immaculate. Afterwards I will go to Saint Mary
Major to pray to the Salus Populi Romani. I ask that you join spiritually in
this act, which expresses filial devotion to our heavenly Mother.
I
wish all of you a happy feast day and a good Advent journey with the guidance
of the Virgin Mary. Please, do not forget to pray for me. Have a
good lunch. Arrivederci!
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Copyright - Libreria Editrice Vaticana
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