His Holiness Pope Francis at Mass: Let us entrust the New Year to the Mother of God

In his homily at the New Year's Day Mass celebrating the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God, His Holiness Pope Francis calls on us to "entrust this coming year to the Mother of God" and consecrate our lives to her. With her "tender love...she will lead us to Jesus." On this day the Church also marks the World Day of Peace.

By Thaddeus Jones

Presiding over the morning Mass in Saint Peter's Basilica on New Year's Day, His Holiness Pope Francis spoke about this day when we celebrate in a special way the Holy Mother of God, "a simple phrase that confesses the Lord’s eternal covenant with us." January 1st marks the Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, and also the day the Church marks the World Day of Peace.

The fullness of time

His Holiness Pope Francis illustrated the meaning of the expression "the fullness of time" we read in the Scriptures and how "divine grace spills over" when "God becomes man" through Mary, "the means chosen by God, the culmination of that long line of individuals and generations that 'drop by drop' prepared for the Lord’s coming into the world." 

“The Mother, then, stands at the very heart of the mystery of time. It pleased God to turn history around through her, the woman. With that one word, “woman”, the Scripture brings us back to the beginning, to Genesis, and makes us realize that the Mother and Child mark a new creation, a new beginning. Thus, at the beginning of the time of salvation, there is the Mother of God, our Holy Mother.”

Dogma of hope

The words "Mother of God," the Pope explained, "express the joyful certainty that the Lord, a tiny Child in his Mamma’s arms, has united himself forever to our humanity, to the point that it is no longer only ours, but his as well,"  the Lord's eternal covenant with us. 

“Mother of God: a dogma of faith, but also a “dogma of hope”; God in man, and man in God, forever. Holy Mother of God.”

At the same time,  the Pope emphasized that we should remember that "the motherhood of Mary is the path leading us to the paternal tenderness of God, the closest, most direct and easiest of paths."

Maternal care and courage

The Church also needs to rediscover in Mary, Virgin and Mother, how to be "generative" with pastoral ministry distinguished by "concern and care, patience and maternal courage," said the Pope. And the world could also look to mothers and women for ways to find peace and "see things with genuinely human eyes and hearts." 

“Every society needs to accept the gift that is woman, every woman: to respect, defend and esteem women, in the knowledge that whosoever harms a single woman profanes God, who was “born of a woman”.”

This news was originally published on the website of Vatican News. Please click here to read the full text and listen to the report.