HOLIDAY ANGELUS
December 8, 2012
Before leading the holiday Angelus prayers Saturday in St. Peter's Square on the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, Pope Benedict called Mary 'a genuine expression of Grace' and said that the light emanating from her figure "helps us to understand the true meaning of original sin".
In English, he said:
Today, with joyful hearts, we celebrate the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Through her powerful intercession, may the Lord grant us the grace to reject sin and persevere in the grace of baptism.
The Pope said that the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception of Mary expresses the certainty of faith that God's promises have been fulfilled - through Mary, who brought into the world God's only Son, Savior of the world.
After the prayers, the Holy Father expressed his closeness to the people of the Philippines who have been hit in recent days by a violent storm.
I wish first of all to assure my closeness to the peoples of the Philippines who have been struck in recent days by violent typhoons. I pray for the victims, for their families, and the many who are now homeless. May their faith and charity be a strength for them in facing this difficult trial.
The Holy Father then reminded the faithful that, in the afternoon, he would be making his traditional visit to pay homage to Mary Immaculate at the pillar erected in homage to her in Rome's Piazza Spagna.
Dear brothers and sisters,
I wish for all of you a happy feast day of Mary Immaculate!
In this Year of Faith, I wish to underscore that Mary is immaculate by a gift of the grace of God who had found in her a perfect willingness and collaboration. In this sense she is 'blessed' because "she believed" (Lk 1,45), because she had firm faith in God.
Mary represents 'what remained of Israel', the holy root that the prophets had announced. The promises of the Old Covenant found their welcome in Herb. In Mary, the Word of God found listening, reception, and response - it found the Yes that allowed him to take flesh and come to dwell among us.
In Mary, mankind and history truly open up to God, welcoming his grace, and ready to do his will. Mary is the genuine expression of Grace. She represents the new Israel, which the Scriptures of the Old Testament describe symbolically as spouse.
St. Paul reprises this language in his Letter to the Ephesians when he speaks of matrimony and says, "...Christ loved the church and handed himself over for her, to sanctify her, cleansing her by the bath of water with the word, that he might present to himself the church in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish" (5,25-27).
The Fathers of the Church developed this image, and thus, the doctrine of the Immaculate first arose in reference to the Church virgin-mother, and subsequently, to Mary. Efrem the Syrian wrote poetically:"As bodies themselves have sinned and die, and the earth, their mother, is cursed (cfr Gen 3,17-19), thus, too, because of the body that is the incorruptible Church,her earth is blessed from the beginning. This earth is the body of Mary, temple in which a seed was deposited" (Diatessaron 4, 15: SC 121, 102).
The light that emanates from the figure of Mary also helps us to understand the true meaning of original sin. In fact, in Mary, that relationship with God that sin had broken apart was fully alive and working. In her, there was absolutely no opposition between God and her being: there was full communion, full understanding. There was a reciprocal Yes, from God to her, and from her to God. She was full of his Grace, of his Love.
Finally, the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception of Mary expresses the certainty of faith that the promises of God are realized - that his covenant never fails, but had produced a holy root, which germinated the blessed Fruit of all the universe, Jesus, the Savior.
The Immaculate demonstrates that Grace is able to elicit a response, that the faithfulness of God can generate a faith that is true and good.
Dear friends, this afternoon, as usual, I will be going to Piazza di Spagna for the homage to Mary Immaculate. Let us follow the example of the Mother of God, so that in us, too, the grace of the Lord may find a response ion a genuine and fruitful faith.
Yet another apology - Earlier I posted the pictures for the Dec. 9 Angelus here (the ones that show the Pope framed through the Christmas tree on St. Peter's Square). I picked up the two photos (correct ones) for the Dec. 8 Angelus from Vatican Radio online.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 10/12/2012 08:45]