Dear brothers and sisterstoday we have the joy and grace of celebrating the Jubilee of the Holy See in the liturgical memory of Mary Mother of the Church. This happy coincidence is a source of light and inner inspiration in the Holy Spirit, who yesterday, Pentecost, poured into abundance on the people of God.
And in this spiritual atmosphere we enjoy a special day today, first with the meditation that we have listened to and now, here, to Canteen of the word and of the Eucharist.
The Word of God in this celebration makes us understand the Mystery of the Churchand in it of the Holy See, in the light of the two biblical icons written by the spirit on the page of the acts of the apostles (1,12-14) and in that of the Gospel of John (19.25-34).
Let’s start with the fundamental one, which is the story of the Death of Jesus. Giovanni, the only one of the twelve present at Calvary, saw and testified that under the cross, together with the other women, there was the mother of Jesus (v. 25). And he heard the last words of the master with his ears, including these: “Woman, here is your son!”and then, addressed to him: “Here is your mother!” (v. 26-27).
Mary’s motherhood through the mystery of the cross made an unthinkable leap: The Mother of Jesus has become the new Evabecause the son has associated her with his redeemed death, a source of new and eternal life for every man who comes to this world.
The theme of fertility It is well present in this liturgy. The “Colletta” prayer immediately highlighted him by making us ask the Father that the Church, supported by the love of Christ, “It is increasingly fruitful in the spirit”.
The fruitfulness of the Church is the same fruitfulness of Mary; and is realized in the existence of its members to the extent that they relive, “in small”, what the mother lived, that is they love according to the love of Jesus.
All the fruitfulness of the Church and the Holy See depends on the cross of Christ. Otherwise it is appearance, if not worse.
He wrote a great contemporary theologian: “If the church is the tree that grew by the small grain of Senapa della Croce, this tree is destined to produce granks of Senapa in turn, and therefore fruits that repeat the shape of the cross, because precisely to the cross they owe their existence” (Hu von Balthasar, that is, the serious case, Brescia 1969, 45-46) is cordula.
In the collection we also asked that the Church “Exults for the holiness of his children”. In fact, this fruitfulness of Mary and the Church is inseparably linked to his holinessthat is, to his conformation to Christ.
The Holy See is as holy as the Church is, in its original nucleus, in the fiber it is woven. So the Apostolic It preserves the holiness of its roots as it is kept. But it is no less true that it also lives in the holiness of each of its members.
Therefore the best way to serve the Holy See is to try to be saintseach of us according to his state of life and the task that has been entrusted to him.
For example, a priest who personally is bringing a heavy cross to his ministry, and yet every day he goes to the office and tries to do his job at best with love and faith, This priest participates and contributes to the fruitfulness of the Church.
And so a father or a family mother, who lives a difficult situation at home, a son who gives thoughts, or a sick parent, and carries on his job with commitment, That man and that woman are fruitful of the fruitfulness of Mary and the Church.
We come now to the second iconthe one written by San Luca at the beginning of the Acts of the Apostles, which depicts the mother of Jesus together with the apostles and the disciples in the Upper Supper (1.12-14).
He shows us Mary’s motherhood towards the nascent Church, an “archetypal” motherhood, which remains current at all times and place. And above all it is always Fruit of the Easter mysteryof the gift of the crucified and risen Lord.
The Holy Spiritwhich descends with power on the first community is the same that Jesus delivered with his last breath (cf. Jn 19.30).
This biblical icon is inseparable from the first: The fruitfulness of the Church is always linked to grace flowed from the pierced heart of Jesus together with the blood and water, symbol of the sacraments (cf. Jn 19:34).
Mary, in the Upper Lastthanks to the maternal mission received at the foot of the cross, it is at the service of the nascent community: it is the Living memory of Jesusand as such is, so to speak, the pole of attraction that harmonizes the differences and causes the prayer of the disciples to be con-.
The apostles, also in this text, are listed by name, and as always the first is Peter (See v. 13). But he himself, indeed, he first supported by Mary in his ministry. Similarly The Mother Church supports Pietro’s Ministry of Support with the Marian charisma.
The Holy See lives in a completely peculiar manner the co -presence of the two poles, the Marian and the petrine one. And it is the Marian one that ensures the fruitfulness and holiness of the petrinian onewith his motherhood, a gift of Christ and the Spirit.
Dearwe praise God for his Word, a lamp that lives our steps, also our daily life at the service of the Holy See.
And, illuminated by this word, we renew our prayer: “Grant, O Father, that your Church, supported by the love of Christ, is increasingly fruitful in the Spirit, exults for the holiness of his children and collects the entire human family in his womb” (Horace Colletta).
