VATICAN - Pope Francis: Christ was born of a woman and is one of us. For this reason, he is able to save us

Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - Christ Jesus "was born of a woman and is one of us. For this reason, he is able to save us". On the day when the Church celebrates the Solemnity of Mary, the Most Holy Mother of God, Pope Francis presided over a solemn Eucharistic concelebration in the Vatican Basilica.

The statue of Our Lady of Hope, brought to Rome from Battipaglia (where it is kept) for the Christmas celebrations that form the backdrop to the first rites of the Jubilee dedicated precisely to the theme of hope, was exhibited at the foot of Bernini's baldachin. The solemn liturgical concelebration also saw the participation of a delegation of the "Star Singers" from the Pontifical Society of German Missionary Childhood, from the diocese of Freiburg (photo).

"God became one of us. In Mary’s womb, God became one of us, and we, who have opened the Holy Door to inaugurate the Jubilee, are reminded today that ‘Mary is the door through which Christ entered this world’ ", the Pope began his homily, quoting Saint Ambrose.

God, noted the Supreme Pontiff, then citing the Letter to the Galatians, "became flesh and is revealed in the frailty of the flesh". And he warned: "There is a temptation, which many people today find attractive, but can also mislead many Christians, to imagine or invent a God “in the abstract”, associated with some vague religious feeling or fleeting emotion. No. God is tangible, he is human, he was born of a woman; he has a face and a name, and calls us to have a relationship with him."

But the expression "born of a woman" also speak to us, continued the Bishop of Rome, of the humanity of Christ, to tell us that he is revealed in the frailty of flesh, in the fragility of a child. And in the life of Jesus, we see that this is how God chooses to act: through littleness and hiddenness. Jesus shows us God through his fragile humanity, which takes care of the most fragile."

And if he, who is the Son, "became so small as to be held in a mother’s arms, cared for and nursed, this means that today too he comes among us in all those who need similar care," the Pope continued, reiterating: "May we learn, like her, to discover God’s greatness in the little things of life. May we learn to care for every child born of a woman, above all by protecting, like Mary, the precious gift of life: life in the womb, the lives of children, the lives of the suffering, the poor, the elderly, the lonely and the dying."

Finally, an appeal for peace on the day in which the Church also celebrates the 58th World Day of Peace: "To restore dignity to the lives of everyone “born of woman”, for this is the basis for building a culture of peace". For this reason, “I ask for a firm commitment to respect for the dignity of human life from conception to natural death, so that each person may cherish his or her own life and all may look with hope to the future." (FB) (Agenzia Fides, 1/1/2025)

Share:

pope francis

---

---

liturgy

---

---