Dear friends,
It is a great joy and privilege for me to be with all of you this year to celebrate together the Feast of the Assumption of our Lady. This is also my first homily in Italian: I express my gratitude to Don Tommaso for his welcome and also to Bishop Mario for allowing me to have this pastoral experience as a Deacon in this diocese.
When I visited the diocese last year, and spent time with so many categories of people, what I witnessed made a deep impression on me. At a time when the faith is almost non-existent in several parts of the world where there once used to be an intense faith, I found a community (though small) trying their best to live out their Christian faith together with their pastor.
I was able to touch and feel the devotion of several past generations — parents, grandparents — which is now living in this generation. We are living in tough times when we are all given the mission to pass on this precious treasure of faith to the coming generation — and here we know we all face challenges — there are several questions for which we are still trying to find the answers! But we know that passing on the faith is first of all God's work — Jesus reminds us to pray to the Lord of the harvest that he may send labourers out into the harvest (Matthew 9:35-38).
How can people believe unless there is a preacher? How can there be a preacher unless someone is sent? How beautiful are the feet of those who proclaim the Good News! Faith comes from hearing, and hearing must be about the unadulterated message of the Gospel, the Word of Christ (Romans 10:17).
Today's Feast points out to us the goal of our faith! Our faith is the greatest treasure which has been given to us — the greatest treasure is not material, but something that holds out promises for us both in this life and the life to come — and that is faith (1 Timothy 4:8). Human beings are in a certain way weak and helpless — today people question, just like the Psalmist King David when he was passing through a great interior sorrow, “For what pointless end did you create the children of Adam?” (Psalm 39). A human being is only a shadow; a mere puff of wind is the wealth that is stored away — no one knows who will profit from it.
However, today's Feast points us to a miraculous transformation. The Church mandates that everyone should believe wholeheartedly in this solemn truth: Mary, a poor and almost unknown woman who lived in Nazareth, was raised up to Heaven, body and soul. Not only our imperishable souls, but even our bodies are very important. Saint Paul tells us that our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit and we will all be transformed in the “twinkling of an eye” (1 Corinthians 15:52). Today's Feast encourages us to live in that hope — amidst all our difficulties, struggles, trials, setbacks, humiliations — to live a life trying to imitate the faith, hope and love of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Why was Mary assumed? Today's Readings offer us the clue. In the Gospel we read: “How blessed is she who believed there would be a fulfilment of what was spoken to her by the Lord! He has looked upon the humility of his servant, and from now onwards all generations will call me blessed. The Almighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name!” There was a great sign in Heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and a crown of twelve stars on her head. On your right stands the Queen, in gold of Ophir.
Dear friends, the message to us is clear: we are to believe without doubt, like Mary, in the power of God and in what God has spoken and revealed in the Word of the Lord, which is the same yesterday, today and forever. We are to imitate her faith, her hope and her love. When life takes us through uncertain and even humbling turns, like Mary, let us remain faithful to the Lord.
As we celebrate this Feast, during this Holy Mass, let us pray for a renewed faith, and that the power of Our Lady's Assumption may be given to us also! Saint Paul reminds us that we live transfigured lives. May we — weak and fragile as we are — be clothed with the strength that comes from faith, to overcome the world and its tribulations. Jesus assures us: “In the world you will have tribulation, but take courage: I have overcome the world!” (John 16:33).
May our hope in what awaits us as the reward of our faith never fail!
Comments
Post a Comment