Dear Brothers and Sisters,
The Church gives us on this first day of the year the image of Mary as the Mother of God. She is the Mother of God and also his daughter. It is a great mystery that Mary being the daughter of God because she is the Mother. It is an incomprehensible mystery. Who can be the daughter and the mother of her son, no one? She is the only one. These are mysteries beyond our human reason, which is something that only God can do. He does the impossible. Don’t be afraid since the Lord on this first day of the year reminds us of Mary, who is our mother. Those of you who have been moms have experienced something impressive, to carry within yourself another person. The men here do not know what it is like and will never know.
To carry inside of you another person; this is the image of a Christian. Mary is the icon of all Christians. We are all called to carry within ourselves another person, Christ, like Mary did. I don’t know if you have Christ inside of you today but in this Eucharist a wonderful miracle will happen. Christ will enter you if you receive Communion. But he has also entered you through the Word since the Word is Christ. The Word, I hope, has already been begotten in you.
St. Paul says that the preaching is the sperm of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, through the preaching Jesus Christ is born in every one of us. He is inside of us. It is wonderful that as a Christian we are the Virgin! And called to be like the Virgin Mary. We will be like Mary today, pregnant with Christ. And you can be the mother of God when he lives within you. God himself will be in you and how will you know this? Because your life is transformed; you can do things that you could not do on your own. You begin to know that it is not you, but Christ in you, as St. Paul says. It is no longer I but Christ who lives in me.
St. Paul was also the mother of God. At the beginning of his life as an apostle, I think he already thought that he was super-converted. Imagine he was persecuting Christians and then he wants to evangelize the gentiles. He thought he was already a super apostle but then he finds evil inside of him, instead of the good he wants to do. The moment of his conversion, when the Lord knocks him down and leaves him blind for three days after saying, Saul, Saul, why did you persecute me? Then his eyes were opened, and this was the beginning of his conversion. It is not a total conversion. At the end of his days, St. Paul will say something beautiful: I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, a crown of glory awaits me, because it is not longer I that live but Christ who lives in me.
This year that begins today the Lord is doing a miracle so that Christ may live in each one of us. He does not live intellectually in us. Christ does not live in the head but in the heart. Christ lives in all of our lives. That is why we cannot say that we have Christ when we cannot love the one who is next to us nor even those not so close to us. We cannot say that we have Christ inside of us since I don’t do the good I want but the evil in front of me. Lord, help me to fight, help me to finish the race.
How wonderful it is that the Lord makes of us mothers of God. Today at this Eucharist we are not receiving a symbol of Christ but the true Christ and when he enters you, like it or not, you leave as the mother of God. Do you think you are worthy of Christ living in you. Will we be worthy to bear Christ in us? I don’t think so. Even so he would still like to dwell in us, and will he not be disgusted? Not at all! On this first day of the year this gospel helps us to believe that the path we are called on to live the entire year is to have Mary as our Mother. Christ can be begotten in us and not only in us but also in others that through the preaching, the witnessing, and above all by our way of life they are able to see Christ. Then you are begetting Christ in them. You can beget Christ in your mother-in-law who doesn’t have a clue about him. You can beget Christ in your boss who is a slavedriver and only thinks of money. You can love them and forgive them, and they will conceive Christ in themselves this year.
This gospel is the second part of the Christmas gospel. The shepherds go and tell people what the angel had announced to them, and the people were astonished at what the shepherds told them. God does not lie to us. He doesn’t say go and announce something and then you regret it. God doesn’t make you a promise and then break it when you misbehave. God does what he says. This is the sign that you will find: a child lying in a manger and wrapped in swaddling clothes, and you will see the humility of God, the love of God made flesh in a small child. And the shepherds returned glorifying and praising God because when one encounters God’s love, they can only give him glory and praise for all that they have seen and heard. This is faith.
Faith enters by hearing and seeing so it is necessary to listen to what they tell you about God and when they speak of this love that God has for you, when they tell you that God is good and loves you and thinks well of you. He makes no demands of you and is always ready to forgive you. Actually, after listening you will be able to see what was told to you, this gives faith. Listen and then seeing for without seeing we cannot be a Christian.
It is necessary that the shepherds enter the manger that as you can imagine is not full of garland, Christmas songs and beautiful lights. Imagine what it is like to enter a cave where animals live, to enter a garbage dump where God is waiting there for you. This garbage is what is in our hearts and the Lord is within us. The Word is in your mouth and in your hearts Scripture says. Look for him there, look for him inside of you because you are a son of God and you have a father and a mother, how wonderful.
Today let us ask the Virgin to give us this humility and simplicity to be able to find him where no one is looking for him, in the middle of a manger.