Here and Now with Francis: 1/3/18 (Mary, silence, Christ, nativity)
From the Solemnity of Mary, Theotokos homily Devotion to Mary is not spiritual etiquette; it is a requirement of the Christian life. If our faith is not to be reduced merely to an idea or a doctrine, all of us need a mother’s heart . Let us now be guided by today’s Gospel. Only one thing is said about the Mother of God: “Mary kept all these things, pondering them in her heart” (Lk 2:19). She kept them. She simply kept; Mary does not speak. The Gospel does not report a single word of hers in the entire account of Christmas. Here too, the Mother is one with her Son: Jesus is an “infant”, a child “unable to speak”. The Word of God, who “long ago spoke in many and various ways” (Heb 1:1), now, in the “fullness of time” (Gal 4:4), is silent. The God before whom all fall silent is himself a speechless child. His Majesty is without words; his mystery of love is revealed in lowliness. This silence and lowliness is the language of...