Homily of Bishop Paolo for the Nativity of Mary

His Excellency Bishop Paolo Martinelli celebrated a Solemn Mass for the Feast of the Nativity of Mary at St. Joseph's Cathedral Abu Dhabi on 7 September.

Below is the full text of the homily delivered during the occasion.

Dear Sisters and Brothers,

Peace and joy from the Lord Jesus.

Today we celebrate the feast of the Nativity of Mary, a feast so popular and so loved by the people of God. Why do we feel this holy day is so important? Because Mary is the mother of Jesus, mother of God, mother of the Church and therefore mother of all of us. Today we remember the birth of the mother. All the mothers were once children, and so was Mary of Nazareth.
 

We could call this feast: the feast of hope that every beginning brings along with it. Today we celebrate the birth of a woman, a daughter who is destined to become a mother and give the world Jesus, the son of God. The feast of the Nativity of Blessed Mary is therefore a feast of hope. Mary of Nazareth is the dawn of our redemption. The memory of her birth fills us with hope. If we think about it, even in our families the birth of a child is always a sign of hope. When a child is born, we are filled with positive thoughts about the future. Parents get older but children continue their parents' work into the future.

Pope John XXIII said that every child born is a sign that God is not tired of Humanity and wants to continue to give us life. This experience, which we all have in our families, leads us to understand the importance of the positive relationship between generations. To live our time with hope, we must live the relationship between generations well. How important is the peaceful bond between parents and children, between grandparents and grandchildren! None of us can understand ourselves if we remain alone.

Nobody is able to give life to oneself. Each receives life from someone who comes before us, from father and mother; in the same way, no one can hold back their own life. Each of us is called to hand over himself and his works to the future generation. This is why hope is linked to the social bond between people. A person isolated and alone remains without hope and folds in on himself, closing himself off in selfishness.

On the contrary, the relationship between generations, the relationship between parents and children opens our life to the future. The relationship between generations is well described by the image of a tree: it takes deep roots to be able to grow, develop branches and bear fruit. Parents are the roots and children are the branches that bear fruit. It is nice to see how the life of each of us is connected with that of others.

For this reason, today's Gospel also wanted to present the genealogy of Jesus and tell us about his conception. He, too, who is God's son, wanted to be inscribed in the relationship between generations to become a man like us.

It is nice to hear the name of all the patriarchs who are linked by a bond of generation, reaching as far as St. Joseph, Spouse of Mary, from whom Jesus was born. God builds a history of salvation with us. The son of God enters the bond of generations to bring us the life of God. God does not enter the world in a magical or mythological way, he becomes one like us by being born of a woman, Mary of Nazareth.

At this point, we can ask ourselves a final question: if it is true that the birth of a child is always a sign of great hope because it opens us to the possibility of the future, what is the specific hope that the birth of Mary reminds us of today?

Certainly, when a child is born we feel hope blossom in our hearts because that human life will go beyond ourselves who are mortal. But the hope that the Child Mary brings to us is different because she will be the mother of new life, she will be the mother of Jesus our redeemer and winner of death. Mary gives us the greatest hope with Jesus: the victory over evil and death, the resurrection.

This opens up to all of us the hope not only of facing the future but of participating in eternal life. So we also look at the relationship between generations in a different way. Children become hope not only because they will be protagonists of the future, but because they are made sharers in the risen life of Christ who overcomes death. How beautiful it is that parents want to baptize their children! Because with baptism, children already become participants in the victory of Jesus.

In this way, everyone, parents and children, are called in Christ Jesus to live as children of God, free from the fear of death and sure of being loved with a love stronger than death. The nativity of Mary of Nazareth reminds us that Jesus is our hope because Jesus gives us eternal life.

Dear Brother and Sisters, let us entrust all our families to the Blessed Virgin Mary; we entrust all our children to Mother Mary.

May her intercession support us on our journey towards the fullness of life where there will be joy without end.