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December 2, 2024We are in the precious time of Advent that leads us to Christmas and to begin the Holy Jubilee of the Lord 2025. It is a time of vigilance, waiting and prayer. We want to arrive at Christmas with hearts free from worries and sins and welcome Christ the Lord with joy.
Furthermore, today is the National Day of the United Arab Emirates. In this Holy Mass I would like to invite all of you to pray for this nation in which we live and are welcomed. Let us pray for the rulers and for all those who work to maintain peace, order and prosperity.
The sacred scriptures that we have heard bring us some interesting light to celebrate the National Day.
First of all, we find the universalistic vision that the prophet Isaiah announces to us; he contemplates the gathering of all the peoples on the mountain of the temple of the Lord: All the nations will stream to it, peoples without number will come to it…. They will hammer their swords into ploughshares, their spears into sickles. Nation will not lift sword against nation, there will be no more training for war.
This is an image that consoles us a lot, especially in our time, where so many conflicts mark humanity and violent division between peoples. God's will, instead, is that all peoples can gather and celebrate together and live in peace. God's plans are plans for peace and not for war.
National Day allows us to remember that since its foundation in 1971, thanks to the Father of the Nation, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the United Arab Emirates is a country that promotes tolerance, hospitality and prosperity for those who live and work here.
Here, people from over two hundred nationalities live together, with different cultures, languages and religions. We are grateful to the authorities for the peace and security that we can enjoy in this nation. As Catholics, we want to give our strong contribution to the building up of a more fraternal and human world.
Finally, the Gospel presents us with the encounter of Jesus with the centurion, a foreign man to the people of the ancient covenant, belonging to the Roman Empire, a pagan man. Jesus listens to him. He admires him for his great faith that was greater than the faith he found among his own people - and performs the miracle of healing his sick servant, and concludes with these moving words: "I tell you that many will come from east and west to take their places with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob at the feast in the kingdom of heaven".
We see in these words of Jesus the prophecy of Isaiah confirmed. In this way Jesus reminds us that the kingdom of God is for all peoples; God wants us all to live as brothers and sisters in peace, solidarity and love.
While we pray in this Holy Mass for this Nation, for its leaders so that they may always be guided by divine wisdom, let us continue our journey of Advent, asking the Lord Jesus that he may come among us again and reign in our hearts.
May the Lord grant peace and reconciliation to all the people of the earth.
May the Virgin Mary, Queen of Peace, protect our nation and the entire world.
