PRAISED BE JESUS, MARY, AND
JOSEPH!
Inspired by the Holy Spirit, Mary
breaks into song. She glorifies God for the wonderful things the He has done
for her – such wonderful things that will identify her as blessed and loved by
God. Her song is one of gratitude for God looked with favor upon her lowliness.
She recognized the fact that even her election as God’s Mother is sheer grace
coming from God.
Recognizing the wonderful things
God has done for her, Mary begins singing about the wonderful things that God
is about to do for the world. She sings about the inversion of the social
order. She sings of how God constantly sides with the poor, the hungry, and the
humble. She sings of how God will bring down the proud, the mighty, and the
rich. “God shows the poor ‘his first mercy’. This divine preference has
consequences for the faith life of all Christians, since we are called to have
‘this mind…which was in Jesus Christ. Inspired by this, the Church has made an
option for the poor which is understood as a ‘special form of primacy in the
exercise of Christian charity…” (Evangelii Gaudium, 198.)
Because God sides with the poor,
we have to be, at all times, in the side of God. Thus, Pope Francis says: “I
want a Church which is poor and for the poor. They have much to teach us…In
their difficulties, they know the suffering Christ. We need to let ourselves be
evangelized by them. The new evangelization is an invitation to acknowledge the
saving power at work in their lives and to put them at the center of the
Church’s pilgrim way. We are called to find Christ in them, to lend our voice
to their causes, but also to be their friends, to listen to them, to speak for
them, and to embrace the mysterious wisdom which God wishes to share with us
through them.” Pope Francis speaks of a loving attentiveness which we must give
to the poor. This loving attentiveness entails “appreciating the poor in their
goodness, in their experience of life, in their culture, in their ways of
living the faith. True love is always contemplative , and permits us to serve
the other not out of necessity or vanity, but because he or she is beautiful
above and beyond mere appearances…The
poor person, when loved, ‘is esteemed as of great value.’…only on the basis of
this real and sincere closeness can we properly accompany the poor on their
path of liberation. Only this will ensure that in every Christian community,
the poor feel at home. This approach (would be) the greatest and the most
effective presentation of the good news of the Kingdom.” (EG, 199.)
This preferential option for the
poor would demand from ourselves, as a parish, the need to address the lack of
spiritual care which the poor suffer. “The great majority of the poor have a
special openness to the faith; they need God and we must not fail to offer them
his friendship, his blessing, his word, the celebration of the sacraments and a
journey of growth and maturity in the faith. Our preferential option for the
poor must mainly translate into a privileged and preferential religious care.”
(EG, 200)
“None of us can think that we are
exempt from concern for the poor and for social justice: Spiritual conversion,
the intensity of the love of God and neighbor, zeal for justice and peace, the
Gospel meaning of the poor and of poverty, are required of everyone.” (EG,
201.) Therefore, in Christ, we are to
find our anointing to bring glad tidings to the poor, to announce to them the
year of favor coming from the Lord.
Jesus, I trust in you. O Mary
conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.
No comments:
Post a Comment