The Immaculate Conception: A Message of Surrender and Mercy
During the Angelus on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, Pope Francis reflects on the pervasive struggle for possession and dominance, the hunger for wealth, the desire for powerful friends, and the false, glittering models portrayed by the media and the internet. He urges us to embrace docility in the mercy of the Father, just as the Virgin Mary did with her “yes” to the Archangel Gabriel. “Today is a beautiful day to decide to make a good Confession,” he advises. “The Lord forgives everything.”
Antonella Palermo – Vatican City
Mary entrusted her destiny to good hands. This is the message conveyed by Pope Francis in his catechesis during the Sunday Angelus on the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, on the eve of the opening of the Holy Door for the Jubilee. The humble and unknown girl from the peripheries becomes the center of a new story. How willing are we, in a troubled and dark era, to act as she did before the Archangel Gabriel? This is the central question the Pope poses today.
Desire for Dominance or Trust in God’s Mercy?
Contemplating the scene narrated at the beginning of the Gospel of Luke, which the Pope recommends revisiting, he raises questions relevant to our times. Once again, the Pontiff expresses concern about individualism and its consequences:
“In our time, marked by wars and focused on the effort to possess and dominate, where do I place my hope? In strength, money, powerful friends, or in the infinite mercy of God? Faced with the many false, glamorous models circulating in the media and on the internet, where do I seek my happiness? Where is the treasure of my heart? Is it in the fact that God loves me freely, that His love always precedes me, and He is ready to forgive me when I repent and return to Him? Or do I delude myself by trying to assert my ego and will at all costs?”
READ THE FULL TEXT OF THE CATECHESIS HERE
In Mary, the Encounter of Human and Divine
Human and divine merge “with a marvelous delicacy” in that word spoken by Mary. It is “a blessed moment,” emphasizes the Pope. The fate of all humanity depended on the attitude of a woman from Nazareth.
“Just as in Michelangelo’s scene of the creation of Adam in the Sistine Chapel, where the finger of the Heavenly Father touches that of man, here too, the human and the divine meet at the beginning of our Redemption, in the blessed moment when the Virgin Mary utters her ‘yes’.”
Take Time for a Beautiful Confession
Finally, the Pope invites everyone to the Spanish Steps, where he will go in the afternoon as customary on this feast day, for the Act of Veneration to Mary Immaculate, which he reminds us is linked to the service of the Word of God that each one is called to renew daily. Here, off-script, Francis adds a piece of advice: “Today is a beautiful day to decide to make a good confession. If you can’t go today, by next Sunday, open your heart and the Lord forgives everything, everything, everything. And so, in the hands of Mary, we will be happier…” Because Mary is pure surrender, unconditional love.
“In her, there is nothing that resists her will, nothing that opposes truth and charity. This is her beatitude, which all generations will sing. Let us also rejoice because the Immaculate has given us Jesus, our salvation!”
Photogallery
Some snapshots from St. Peter’s Square
