Romana

“I rejoice heartily in the Lord, in my God is the joy of my soul; for he has clothed me with a robe of salvation, and wrapped me in a mantle of justice, like a bride adorned with her jewels” (Is 61:10). These words from the entrance antiphon of today’s liturgy, taken from the book of Isaiah, are applied by the Church to the Blessed Virgin, who rejoices in God’s great gift. We too make these words our own and would truly like to rejoice greatly in the Lord before the beauty of our Immaculate Mother, full of grace, whose Immaculate Conception we celebrate today in a special way.

Today, the liturgy, in the Gospel, offers us a text that we have not only read and meditated on many times, but that is constantly present in our lives: in the Angelus, in the Rosary, in the Hail Mary... We can re-enter this extraordinary scene (cf. Lk 1:26-38). “In those days, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary.” The angel’s greeting then follows: “Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you”.

It is marvelous to see how at first the angel, on God’s behalf, doesn’t address our Lady by her name, but as “full of grace,” as though that were – and in a certain sense it is – her real name, even though he later calls her by her proper name, “Mary.” “Full of grace” doesn’t mean only having the fullness of some quality, but also that she has been transformed by grace. And what does this mean? Grace produces divinization: a full configuration – as far as we can imagine it – with the divine nature. It cannot be absolute fullness, as is only logical, but it is a reality that theology cannot fully comprehend; it can, however, admire and give thanks for it. Because that greatness belongs to our Mother.

After receiving such a surprising announcement (being called full of grace, being chosen to be the Mother of God who takes on flesh in her womb), our Mother considers herself a servant. Ecce ancilla Domini – behold the handmaid of the Lord. And with St. Josemaría, we now say to Mary: “Mother, Oh Mother! With that word of yours – fiat, ‘be it done’ – you have made us brothers and sisters of God and heirs of his glory. Blessed are you!” (The Way, no. 512). Today we contemplate, as a consequence of the Immaculate Conception and the fullness of grace in Mary our Mother, that with her fiat she has made it possible for us, because God so willed it, to become brothers and sisters of God: because we are brothers and sisters of Christ, children of God the Father and heirs of his glory; heirs of heaven, of the fullness of happiness.

The second reading offers us some words from St. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians that we have often meditated on: “he chose us in him – in Christ – before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and unspotted in his sight in charity” (Eph 1:4). Hearing these words once again should give us great assurance, because it is God who has chosen us from the beginning, before the creation of the world, to be holy and spotless. And we, who see ourselves as so far from being holy and without stain, can have the assurance that God has chosen us precisely for that goal.

Therefore, he gives us the grace and the certainty that we can attain it; that we will not lack his light and his help to go forward, to become holy, without stain in his presence through love. “He chose us before the foundation of the world”: this is something truly remarkable and mysterious, because we can never fully comprehend God’s eternity and his relationship – let’s put it this way – with our temporality. But we can say, because he has chosen to reveal it to us through St. Paul, that each of us has been in God’s mind since before the world was created. And he has chosen us in Him, in Christ.

The whole meaning of our life is linked to the incarnation of God, to Christ Jesus, so that the very meaning of our existence is identification with Him. Therefore, we want our every effort to be – and we ask this of you now in our prayer, Lord – to seek you, to identify ourselves with you; because the whole meaning of our life lies in our union with you. To attain this, we strive to be united to Christ when facing external and internal adversities, worries and concerns. For we shouldn’t be surprised to encounter, at times, external adversities and also interior ones: worries, concerns, disappointments.

Being without blemish is also a goal that was always a reality in the Virgin Mary, and to which we are called: to live like that, without blemish. This requires a struggle to purify our heart: to purify our intentions, to seek everything that God’s loving demands imply in our vocation. St. Paul goes on to say that we must live like this, without blemish, in his presence. God’s presence fills us with security; certainly, on our part, we need to seek it, to reaffirm it, to be aware of it. But above all, it is a reality, even if we sometimes do not realize it: God is always with us. That is our security.

This reality of a God who is with us was found in its fullness in the Virgin Mary. And we ask her: Mother of ours, help us, on the one hand, to have a stronger faith in the certainty that God is with us; and, at the same time, help us to use the means needed to constantly be aware of God’s presence. To be aware of a presence that is a presence of love, that helps us realize we are lovingly watched over by God at all times.

We ask the Virgin Mary: Mother, help us to direct our gaze; may it not be short-sighted, limited to what is immediately around us. Because, at the same time that we want to realize we are being watched over, we also want to look at God without rest and without tiredness. To be looked upon and to look: that is, in essence, the dynamics of the presence of God, which is not simply thinking about something; it is much more: it is looking, it is seeing with faith, and knowing that we are lovingly looked upon by God at all times (cf. Friends of God, no. 307). May the Virgin Mary, our Mother, give us these eyes to see.

What can we give to God? If God is infinite, if God is the Almighty, the one who has everything... And yet, surprisingly, we can give Him something he doesn’t have. It seems like a contradiction, but we can give Him our love, because he has chosen to need it, without really needing it. But in this mystery (to the extent that we can contemplate it, even vaguely), that is how it is. God wants us to love Him; he wants our love. And we can deny Him that, and so often we do, even though in small things. Let us ask our Lady to make us aware that God wants our love; that he has wanted to need us and that he desires, most especially, that we love others: that we love God by loving others, seeing in them people loved by God.

It is not just a matter of seeing someone we should love; we must see in every human person – and even more so in those close to us – someone who is loved by God. Therefore, how much are we all worth, despite our miseries and weaknesses? How much are our brothers and sisters worth? They are worth what someone loved by God is worth. Thus every person, even the least in this world, is loved by God.

And so we ask you, our Mother, to enkindle our zeal for souls, because they are all loved by your Son. We would like to imitate you in your Immaculate Conception; certainly, we cannot imitate your conception, but we can imitate your purity. Mother of ours, we want our response to the Lord to always be like yours: may it be an authentic fiat, a decisive fiat, as so often it already is.

We want it to be so more frequently. And we desire that this be the deepest exercise of our freedom: to want, Lord, what you want. May our choices, our exercise of freedom, always involve that fiat, let it be done. Lord, may we truly want – because we feel like it – to do what you want. May we never do something as if we were being forced, even though this sometimes happens because we are weak. But we would like it never to be something forced, but rather that we do it with complete freedom, even in the things that cost us the most, even in the things that make us suffer: to do it because we want to, because we feel like it.

We ask the Immaculate Virgin with daring to help us to be like her in her purity, especially in the sense of always seeking the good, always seeking the Lord, wanting to do the Work, forgetting about ourselves. That is the great cleanness we want, which we already have – thank God – but which can be even greater, deeper, purer.

Mother of ours, help us to imitate you in being immaculate, without blemish, in whatever is possible in our lives; but above all, in our intention. May we know how to rectify and purify it with joy, always turning to our Lady. Today, we especially ask her for this cleanness of soul and heart, which is, in a way, the engine that will lead us to give ourselves ever more fully, to serve and, as a result, to be happy, to be very happy. Because our Mother – like every good mother, and even more so, since she is the greatest and most perfect Mother – wants only the happiness of her children.