Church of Jesus Christ of the Universe

by Mauro

(translated audio)

8.4.2024

Annunciation of the Lord

Acts 4:23-31; Ps 2; Jn 3: 1-8

 

Today we celebrate the Annunciation of the Lord, and it is particularly special since we are in Easter Time, where we witness resurrection and incarnation. We have the opportunity to contemplate all the salvation willed by God, all redemption: God who becomes flesh and God who resurrects and overcomes death.

We took the Monday readings of the Second Week of Easter and I think today’s Gospel¹ helps us to contemplate this mystery of the Incarnation. Jesus answers Nicodemus, «Unless one is born again from above, he cannot see the Kingdom of God»²; born again from above! For each one of us, for every man, this being born again from above, means being born again from Mary’s womb in the same way that Jesus Christ was born, in Mary Most Holy. As the Blessed Mary carried Jesus in her womb, She carries each one of us. Every one of us, every man who comes to meet Christ is because he was born from Mary Most Holy, he was born from Mary’s womb: he was born again from above. And it doesn’t matter how old you are in this being born again from above. Nicodemus asks, «How is this possible?»³ It is possible in the dimension of the spirit.

Mary is a mystery, but a mystery of a simplicity that can help us to undertake the same path as She did and that the Lord Jesus did. If we really contemplate Mary in a simple way, it appears something normal – of course brought to fullness as She did.

Mary is the Eucharistic Woman. We are told, «Live as living Eucharist, become living Eucharist.» Look at Mary: She carried the Eucharist within Her before it was even constituted. When She carried Jesus in her womb, did She not carry the Son of God in spirit, soul, body and divinity? She was already living Eucharist, She was already a living Tabernacle.

We have the Eucharist precisely in order to experience the same passages to the extent planned for each one of us. None of us can reach Mary’s greatness, but we can reach our fullness through the Eucharist, through communion, through prayer. As St. Paul says, «It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.»⁴ It was what Mary experienced in the normality of being Mother, with her yes⁵. Today, on this feast we celebrate what She said.

Let us look at her in the dimension where we know there is the first action: in spirit. What was the major action of Mary? It does not seem to me that there are any speeches of Mary in the Gospel, any encounters of Mary with this, with that person. Mary’s action was always and only in spirit: Her continuous yes, Her acceptance of what God put before Her every day – without ever doubting, without ever questioning. She reflected in her Heart, meditated in her Heart.⁶ But Mary’s meditating is not what we mean: go looking for confirmations, find them here and there, fit what we feel into our lives, find the space so that it fits in.

Mary’s meditation was, “What do I have to do to enter into what the Lord Jesus told me, into what God told me, into what the Holy Spirit told me?” That’s it. It was not her Person to seek anything but to serve God. That is different! It is not seeking to understand, it is not that She was meditating to understand what He wanted to tell Her, but to understand what She had to do. She was not questioning what was being said to Her, She was just trying to incarnate it.

There is a passage of these days that I invite myself and each one of you to make. From the Cross Jesus entrusts Mary to John, “Here is your Mother!”, “Here is your son!”. And from that day on he took Her into his house⁷, and until Mary was taken up into heaven She did not move. I invite each one of us to do the same at this time: take Mary into your home, as if Jesus – on that Friday that recently passed – had said to each one of us, “Here is your Mother!”, “Here is your son!” Take Her into your home, listen to Her, follow Her! Don’t look for anything else, you don’t need anything else. It is not a question now of what we should do, what we should say; stay with Mary. Let God’s instruments, the extraordinary ones⁸, carry it all forward. Let us stay with Mary. And this means choosing the best part⁹, because where Mary is, is the best part.

To be with Mary is to accompany God’s action, in Spirit, as She did. To be with Mary means to be God’s instruments in this time, since She is the instrument par excellence. So perhaps we need to ask ourselves: what should we learn from Mary Most Holy? I think we need to learn first of all to pray, we need to learn to worship, we need to learn to intercede, we need to learn to always bless, we need to learn not to discard anyone. But the greatest thing we must learn is silence, virginal silence; St Joseph¹⁰ told us about it, Mary was the highest expression of it.

St. Joseph, righteous among the righteous, has become, after Mary, the greatest man who has ever existed and who will ever exist. Why? Because he contemplated Mary. He became what he became by looking at Mary. By standing close to Mary, by looking at Mary, by listening to Mary’s silence he became St. Joseph. And I tell you that each one of you, each one of us, can go the same way by contemplating Mary.

Mary’s silence is not a passive silence, the Gospel makes this clear, “She meditated in her heart.”¹¹ But what was it that She meditated on? She knew how to recognise the voice of God, She knew the Scriptures very well, She knew… Look, when She was three years old, they took Her to the temple, She grew up in the temple, so She knew priests, high priests, She knew everything, but She knew how to listen to the voice of God who spoke to everyone.

She listened to the shepherds when they came to tell Her, “We have seen an Archangel who said to us: Glory to God in the highest,” and they told Her great things about that Child.¹² She listened to the Magi, from the east.¹³ Who are they? She listened to them. She listened to Simeon, “A sword will pierce your soul”, to the prophetess Anna¹⁴, She listened to them all. It is not that She said, “You are not a priest, I do not listen to you; you are not a bishop, you are not …”, I do not know what else there was back then, the Pharisee … She listened to everyone, and from everyone She knew how to recognise the voice of God, from everyone She knew how to immerse herself into silence and see what God was asking Her to do. Let us learn!

I say: we have not heard any speech of Mary, but Pentecost was born around Mary, the Church was born around Mary. And I am not ashamed to say: the Church is Mary. If there was no Mary there would be no Church, without Holy Mary there is no CHURCH, there is no Church. The Church is not around the Eucharist: the Church is around Mary who goes to the Eucharist, it is around Mary who goes to prayer, it is with Mary who goes to intercede, it is with Mary who prays. Take Mary away and I guarantee the Church lasts less than two seconds, it will disappear. Not because God does not build it up, but because man WITHOUT MARY is already well and truly finished. The Church is Mary, She generated it, She was born from Above, but She generated it and so each one of us.

She has never discarded anyone, She has never gone looking for anyone. She has always welcomed everyone, prayed for everyone, forgiven everyone, blessed everyone and prepared them all for the encounter with Jesus, and She continues to do so. It is Mary Most Holy who prepares and leads you to Jesus. She is the only one. Look that even the Archangels – sublime instruments, pure spirit – learn from Mary Most Holy, contemplate Mary Most Holy. Even the Archangels, for that which is prayer, learn from Mary Most Holy. They know how to stand before the throne of God; day and night they wait for God to send a message and they leave like arrows, that is their task, and already in doing that they are perfect. But that passage beyond prayer, that passage beyond being instruments that are here on Earth at this time also in this battle, they receive teachings and explanations from Mary Most Holy, even the Archangels.

Mary knew who She was carrying in her womb, didn’t She? She knew it was the Son of God, but even though She knew She was carrying the Son of God in her womb… that is, where we see Mary’s humility… She never… from the very beginning, She goes to her cousin Elizabeth. It is not Mary who goes to tell her, “I bear the Son of God”, it is Elizabeth who tells her, “To what do I owe that the Mother of my Lord should come to me?” ¹⁵ It is not She who says to her, “I…”, after which Mary praises, “My soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit exults in God”¹⁶ but only afterwards. She just goes. Ditto to the shepherds, ditto in the temple to Simeon. It is not She who says, “Behold I hold the Son of God, behold…”, it is the others who recognise Him.

So, when I say “let us learn from Mary”, I do not want to add anything else, but I think that already these things I hope each of you understands. What do we want to say? “I am here, I am of the Church, I am a priest, I have understood what prayer is, I have understood this, I have understood that?” I believe that from the moment that one of us has the courage to say “I have understood”, it means that he has understood nothing, it means that he is in darkness, because if Mary Most Holy, when someone spoke to Her, had to meditate on it in her Heart, She (!), and I allow myself to say “I have understood”. I beg of you, it is right that you say what you have understood, put the words “I think I have understood and I ask for your help that in communion you confirm it to me”, “I think I have understood; what do you say?”, “it seems to me that I have understood; what do you say?” If someone starts “I have understood…”.

She did not want to teach anyone, She only wanted to love everyone. Shall we learn from Mary? Teach no one, simply love. She told no one what they had to do, no one! Not even if you go and read Valtorta, I have read her far and wide. She just said, “Pray…, go to Jesus…, ask for forgiveness…, don’t worry…” She never told anyone, “Do this, do that”. The most She would say, She would send them to Jesus, that’s it. She was Mary Most Holy, She was the Church, She was the Mother, Co-Redemptrix, She was… She is! So, I believe that when I say to you, “Let’s welcome her into our home”, it is never too late to welcome Her, it is never too late to learn from Her, and we have never learnt enough from Her. Even those who already have Her in their homes, those who will say to me: “I have always had Her”, that’s fine, but it is never enough to learn from Mary Most Holy.

So let us again thank God for Mary Most Holy, this gift that I think is even greater than life, in the sense that without life I could not meet Mary, but without Mary I am aware that I could not enter life. So, I do not know who is greater, one cannot be without the other. Why give us the gift of life – life meaning “we exist” – and then we do not meet Mary. Perhaps it would be better to say, “It would be better not to be born”. They go together.

So, thanking God for the gift of Mary, I wish as a prayer for today, O Mother, that You help us to learn to listen, help us to do as You did to leave ourselves, to leave all our ideas behind to become your servants, because in my opinion being servants of the Handmaid of the Lord is the greatest gift we can receive. Thank you.