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Columns | Friday, December 15, 2017

Christ was in Mary, and she was in Christ

Bishop Baldacchino's homily on feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe

Bishop Peter Baldacchino takes part in the re-enactment of the Guadalupe apparition, as St. Juan Diego brings roses to the bishop along with the message of Mary. When Juan Diego opens his tilma and the roses fall forward, the image of Mary is revealed.

Photographer: COURTESY | Sr. Elizabeth Worley

Bishop Peter Baldacchino takes part in the re-enactment of the Guadalupe apparition, as St. Juan Diego brings roses to the bishop along with the message of Mary. When Juan Diego opens his tilma and the roses fall forward, the image of Mary is revealed.

Miami Auxiliary Bishop Peter Baldacchino preached this homily Dec. 12, 2017, feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in Doral.

Thank you, Father [Israel] Mago, priests, deacons, parishioners of Our Lady of Guadalupe Church, benefactors, brothers and sisters in Christ, for your warm welcome to Our Lady of Guadalupe Church.

I am very glad to be here once again to celebrate with you today, the second anniversary of the consecration of your beautiful church on the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, patroness of the Americas.

Indeed, we see that the devotion to the Virgin Mary who appeared to Blessed Juan Diego on the hill of Tepeyac on December 12, 1531, has grown steadily over these past almost 500 years, as from a tiny drop of water into an immense river, of prayers, of blessings and of graces. It all started with an act of faith and developed into an event whose theological effects are still growing. The Virgin of Guadalupe is the Mother and Star of the Evangelization of the Americas. The command to build a Church in her honor, addressed to Juan Diego, is still alive and necessary today.

Millones de fieles católicos devotos, cada año rezan con fervor a la Virgen María en el Santuario en Ciudad de México y en todo el mundo, seguros de que ella es la mediadora que intercede a su favor ante el Padre.

Pero es cierto que la Virgen María, y su intercesión por nosotros, está en función de llevarnos hacia su hijo, nuestro Señor Jesucristo, y por medio de él a Dios. Nuestro amor para María nace y se completa únicamente si nos lleva a una más profunda comunión con nuestro Señor, de tal manera que él pueda seguir en la Iglesia vivo, para llevar a cabo su misión en el mundo contemporáneo, que tanto lo necesita. ¿Y qué es lo que Cristo lleva al mundo? ¿Qué es lo característico, lo necesario, lo imprescindible para cada católico creyente?

What is specific about Christianity and what makes our Catholic faith so relevant for our daily lives, is the hope of the Resurrection, the certainty that death is not the last word on the history of man. St. Paul reminds us of this when he tells us: “Christ is risen from the dead, as a first fruit of those who have died.” He is the “first born among those who have died,” it is he who opened the way and is now waiting for us in his kingdom.

Yet we must recognize that it is indeed extremely difficult to truly believe this truth of faith, to adhere to this reality, that is sacramentally made present and given to us in every Eucharist that we celebrate. Every Mass is indeed the sacrament of our Lord’s death and resurrection. But, do we truly believe that Christ is risen for us? Do we truly believe in the eternal life that is waiting for us after our death? If we are sincere with ourselves, we must admit that our faith is many times weak, and does not translate into the events we encounter in our daily lives, in the work place, in our families and communities.

Today’s feast of the Patroness of the Americas wants to help us to better live and experience this unfathomable reality first hand.

Mass at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in Doral was filled to capacity Dec. 12, as the parish marked the feast day of its patroness and the second anniversary of the dedication of their church and parish buildings. A gold crown, blessed by Auxiliary Bishop Peter Baldacchino,  has been added above the image of Mary.

Photographer: COURTESY | Sr. Elizabeth Worley

Mass at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in Doral was filled to capacity Dec. 12, as the parish marked the feast day of its patroness and the second anniversary of the dedication of their church and parish buildings. A gold crown, blessed by Auxiliary Bishop Peter Baldacchino, has been added above the image of Mary.

El profeta Zacarias en nuestra primera lectura hoy, nos invita a cantar y a regocijarnos, a no vivir una vida – como muchas veces dice el Papa Francisco – llena de tristeza y de mirarse a sí mismo, ¡sino a vivir alegres! Me acuerdo que, durante el día de la juventud en Brasil en el 2013, cuanto estas palabras del Santo Padre habían animado los jóvenes que yo estaba acompañando en su peregrinación. ¡Regocijen! Si el mandato de Dios antes de la Pascua de Resurrección era “Amaos los unos a los otros,” luego de que ha resucitado, el Señor nos dice sencillamente “Alégrense.” Y la alegría del cristiano no es como la alegría del mundo, efímera y dependiente de muchas condiciones exteriores. El cristiano puede estar alegre en toda circunstancia y en todo momento, aún en el dolor y en el llanto, porque Cristo ha resucitado. Y, les repito la pregunta: ¿tenemos hoy esta certeza?¿La resurrección de Cristo se convierte hoy en una esperanza viva en nosotros?

El profeta Zacarias nos dice que él habitará, entre nostros, que muchas naciones serán su pueblo y que Dios pondrá su morada entre nosotros.

En la Virgen María esta promesa se ha hecho realidad, se ha realizado totalmente. En ella verdaderamente Dios puso su morada, en su seno ella ha acogido al salvador del Mundo, de tal manera que, de ella, Cristo ha nacido para nosotros.

La Iglesia nos recuerda el sentido teológico de esta verdad de fe, que ocurrió, en modo virginal, sin intervención humana y por obra del Espíritu Santo, María ha dado humana naturaleza al hijo eterno del padre. En modo virginal, de María ha nacido un cuerpo santo animado por un alma racional, a quien se ha unido el verbo de Dios. Esto es lo que creemos, que María es la madre, siempre Virgen, del Verbo encarnado.

Yet faith cannot be just a sterile belief of the mind, it has to mold not only our spirit but indeed our concrete life of every day. For this reason, the Virgin Mary comes to our help, enabling us to give an answer to the challenging question I had asked you at the very beginning of this homily.

The Gospel we have just proclaimed helps us in this regard: Mary, with her Magnificat, her answer to the words of Elizabeth, tells us something very simple but at the same time very basic: eternal life for each one of us begins here and now: My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my savior, for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant. From this day, all generations will call me blessed, for He has done great things for me, and Holy is his name. He has shown the strength of his arm, has exalted the lowly, the hungry he feeds with good things.

This is how the Gospel we proclaimed today continues the Magnificat: From this day! Mary believes that what the Lord has done in her is an image of what He will do for all generations through the Church. She does not simply hope that these prophecies will be fulfilled, she already sees them fulfilled! Mary believes in the coming of a universal salvation, for which all people are exalted, and all the promises made to Israel are fulfilled. Mary believes all, and for all of us, because she has been the first to have lived the experience of this salvation. Mary, in her response to the greeting of Elizabeth, starting with herself moves forward to ultimately foresee a universal dimension. Her proclamation of the Glory of God, her exultation, that biblically resembles the Hebrew “beraja,” manifests to the world the plan of God. Indeed, she knows that all humankind will be exalted, because He has looked ‘with favor’ at her lowliness as a servant. She already experiences the outpouring of the mercy of God, and so she already believes in the outpouring of the mercy of God on all, “from generation to generation.”

Pero, ¿cual fue la experiencia que la Virgen María ha hecho por todos y en que estaba creyendo por todos? Un angel le habia hablado, ... ¿pero era esto suficiente para motivar una fe tan grande? No! Lo que estaba dando a María esta certeza, esta fe tan grande, fue su experiencia de Dios, un encuentro con El, una relación tan grande que era ya el centro de toda su vida. María creía que Dios salvaba al mundo entero porque Dios era en ella, y ella en Dios. Lo llevaba consigo en su seno, y su espíritu exultaba en él, su salvador.

Esta es la certeza de María, y la ayuda que ella nos quiere dar en este dia tan hermoso para todos nosotros.

Her journey towards her cousin Elizabeth, is the first fruit of the new life living in her. She is stirred by the desire to be near a barren woman who is now pregnant by the merciful intervention of God, and for whom nothing is impossible. The love of the young girl of Nazareth fills the old Elizabeth with the Holy Spirit, that is the spirit of Love; and, the old woman can immediately recognize in Mary’s faith the source of this exchange of love. “Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled.” Elizabeth recognizes that Christ was in Mary, and that she was in Christ. In Mary, this indwelling of God was complete, but this is also the hope of every Christian, albeit not in such a complete form. We too are called to live in Christ, because the Easter hope given to us through our baptism, becomes life. In Christ, all are called to receive eternal life. This is the great destiny of humanity that the Church is called to incarnate (to make flesh in this generation!), to announce, and to bring to all mankind. If this life in Christ is indeed a mystery, then Mary is the evidence that this mystery can be revealed to us through a proper initiation into faith. We all are called to experience it in its fullness, and for this reason our baptism simply cannot be left unattended, parked in the backyard of our life, just waiting to be activated when something we do not understand, or we don’t like, or a cross we cannot seem to bear comes our way. If our baptism does not become mature in our daily lives, we may run the risk that when we truly need to rely on it, we shall discover that it had totally dried up.

We all need to have our baptism grow from a seed that is hidden in the ground, to a tree that is able to produce fruit; this fruit is the evangelization of the world. But the first ones who need to be evangelized are us, WE who are in the church, WE who are called to become the salt of the earth, and the light of the world.

Como a Juan Diego, tambien hoy la Virgen María nos invita a construir una Iglesia, no hecha de piedras, sino viva en los corazones de sus miembros.

El Papa San Juan Pablo II, precisamente en este día, hace 34 años, en Puebla, lanzó la nueva evangelización del continente latinoamericano. Evangelización nueva en su pasión, sus métodos y sus expresiones. Y yo también, por la responsabilidad que me ha sido dada por el episcopado, quiero animar a todos ustedes para que la fe pueda estar más profundamente arraigada en sus corazones, como fundamento de sus vidas.

Les encomiendo a todos ustedes, queridos hermanas y hermanos, cercanos y lejanos, a la intercesión amorosa de la Virgen de Guadalupe, nuestra Madre Celestial, y deseo encomendar el destino de todas las Naciones Americanas hacia un futuro mejor, a través de la intercesión de los muchos santos que este continente ha dado, como modelos heroicos de virtudes cristianas, para que su ejemplo aliente una nueva evangelización bajo la mirada de María, madre y estrella de la nueva evangelización. Así sea. AMEN.

Bishop Peter Baldacchino blesses the gold crown that has been added above the image of Mary at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in Doral. The church was filled to capacity Dec. 12, as the parish marked the feast day of its patroness and the second anniversary of the dedication of their church and parish buildings.

Photographer: COURTESY | Sr. Elizabeth Worley

Bishop Peter Baldacchino blesses the gold crown that has been added above the image of Mary at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in Doral. The church was filled to capacity Dec. 12, as the parish marked the feast day of its patroness and the second anniversary of the dedication of their church and parish buildings.


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