By Archbishop Thomas Wenski - The Archdiocese of Miami
Homily by Archbishop Thomas Wenski at Mass with Pastoral Center employees as part of the annual Christmas lunch an employee recognition event. Miami Shores, Dec. 10, 2025.
This week finds us in the Second Week of Advent. Advent, of course, is the prelude of Christmas and liturgically is meant to call to prepare appropriately for the Birth of the Word made Flesh by taking care of any necessary “house cleaning” in our personal lives and relationships. Thus, the purple vestments call us to penance and repentance so that we heed John Baptizer’s call to “make ready the way of the Lord”.
This week also finds us using the more festive liturgical color of white to mark three Marian feast days: the Immaculate Conception which we celebrated Monday and Friday we celebrate the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. But today we also celebrate a Marian feast which was made an “optional memorial” recently by Pope Francis: Our Lady of Loreto.
Loreto is a small southern Italian town whose claim to fame is that housed within the basilica dedicated to the Mother of God is a small house that is purported to be Mary’s home in Nazareth where she grew up parented by Sts. Anne and Joachim, where she heard the message of the archangel Gabriel, thus the site of the Annunciation and the Incarnation, where perhaps she and Joseph raised the Christ child. How and why this house got to Loreto and why the faithful including Popes like Pope Francis believed it to be house of the Holy Family is another story.
Nevertheless, rather than distracting us from the purpose of Advent, these Marian feasts during Advent act as a spiritual bridge, transitioning the faithful from a season of expectant waiting to the celebration of the Nativity.
Mary is the "bridge" over which Christ entered the world, making her the central figure in preparing for His birth.
Mary's simple "yes" (Fiat) to the Angel Gabriel embodies radical trust, which is central to Advent preparation.
Her sinless nature, preserved from the moment of her conception, shows the ideal state of a heart ready for Christ.
Through her, we learn to be open to God's surprises and find Him in unexpected ways, making her the perfect "bridge" to her Son.
Her Immaculate Heart mirrors how we must strive for that same purity of heart and intentions through prayer and charity to welcome the Lord fully.
Ad Jesum per Mariam. This Latin phrase, “To Jesus through Mary” reminds us of Mary’s crucial role in our Salvation History. God saves us but not without our cooperation, without our agency. Mary’s “yes” opens the world to hope – and it is our “yes” to God that allows Him to enter our lives. But to say “yes” to God as Mary did, we must learn to put aside, or to put in their proper place any secular distractions and remember that Jesus is the reason for the season.
After Mass, we will anticipate Christmas with our annual lunch and employee recognition. Christmas is a time of giving but you give of your time, talent and treasure every day – and I am grateful for all that you do. Merry Christmas to you and yours.
