To all the brothers and sisters of the Oases – Realities of Koinonia John the Baptist
Christ is risen!
“His mother treasured all these things in her heart”
(Lk 2,51b)
Dearest sisters, dearest brothers,
Messianic expectation arrives at its fulfilment with the birth of Jesus Christ, Son of God and Son of Mary. The Gospels tell us that the first witnesses of this event were some shepherds and, soon after, wise men who had come from the East, better known to us as the kings or the Magi. We don’t know what they truly understood from what they saw and contemplated, but we do know that, with trust, they let themselves be guided by prophetic words and signs.
Mary and Joseph were certainly conscious of the singularity of what was happening: Mary, having not known relations with man, and Joseph, nourished by full trust in his wife and in his Lord.
Evidently, Mary holds a unique and privileged place in the plan of salvation. The way that Christian Tradition expresses this exceptionality is found in the litanies dedicated to her. The Ital- ian poet Dante Alighieri addresses her with these words:
“O Virgin Mother, daughter of your Son,
more humble, yet more exalted than all other creatures.
Chosen to fulfil the eternal plan of God,
you brought nobility to our human nature
such, that He who created us
did not disdain becoming one of us.”
(Dante’s Paradise, Canto 33)
In a more sober and essential fashion, The New Testament refers to her as woman, spouse, and above all as mother. It highlights those aspects which characterised her motherhood: believ- ing in the exceptional words addressed to her, welcoming them, and treasuring them in the depths of her heart, together with the events to which she is a witness and for which there is no natural explanation.
Even if indirectly, The Son Himself is the one that praises His mother. When stirred by a woman who says: “Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breasts that nursed you!”, He responds, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it!” (Lk 11:27-28). As such, Mary is the model in how she believed and observed the Word, rather than for her motherhood, an event which was exclusively by divine intervention. So much so that Saint Augustine will later affirm: “it means more for Mary to have been a disciple of Christ than to have been the mother of Christ” (Sermon 72/A,7).
As such, dear friends, let us begin this season of Advent with the awareness that we are not just spectators of this wonderful birth, but called to welcome and treasure the seed of the Word of the Lord, which makes our hearts fruitful and renders them always more like His. Just like Mary did.
The lifelong process of conversion is like a long spiritual pregnancy in which the new person in Christ is formed in the depths of our hearts and is manifest through our language and our be- haviour. Therefore, let us not be discouraged by what threatens our gestation or development, but let’s make the most of this time by investing it more in prayer, and guarding His Word which has the power to create even what does not yet exist. It is a pregnancy that is not bound to ‘gender’, but to being a new creation.
I therefore wish you a fruitful season of Advent and a Happy Christmas.
Cogollo del Cengio, 22nd November 2024
Fr. Giuseppe De Nardi
Pastor General
