COMPLETE TEXT OF THE POPE'S HOMILY AT THE SHRINE OF OUR LADY OF CHARITY OF EL COBRE<\/p>\n
\tThe Gospel we have just heard tells us about something the Lord does every time he visits us: he calls us out of our house. \u00a0These are images which we are asked to contemplate over and over again. \u00a0God\u00e2??s presence in our lives never leaves us tranquil: it always pushes to do something. \u00a0When God comes, he always calls us out of our house. \u00a0We are visited so that we can visit others; we are encountered so as to encounter others; we receive love in order to give love.
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\n\tIn the Gospel we see Mary, the first disciple. \u00a0A young woman of perhaps between fifteen and seventeen years of age who, in a small village of Palestine, was visited by the Lord, who told her that she was to be the mother of the Savior. \u00a0Mary was far from 'thinking it was all about her\u00e2?\u009d, or thinking that everyone had to come and wait upon her; she left her house and went out to serve. \u00a0First she goes to help her cousin Elizabeth. \u00a0The joy which blossoms when we know that God is with us, with our people, gets our heart beating, gets our legs moving and 'draws us out of ourselves\u00e2?\u009d. \u00a0It leads us to take the joy we have received and to share it in service, in those 'pregnant\u00e2?\u009d situations which our neighbors or families may be experiencing. \u00a0The Gospel tells us that Mary went in haste, slowly but surely, with a steady pace, neither too fast nor so slow as never to get there. \u00a0Neither anxious nor distracted, Mary goes with haste to accompany her cousin who conceived in her old age. \u00a0Henceforth this was always to be her way. \u00a0She has always been the woman who visits men and women, children, the elderly and the young. \u00a0She has visited and accompanied many of our peoples in the drama of their birth; she has watched over the struggles of those who fought to defend the rights of their children. \u00a0And now, she continues to bring us the Word of Life, her Son, our Lord.
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\n\tThese lands have also been visited by her maternal presence. \u00a0The Cuban homeland was born and grew, warmed by devotion to Our Lady of Charity. \u00a0As the bishops of this country have written: 'In a special and unique way she has molded the Cuban soul, inspiring the highest ideals of love of God, the family and the nation in the heart of the Cuban people\u00e2?\u009d.
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\n\tThis was what your fellow citizens also stated a hundred years ago, when they asked Pope Benedict XV to declare Our Lady of Charity the Patroness of Cuba. \u00a0They wrote that 'neither disgrace nor poverty were ever able to crush the faith and the love which our Catholic people profess for the Virgin of Charity, for whom, in all their trials, when death was imminent or desperation was at the door, there arose, like a light scattering the darkness of every peril, like a comforting dew\u00e2?\u00a6, the vision of that Blessed Virgin, utterly Cuban and loved as such by our cherished mothers, blessed as such by our wives.\u00e2?\u009d
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\n\tIn this shrine, which keeps alive the memory of God\u00e2??s holy and faithful pilgrim people in Cuba, Mary is venerated as the Mother of Charity. \u00a0From here she protects our roots, our identity, so that we may never stray to paths of despair. \u00a0The soul of the Cuban people, as we have just heard, was forged amid suffering and privation which could not suppress the faith, that faith which was kept alive thanks to all those grandmothers who fostered, in the daily life of their homes, the living presence of God, the presence of the Father who liberates, strengthens, heals, grants courage and serves as a sure refuge and the sign of a new resurrection. \u00a0Grandmothers, mothers, and so many others who with tenderness and love were signs of visitation, valor and faith for their grandchildren, in their families. \u00a0They kept open a tiny space, small as a mustard seed, through which the Holy Spirit continued to accompany the heartbeat of this people.
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\n\t'Whenever we look to Mary, we come to believe once again in the revolutionary nature of love and tenderness\u00e2?\u009d (Evangelii Gaudium, 288). Generation after generation, day after day, we are asked to renew our faith. \u00a0We are asked to live the revolution of tenderness as Mary, our Mother of Charity, did. \u00a0We are invited to 'leave home\u00e2?\u009d and to open our eyes and hearts to others. \u00a0Our revolution comes about through tenderness, through the joy which always becomes closeness and compassion, and leads us to get involved in, and to serve, the life of others. \u00a0Our faith makes us leave our homes and go forth to encounter others, to share their joys, their hopes and their frustrations. \u00a0Our faith, 'calls us out of our house\u00e2?\u009d, to visit the sick, the prisoner and to those who mourn. \u00a0It makes us able to laugh with those who laugh, and rejoice with our neighbors who rejoice. \u00a0Like Mary, we want to be a Church which serves, which leaves home and goes forth, which goes forth from its chapels, its sacristies, in order to accompany life, to sustain hope, to be a sign of unity. \u00a0Like Mary, Mother of Charity, we want to be a Church which goes forth to build bridges, to break down walls, to sow seeds of reconciliation. \u00a0Like Mary, we want to be a Church which can accompany all those 'pregnant\u00e2?\u009d situations of our people, committed to life, to culture, to society, not washing our hands but rather walking with our brothers and sisters.
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\n\tThis is our most valuable treasure (cobre), this is our greatest wealth and the best legacy we can give: to learn like Mary to leave home and set out on the path of visitation. \u00a0And to learn to pray with Mary, for her prayer is one of remembrance and gratitude; it is the canticle of the People of God on their pilgrimage through history. \u00a0It is the living reminder that God passes through our midst; the perennial memory that God has looked upon the lowliness of his people, he has come the aid of his servant, even as promised to our forebears and their children for ever.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
September 22, 2015. \"Learn to pray with Mary, for her prayer is one of remembrance and gratitude.\u00e2?\u009d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":33044,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[153],"tags":[],"acf":{"video":"","video_descarga":"http:\/\/attuale.romereports.com\/news\/","international_url":"","type":"none","newsletter":"si"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54452"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54452"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54452\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33044"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}