JUBILEE PILGRIMAGE OF HIS HOLINESS JOHN PAUL II
TO THE HOLY LAND (MARCH 20-26, 2000)
HOMILY OF JOHN PAUL II
MASS IN THE BASILICA OF THE ANNUNCIATION
Israel – Nazareth
Saturday, March 25, 2000
“Behold the handmaid of the Lord. Be it done unto me
according to your word” (Angelus Prayer).
Your Beatitude,
Brother Bishops,
Father Custos,
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
1. 25th March in the year 2000, the Solemnity of the
Annunciation in the Year of the Great Jubilee: on this day the
eyes of the whole Church turn to Nazareth. I have longed to come
back to the town of Jesus, to feel once again, in contact with
this place, the presence of the woman of whom Saint Augustine
wrote: “He chose the mother he had created; he created the
mother he had chosen” (Sermo 69, 3, 4). Here it is especially
easy to understand why all generations call Mary blessed (cf. Lk
2:48).
I warmly greet Your Beatitude Patriarch Michel Sabbah, and thank
you for your kind words of presentation. With Archbishop Boutros
Mouallem and all of you – Bishops, priests, religious women and
men, and members of the laity – I rejoice in the grace of this
solemn celebration. I am happy to have this opportunity to greet
the Franciscan Minister General, Father Giacomo Bini, who
welcomed me on my arrival, and to express to the Custos, Father
Giovanni Battistelli, and the Friars of the Custody the
admiration of the whole Church for the devotion with which you
carry out your unique vocation. With gratitude I pay tribute to
your faithfulness to the charge given to you by Saint Francis
himself and confirmed by the Popes down the centuries.
2. We are gathered to celebrate the great mystery accomplished
here two thousand years ago. The Evangelist Luke situates the
event clearly in time and place: “In the sixth month, the angel
Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to
a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph. . . The virgin’s name
was Mary” (1:26-27). But in order to understand what took place
in Nazareth two thousand years ago, we must return to the
Reading from the Letter to the Hebrews. That text enables us, as
it were, to listen to a conversation between the Father and the
Son concerning God’s purpose from all eternity. “You who wanted
no sacrifice or oblation prepared a body for me. You took no
pleasure in holocausts or sacrifices for sin. Then I said. . .
?God, here I am! I am coming to obey your will’” (10:5-7). The
Letter to the Hebrews is telling us that, in obedience to the
Father’s will, the Eternal Word comes among us to offer the
sacrifice which surpasses all the sacrifices offered under the
former Covenant. His is the eternal and perfect sacrifice which
redeems the world.
The divine plan is gradually revealed in the Old Testament,
particularly in the words of the Prophet Isaiah which we have
just heard: “The Lord himself will give you a sign. It is this:
the virgin is with child and will soon give birth to a child
whom she will call Emmanuel” (7:14). Emmanuel - God with us. In
these words, the unique event that was to take place in Nazareth
in the fullness of time is foretold, and it is this event that
we are celebrating here with intense joy and happiness.
3. Our Jubilee Pilgrimage has been a journey in spirit, which
began in the footsteps of Abraham, “our father in faith” (Roman
Canon; cf. Rom 4:11-12). That journey has brought us today to
Nazareth, where we meet Mary, the truest daughter of Abraham. It
is Mary above all others who can teach us what it means to live
the faith of “our father”. In many ways, Mary is clearly
different from Abraham; but in deeper ways “the friend of God”
(cf. Is 41:8) and the young woman of Nazareth are very alike.
Both receive a wonderful promise from God. Abraham was to be the
father of a son, from whom there would come a great nation. Mary
is to be the Mother of a Son who would be the Messiah, the
Anointed One. “Listen!”, Gabriel says, “ You are to conceive and
bear a son. . . The Lord God will give him the throne of his
ancestor David. . . and his reign will have no end” (Lk
1:31-33).
For both Abraham and Mary, the divine promise comes as something
completely unexpected. God disrupts the daily course of their
lives, overturning its settled rhythms and conventional
expectations. For both Abraham and Mary, the promise seems
impossible. Abraham’s wife Sarah was barren, and Mary is not yet
married: “How can this come about”, she asks, “since I am a
virgin?” (Lk 1:34).
4. Like Abraham, Mary is asked to say yes to something that has
never happened before. Sarah is the first in the line of barren
wives in the Bible who conceive by God’s power, just as
Elizabeth will be the last. Gabriel speaks of Elizabeth to
reassure Mary: “Know this too: your kinswoman Elizabeth has, in
her old age, herself conceived a son” (Lk 1:36).
Like Abraham, Mary must walk through darkness, in which she must
simply trust the One who called her. Yet even her question, “How
can this come about?”, suggests that Mary is ready to say yes,
despite her fears and uncertainties. Mary asks not whether the
promise is possible, but only how it will be fulfilled. It comes
as no surprise, therefore, when finally she utters her fiat: “I
am the handmaid of the Lord. Let what you have said be done to
me” (Lk 1:38). With these words, Mary shows herself the true
daughter of Abraham, and she becomes the Mother of Christ and
Mother of all believers.
5. In order to penetrate further into the mystery, let us look
back to the moment of Abraham’s journey when he received the
promise. It was when he welcomed to his home three mysterious
guests (cf. Gen 18:1-15), and offered them the adoration due to
God: tres vidit et unum adoravit. That mysterious encounter
foreshadows the Annunciation, when Mary is powerfully drawn into
communion with the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Through
the fiat that Mary uttered in Nazareth, the Incarnation became
the wondrous fulfilment of Abraham’s encounter with God. So,
following in the footsteps of Abraham, we have come to Nazareth
to sing the praises of the woman “through whom the light rose
over the earth” (Hymn Ave Regina Caelorum).
6. But we have also come to plead with her. What do we, pilgrims
on our way into the Third Christian Millennium, ask of the
Mother of God? Here in the town which Pope Paul VI, when he
visited Nazareth, called “the school of the Gospel”, where “we
learn to look at and to listen to, to ponder and to penetrate
the deep and mysterious meaning of the very simple, very humble
and very beautiful appearing of the Son of God” (Address in
Nazareth, 5 January 1964), I pray, first, for a great renewal of
faith in all the children of the Church. A deep renewal of
faith: not just as a general attitude of life, but as a
conscious and courageous profession of the Creed: “Et incarnatus
est de Spiritu Sancto ex Maria Virgine, et homo factus est.”
In Nazareth, where Jesus “grew in wisdom and age and grace
before God and men” (Lk 2:52), I ask the Holy Family to inspire
all Christians to defend the family against so many present-day
threats to its nature, its stability and its mission. To the
Holy Family I entrust the efforts of Christians and of all
people of good will to defend life and to promote respect for
the dignity of every human being.
To Mary, the Theotókos, the great Mother of God, I consecrate
the families of the Holy Land, the families of the world.
In Nazareth where Jesus began his public ministry, I ask Mary to
help the Church everywhere to preach the “good news” to the
poor, as he did (cf. Lk 4:18). In this “year of the Lord’s
favour”, I ask her to teach us the way of humble and joyful
obedience to the Gospel in the service of our brothers and
sisters, without preferences and without prejudices.
“O Mother of the Word Incarnate, despise not my petitions, but
in your mercy hear and answer me. Amen” (Memorare).
© Copyright 2000 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana
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