“I apologise to you for not being able to speak clearly due to this bad cold. I have therefore asked my brother to read the catechesis. He will read it better than me.” Wednesday’s weekly audience in Paul VI Hall began with these extemporaneous words, after which Pope Francis entrusted the reading of the catechesis almost entirely to Fr Pierluigi Giroli, with the exception of the greetings to the Spanish and Italian-speaking faithful, which he delivered himself. “Let our thoughts turn to the countries that are suffering from war: battered Ukraine, Israel, Sudan, so many countries that are suffering. Let us remember and pray for the displaced people of Palestine,” Francis said in his greeting to the Italian-speaking faithful. Mary, her visit to Elizabeth and the Magnificat were the central themes of the catechesis.
“This young daughter of Israel does not choose to protect herself from the world; she does not fear dangers and the judgements of others, but goes out towards other people”,
the Pope wrote with regard to the episode of the Visitation. “When we feel loved, we experience a force that sets love in motion”, he said: “Mary feels the push of this love, and goes to help a woman who is her relative, but also an elderly woman who, after a long wait, is welcoming an unhoped-for pregnancy, difficult to deal with at her age.” “But the Virgin also goes to Elizabeth to share her faith in the God of the impossible and her hope in the fulfilment of His promises”, Francis remarks: “The encounter between the two women produces a surprising impact: the voice of Mary, ‘full of grace’, who greets Elizabeth provokes the prophecy in the child the older woman is carrying in her womb, and inspires in her a dual blessing: ‘Most blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!’ Also a beatitude: ‘“Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled.”
“Mary sings of the grace of the past, but she is the woman of the present who carries the future in her womb”,
the Pope assures in his comment to the Magnificat. “Mary does not want to sing ‘out of the choir’ but to tune in with the forefathers, exalting her compassion for the humble, those little ones whom Jesus in his preaching will declare blessed”, Francis notes: “The prominent presence of the paschal motif also makes the Magnificat a hymn of redemption, which has as its backdrop the memory of the liberation of Israel from Egypt. The verbs are all in the past, imbued with a memory of the love that lights up the present with faith and illuminates the future with hope.” The Magnificat encompasses three key words: “memory, mercy, promise”: “The Lord, who bowed down to the humble Mary to fulfil “great things” in her and make her the mother of the Lord, began to save His people starting from the exodus, remembering the universal blessing promised to Abraham.” “Let us ask the Lord today for the grace to be able to wait for the fulfilment of every one of His promises; and to help us to welcome Mary’s presence in our life”, the final invite.
