\u201cHere, the word became flesh.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\nWithin those walls, God entered human history.<\/p>\n
This is where it happened.<\/p>\n
A few years ago, when he visited the house of Loreto, Pope Francis acknowledged the significance not only of the house, but of the young woman who lived there.<\/p>\n
At the Incarnation, he said, Mary herself became \u201ca living house for the Lord.\u201d<\/p>\n
She was the one whom God chose as his first home on earth.<\/p>\n
And we recall today how God himself has honored that \u201cliving house.\u201d At the end of her earthly life, she was assumed into heaven, body and soul, where she watches over us, weeps with us, prays with us, hopes with us \u2014 our heavenly mother, \u201cthe holy queen enthroned above.\u201d<\/p>\n
Today, this beautiful Gospel from Luke we just heard takes us not to the end of Mary\u2019s life, but to a moment near the beginning. It tells us how her journey began, and gives us another glimpse of her \u2014 a woman of fierce poetry and prayer, whose great canticle, the Magnificat, is threaded with some of the most beautiful language in all of scripture, using references from the Old Testament to help proclaim a new testament, a story of triumph and mercy and hope.<\/p>\n
Here, we see that Mary is not just a figure of obedience \u2014 but also of tenacity and courage.<\/p>\n
The very first words of this Gospel, in fact, remind us that Mary was a young woman on a mission: \u201cMary set out.\u201d She was a teenager, probably no more than 14 or 15 years old. But she knew what she had to do.<\/p>\n
And from that moment on, she never stopped.<\/strong><\/p>\nShe traveled to the hill country, gave birth in a stable, fled to Egypt, sought her missing son in the crowded streets and alleyways of Jerusalem.<\/p>\n
Decades later, she stood by after everyone else had run away, and watched that boy, grown into a man, suffer an excruciating and humiliating death.<\/p>\n
And it all began with an act of trust, hearing God\u2019s astonishing plan for her life, and then saying, simply, \u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0I am the handmaid of the Lord. <\/em><\/p>\nTwenty centuries later, she remains the model for us all: the one who heard the words, \u201cHail, Mary\u201d and in one shattering moment, changed history.<\/p>\n
With that, the Word became flesh.<\/p>\n
Hic Verbum caro factum est<\/em>.<\/p>\nAnd nothing has ever been the same.<\/strong><\/p>\nIn that humble house in Loreto, Mary, the living house, gave God his first home on earth. And for that, she was rewarded with an eternal home in heaven.<\/p>\n
This feast reassures us: that eternal home awaits us all. The Assumption echoes the Resurrection with this simple, hope-filled message: Death doesn\u2019t have the final word.<\/p>\n
\u201cGod has come to the help of his servant Israel\u2026he has remembered his promise of mercy.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\nAs we receive Jesus this morning in the Eucharist, we remember the one who received him first, Mary \u2014 the one who first made a home for him, becoming a \u201cliving house for the Lord,\u201d the one who continues to show each of us how to welcome Christ and how to follow him and how we ourselves can make a home for him<\/p>\n
Like Mary, we do it with trust. With faith. With courage. With love. With prayer. And with hope.<\/p>\n
Hope in God\u2019s \u201cpromise of mercy,\u201d and hope in another home, another house, for all eternity.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Imagine for a moment the map of Italy. On the back of \u201cthe boot,\u201d along the Adriatic Sea, you will find one of the more unusual shrines in all of Europe. It is in the town of Loreto. At the heart of the town, here\u2019s a huge basilica. Inside of it is a humble stone […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":132,"featured_media":301221,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,28],"tags":[12672],"class_list":["post-301218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-homilies","category-mary","tag-loreto"],"yoast_head":"\n
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<\/a><\/p>\n