1 January 2025 on the eighths of Christmas, Most Holy Mary Mother of God 

First Reading from the Book of Numbers (6,22-27)

*The Lord bless you

To open the new calendar year that follows the Gregorian civil calendar, in use almost all over the world, the beautiful blessing was chosen, which in Israel the priests, starting with Aaron and his sons, used to bless the people during liturgical ceremonies in the Temple of Jerusalem. It is a formula that is now also part of the Christian heritage: taken from the Book of Numbers, it is in fact included among the solemn blessings proposed for the conclusion of the Mass. Notice how this blessing closes: "So they shall put my name on the Israelites and I will bless them" (v.27). On closer inspection, this is a way of expressing oneself, since, in reality, God's name is never pronounced out of respect for him. The name represents the person himself and pronouncing his name is a legal act that implies a taking of possession, but also a commitment to protection. For instance, when a warrior conquers a city, he is said to pronounce his name on it; similarly, on the Jewish wedding day, the husband's name is pronounced on the wife even if she does not bear her husband's name, and this implies ownership and a promise of vigilance.  When God reveals his name, he makes himself accessible to the prayer of his people, and invoking God's name normally constitutes a guarantee of blessing. There is such a strong bond between God and his people that offences directed against God's people constitute blasphemy against his name, they are a personal insult. This is why we better understand Jesus' words: 'As often as you did these things to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me' (Mt 25:40). With this blessing, then, we want to say today that on all the people we will meet throughout the year that is beginning, God has placed his name on them and, because of this blessing, we are invited to look at them with new eyes. 

With regard then to the blessing of the Book of Numbers, here are some points for reflection: 

1. This formula of blessing is in the singular: "May the Lord bless you" and not "May the Lord bless you". In reality, it refers to the entire people of Israel and is therefore a collective singular, and in time, Israel realised that this protection of God was not reserved for him alone, but for the whole of humanity.

2. "The Lord bless you" (v. 24) is in the subjunctive as well as "the Lord make his face to shine upon you ... The Lord turn his countenance upon you" (v.25,26)). We wish to be blessed, but we may ask ourselves: is it possible that the Lord does not bless us, he who makes the sun rise on the bad and the good, that is, on all men, and who asks us to love even our enemies...? Of course, we know that God blesses us continually, that he accompanies us and is with us in all circumstances. Yet, this subjunctive, like all subjunctives, expresses a desire that concerns us and not him. God blesses us continually, but we are free not to receive his blessing... like the sun that shines even when we seek the shadow and we are free to seek the shadow... In the same way, we are free to remove ourselves from God's beneficial action... Those who shelter themselves from the sun lose all possibility of benefiting from its light and warmth, and not because of the sun! Thus, the formula 'God bless you' is a wish that invites us to place ourselves under his blessing. In other words, God offers us his blessing, but it is up to us to accept it, and this subjunctive serves to manifest our free adherence.

3.In what does God's blessing consist? Benedire is a Latin term meaning to say well, so God says well of us. We should not be surprised that God says well of us because he loves us and therefore thinks and says well of us. Indeed, he only stops to see in us what is good. His Word, however, is also action: "He said and all things were" (Gen 1). Therefore, when God says good of us, he acts in us with his word, he transforms us, he does good to us.And so, when we ask for his blessing, we offer ourselves to God's transforming action

4. Beware! This blessing is not something magical.  Being blessed means choosing to live in God's grace, in harmony with Him and in His covenant, without this sparing us difficulties and trials. Whoever lives in God's blessing will go through the hardship of life always hearing God say to me, as Isaiah writes, "I hold thee with my victorious right hand"... "I hold thee by the right hand, and say unto thee, Fear not, I will come to thy help" (Isaiah 41:10-13).  

5. Moses promises the people: "You shall be blessed more than all peoples" (Deut 7:14).  Israel therefore is blessed, but this has not prevented it from going through terrible times; Nevertheless, in the midst of trials, the believer knows that God does not abandon him and indeed accompanies him with persevering patience. On today's feast of Mary, Mother of God, all this takes on a special significance. The angel Gabriel, sent to announce the birth of Jesus, said to her: "I greet you, full of grace" (Lk 1:28). Mary is par excellence the one on whom the name of God has been pronounced and she remains under his sweet protection. Elizabeth will rightly proclaim: 'Blessed art thou amongst women' (Lk 1:42).

5. Unfortunately, the Italian text fails to render all the richness of the original Hebrew formula for two reasons. Firstly, the name of God, YHWH, transcribed here as "the Lord", is the name that God revealed to Moses and in itself represents a promise of protective presence, the same that has always accompanied the children of Israel since their exit from Egypt. Secondly, translating Hebrew verbs with a subjunctive into Italian is an inevitable impoverishment. Since the Hebrew verbal system is very different from the Italian one, for greater precision experts suggest translating it as follows: "The Lord blesses you and keeps you". that is, God blesses you and keeps you now and will bless you and keep you forever." after all, this is our faith!

Responsorial Psalm 66 (67)

*Our God blesses us 

Psalm 66 resonates like an echo of the first reading, where the Book of Numbers offered us the well-known and splendid formula of blessing: 'May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make his face to shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee! May the Lord turn his countenance upon thee, and grant thee peace!". Here, too, are just a few considerations:

1 Let us begin with the very meaning of the term blessing. The prophet Zechariah says: "In those days, ten men of every tongue and nation shall seize a Jew by the hem of his cloak and say to him, 'We wish to go with you, for we have heard that God is with you'" (Zech 8:23). This is an interesting definition of blessing: to say that God blesses us is to say that God is with us, that he is with us. This, moreover, is the meaning of the very Name of God revealed at Sinai: YHWH, an unpronounceable Name that we translate as Lord. Although it is not translatable literally, the Jews understand it as a promise of God's constant presence alongside his people.

2. Here it is the people who invoke God's blessing upon themselves: 'God have mercy on us and bless us'. Regarding the priestly formula in the Book of Numbers, we are constantly assured of God's blessing, but we are free not to receive it. When the priest says 'The Lord bless you', he is not expressing the wish that God chooses to bless us because he could not but bless us, but he is wishing that we open our hearts to his blessing, so that he can transform us and act in us. The Psalm makes this clear: 'God have mercy on us and bless us... God, our God, blesses us'. These two phrases are not contradictory: God blesses us constantly, this is a certainty ("God, our God, blesses us", v. 7), but in order to welcome his action, we only need to desire it ("God have mercy on us and bless us", v. 2).

3. The certainty of being granted even before making a request is characteristic of prayer in Israel. The believer knows that he lives constantly immersed in the blessing, in the beneficent presence of God. Jesus himself says: "I knew that you always listen to me" (Jn 11:42).

4. The people of Israel do not ask this blessing only for themselves, and the blessing pronounced on Israel is poured out on the other peoples: "In you shall all the families of the earth be blessed" God said to Abraham (Gen 12:3). In this Psalm we find, intertwined as always, the two great themes: on the one hand the election of Israel, on the other the universality of God's plan. The work of salvation of humanity is accomplished through the election of Israel. The election of Israel is evident in the expression 'God, our God', which recalls the Covenant God made with the people he chose. But the universalism of the divine plan is equally clear: 'On earth let your way be known, your salvation among all nations', or: 'Let the nations rejoice with joy'. Moreover, in this Psalm, the refrain that is repeated twice foreshadows the day when all peoples will welcome God's blessing: "Let the peoples praise thee, O God, let all peoples praise thee". Israel knows that he is chosen to be the witnessing people: the light that shines on him is a reflection of the One whom Israel is to make known to the world. This understanding of Israel's election as a vocation was not immediate for the men of the Bible and is understandable: at the beginning of biblical history, each people imagined that deities ruled over specific territories: there were the deities of Babylon, those of Egypt, and those of every other country. It was not until around the 6th century that the people of Israel realised that the God with whom they had made the Covenant at Sinai was the God of the whole universe; Israel's election was not annulled, but took on a new meaning as the prophet Zechariah, quoted above (Zech 8:23), well shows. We too are a witnessing people: when we receive God's blessing, we are called to become a reflection of the divine light in the world, and this is the wish we can wish each other at the beginning of this new year: to be bearers of God's light for all those we meet

5. "The earth has yielded its fruit; God, our God, blesses us". Because the Word of God is action, it produces fruit. God promised a fertile land flowing with milk and honey, and He kept His promise by bringing Israel to the promised land. All the more reason for Christians to read this psalm with the birth of the Saviour in mind: when the fullness of time came, the land bore its fruit. St John of the Cross writes: "Since he (God) has given us his Son, who is his one and final Word, in this Word he has said everything and has nothing more to reveal" (Ascent of Mount Carmel. Book II, ch.22, par.3)

Second Reading from the letter of St Paul the Apostle to the Galatians ( 4, 4-7)

*"When the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son". 

In this short text we find a theme very dear to St Paul: the fulfilment of God's plan. For believers, both Jews and Christians, this is a fundamental element of faith: history is not an eternal beginning, but a progressive journey of humanity towards its fulfilment, towards the realisation of God's project of merciful love. This theme is central to St Paul's letters and is a key not only to understanding them, but also to reading the entire Bible, starting with the Old Testament.  In the New Testament, it is continually emphasised that the life, passion, death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth fulfil the Scriptures. Paul states before his judges: "I have said nothing apart from what Moses and the prophets foretold" (Acts 26:22). And the evangelist Matthew likes to repeat: "All this came to pass that what was spoken by the prophet might be fulfilled". Should one then think that everything was already written in advance? To better understand, it should be noted that "so that" in Italian is a final subordinating conjunction with two different meanings: one of finality and one of consequence. If we mean finality, then events would have occurred according to a predefined plan, predetermined from eternity. But if we understand it as consequence, it means that events unfold in a certain way and, in retrospect, we recognise how, through them, God fulfilled his plan. God's plan, then, is not a rigid programme in which everyone's role is predetermined. God takes the risk of our freedom and, throughout the ages, men have often obstructed his plan. That is why the prophets complained, but never lost hope. On the contrary, they continually promised that God would not grow weary. Isaiah, for example, announces from God: "I say, my plan shall be fulfilled, and I will accomplish all that I desire" (Isaiah 46:10). And Jeremiah adds: "I know the plans I have made for you, O oracle of the Lord: plans of peace and not of misfortune, to grant you a future full of hope" (Jer 29:11).

In the New Testament, the fulfilment of God's promises is always contemplated in Jesus. "God sent forth his Son: born of a woman, born under the Law". In a few words, Paul encapsulates the whole mystery of the person of Jesus: Son of God, man like other men, Jew like other Jews. The expression 'born of woman', first of all, is common in the Bible and simply means 'a man like other men'. For example, to avoid repetitions of the term man in the same sentence, the expression "son of the woman" is used (cf. Sir 10:18; Job 15:14; Job 25:4). Jesus himself uses this expression when speaking of John the Baptist: "Truly I say to you, among those born of women there has not arisen one greater than John the Baptist" (Matt 11:11).

The statement "born under the Law" indicates that Jesus accepted the condition of the men of his people. Paul continues: "To redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive adoption as sons". One often encounters the term "redeem" in the Bible, which means to free, to enfranchise. In the Old Testament, the redeemer was the one who freed the slave. Being under the Law, therefore, is not the same as being in the condition of sons: there is therefore a transition to be made. The one who lives under the Law acts as a servant, submitting to orders. The son, on the other hand, lives in love and trust: he can obey his father - that is, listen to his word - because he trusts him and knows that his every word is dictated by love. This means moving from the dominion of the Law to the obedience of children. The transition to a filial and trusting attitude is possible because "God sent into our hearts the Spirit of his Son, who cries out, 'Abba, Father'. This cry, which calls out to the Father, is the only one that saves us in all circumstances because it is like the desperate, trusting cry of the child who trusts his father. Whatever happens, we know that God is our Father and that he has only loving tenderness towards us. This is the filial attitude that Christ came to live among us, on our behalf. Paul concludes: "Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, you are also an heir". The term heir is to be understood in the full sense: what belongs to God is promised to us, but we must have the courage to believe it. And that is precisely our problem. When Jesus calls us "people of little faith", perhaps this is what he is referring to: we dare not believe that God's Spirit is in us, that his power belongs to us, that everything that is his is ours, including his ability to love. And all this is not because of us! If we are heirs, it is only by God's grace. That is why we can say, despite our human frailty, with St Therese of the Child Jesus: "Everything is grace, everything is gift: everything God does is for our good" (Manuscript C, 4r of The Story of a Soul)

Gospel according to Luke (2.16-21)

We are in the presence of an apparently secondary tale, yet it is in fact profoundly theological, which means that every detail has its weight, and for this reason it is worth going over it together:

1.The shepherds, first of all: they were little considered, indeed marginal because of their work which prevented them from attending synagogues and observing the Sabbath. Yet, they were the first to be informed of the event that changed the history of humanity: the birth of the awaited Messiah. The shepherds thus become the first apostles and the first witnesses: they tell, they are heard, and they arouse wonder. They speak of the extraordinary announcement they received in the middle of the night from the angels and the miracle is that they are believed as the evangelist Luke recounts (Lk 2:8-14). They tell all that they have seen and heard in their own words and this brings to mind an expression of Jesus that is often quoted: "I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned and revealed them to the little ones" (Lk 10:21; Mt 11:25). It is not the learned and the wise whom God chooses as his messengers. 

2. The whole event that Luke relates takes place in Bethlehem. It was known at the time that the Messiah would be born in the line of David right there, yet people's interest was for other events and for the arrival of the Messiah, awaited for thousands of years, no one had prepared a home. Joseph and Mary found shelter outside the town and it was in a poor cave or stable: the only detail on this that the gospel specifies is this: "While they (Joseph and Mary) were in that place...Mary gave birth to her first-born son, wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger because there was no room for them in the lodging" (Lk 2:6-7) . Bethlehem literally means 'the house of bread' and the newborn lying in a manger is an evocative image of the one who will give himself as nourishment to mankind. The link between Christmas and the Eucharist is obvious.

3. 'Mary, for her part, kept all these things, pondering them in her heart ... she kept these things and pondered them in her heart' (Lk 2:19). While the shepherds, made loquacious by the event, recount, Mary contemplates and ponders in her heart. Luke here might want to recall a passage from the vision of the Son of Man in Daniel, where we read: 'I kept these thoughts in my heart' (Dan 7:28). For Luke, this would be a way of already outlining the grandiose destiny of that child.

4. "The name Jesus was given to him" (Lk 2:21).  The name "Jesus" reveals the mystery: it means "God saves". Although Luke does not specify its etymology like Matthew, a few verses earlier he reports the announcement of the angel: "Today a Saviour is born to you" (Lk 2:11). At the same time, Jesus lives in full solidarity with his people: like every Jewish child, he is circumcised on the eighth day. Paul will say to the Galatians: "Born of a woman, born under the Law, to redeem those who were under the Law" (Gal 4:4). The other Gospels do not mention circumcision, but it was such a common act that there was no need to emphasise it. However, Luke insists on showing how Mary and Joseph fully respected the Mosaic Law. Not only that, he also recounts the presentation in the Temple. "When the days of their ritual purification were completed, according to the Law of Moses, they took the child to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord" (Lk 2:22). Here the whole solidarity of Jesus with his people emerges: a theme that culminates in his own words at the Last Supper: "This word of Scripture must be fulfilled in me: 'He was numbered among the ungodly'" (Lk 22:37).

5.One last remark: the discretion of the figure of Mary is striking, despite the fact that this liturgical feast is dedicated to her as "Mary, Mother of God". Luke merely says: "Mary, for her part, kept all these things, pondering them in her heart".  Perhaps, her silence is already a message for us: Mary's glory lies in having accepted to be the mother of God, humbly putting herself at the service of the project of salvation. She is not the centre of the project, but Jesus, the one whose name means 'God saves'.

+Giovanni D'Ercole