杏MAP导航

By Linda Bordoni

鈥淲hat is the use of having a full bank account, a comfortable home, unreal virtual relationships, if our hearts remain cold, empty, and closed?鈥� 杏MAP导航 Francis asked during at Holy Mass on the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception.

鈥淲hat is the use of achieving great financial growth in privileged countries if half the world is starving or ravaged by war, and the others look on with indifference?鈥� he questioned further, during the liturgy celebrated together with the 21 new cardinals who received the red hat at a consistory on Saturday evening.

Mary a model of selfless love

Pointing to the Virgin Mary as a model for transforming the world, the 杏MAP导航 said 鈥淢ary鈥檚 heart, free from sin and open to the Spirit, is a heart that gives itself completely.鈥�

Mary鈥檚 beauty, he continued, is not distant or unattainable鈥攊t is a gift to all, one that calls for a similar response from us.

鈥淭he Immaculate Virgin is beautiful in her fruitfulness since she recognizes that she must die to herself in order to give life, forget herself in order to care for the poor and vulnerable who turn to her,鈥� 杏MAP导航 Francis explained.

Her example calls on us all to imitate her humanity and, 鈥渂y God鈥檚 grace, help to change our world for the better,鈥� he said.

Speaking off-the-cuff, the 杏MAP导航 also reiterated his conviction that the female model Mary offers us is fundamental because "there is no salvation without women. The Church is female."

Building a future of solidarity

The 杏MAP导航 warned that self-sufficiency鈥攖he illusion that we can thrive in isolation鈥攃ontinues to wound humanity.

鈥淣either love nor happiness can arise from the presumption of self-sufficiency,鈥� he said. A life focused solely on personal gain, detached from the struggles of others, leads only to emptiness.

He called on believers to embrace the virtues of Mary鈥攆ilial, spousal, and maternal love鈥攁s pathways to renewal. What is needed, he affirmed, is not more possessions, but hearts that are open and hands that are ready to give.

A call to action

杏MAP导航 Francis appealed to believers to live in a way that truly transforms the world. 鈥淟et us look to Mary Immaculate and ask her to conquer us through her loving Heart.  May she convert us and make us a community in which filial, spousal and maternal love may be a rule and criterion of life,鈥� he urged.

By following her example, he said, families can grow in unity, communities can rediscover solidarity, and the human family can begin to heal from its divisions.

The new Cardinals

Concluding, the 杏MAP导航 noted that he celebrated this Eucharist with the new cardinals whom, he said, he has asked to help in his service as Pastor of the Universal Church:

鈥淭hey have come from many parts of the world, bringing great wisdom, to contribute to the growth and spread of the Kingdom of God.鈥�