Hajja Salesjana October - December 2018

1 4 When the angel Gabriel was sent to the far flung village of Nazareth in Galilee to proclaim the great announcement God the Father wanted to share with Mary, a humble young maiden, little did she know that when she freely and willingly consented to His request to become the Mother of His Only Son by the power of the Holy Spirit, she would also become the Mother of the Source of Life itself. God is the alpha and omega of all that is, He is the beginning and the ending of all that has breath and it is He who gives life, nourishes it and takes it back whenever, wherever and however He wishes to. God alone is the Lord of Life because life itself wells up from the eternal wellsprings of His eternal love for each and every one of us. For this reason, all that lives and that breathes is to glorify, laud and praise Him. Hence it is very appropriate that we also honour Our Lady, as the one who teaches us how to welcome, treat and respect life. Hence as our Mother, she teaches us Christians how to truly journey from the womb to the tomb with Her and like Her, emulating Her powerful and eloquent example in a time when life nowadays is so belittled, threatened, manipulated and disrespected. Mary is the new Ark of the Covenant within whom for nine whole months God dwelled. Within her, cradled by her maternal love, resting to the rhythm of her serene heartbeat, Jesus Christ humbly became an embryo, a tiny human being, as he continued to grow till the time came for Him to be born from His Immaculate Mother. Indeed, Mary teaches us how to welcome life, how to revere life, how to uphold life, how to protect life in each and every stage. Just like her at the annunciation, we are to always be open towards welcoming new life. Just like her when together with Joseph, her spouse most chaste, she rushed away from Bethlehem, gripped as it was by the evil homicidal schemes of the power hungry Herod, we too need to do all we can to protect and defend life from the Herods of today. Just like Mary when she respectfully and lovingly took care of Jesus for thirty whole years, we too are to appreciate life ‘Journeying with Mary, Mother of Life, from the womb to the tomb’ Fr. Sandro Camilleri sdb