Say ‘Yes’ Like Mary, Don’t Turn Away Like Adam and Eve, POPE FRANCIS HOMILY.

Say ‘Yes’ Like Mary, Don’t Turn Away Like Adam and Eve, POPE FRANCIS HOMILY.

At Casa Santa Marta, Francis Asks Faithful to Examine Whether We Say ‘Yes,’ ‘No,’ or Avoid Responding When God Calls Us

APRIL 4, 2016
DEBORAH CASTELLANO LUBOV
POPE AND HOLY SEE

Pope At Casa Santa Marta

When God calls on us, do we say ‘yes’ like Mary, no, or avoid responding?

According to Vatican Radio, Pope Francis asked this during his daily morning Mass at Casa Santa Marta, the first since a break for Easter, and exhorted faithful to say ‘yes’ like Mary did.

In his homily, the Holy Father discussed those figures who trusted and said yes to the Lord, such as Abraham, Moses, Jeremiah and Isaiah, before turning to the model of the Virgin Mary, whose “yes,” he said, “opened the door to the ‘yes’ of Jesus.”

“The ‘yes’ of Mary,” the Pope said, “opens the ‘yes door’ of Jesus: ‘I have come to do your will’, the ‘yes’ that goes with Jesus throughout His life, even to the Cross.” Francis stressed that the ‘yes’ of Mary is the ‘yes’ of the whole history of salvation.

Jesus was so obedient, the Pope pointed out, stressing that while He asked the Father to take the cup from Him the cup, He concludes: “Thy will be done.”

“In Jesus Christ,” Francis exclaimed, “you have the ‘yes’ of God: He is the ‘yes.'”

Francis urged those present to contemplate how they respond to the Lord: “All of us, throughout each day, we have to say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ and think if we always say ‘yes’ or many times we hide, with our heads down, like Adam and Eve?”

“Today, is the celebration of ‘yes,'” Francis said. “In the ‘yes’ of Mary, there is the ‘yes’ of all the history of Creation,” and here begins the last ‘yes ‘ of man and God.” With Mary’s yes, he underscored, “God recreates, as [He did] in the beginning with a ‘yes’ that made the world and man, that beautiful Creation,” and now with this ‘yes,’ “recreates the world more marvelously, recreates all of us … It is the ‘yes’  of God that sanctifies us, that makes us go ahead in Jesus Christ.”

“It is a day,” the Pope encouraged, “to thank God and ask ourselves: Am I a man or woman of ‘yes’ or are a man or woman of ‘no’ or a woman or man that looks a bit away to not respond?'”

May the Lord, the Pope prayed, “give us the grace to enter this road of men and women who were able to say yes.”

After his homily, the Vincentian Sisters who serve Casa Santa Marta renewed their vows. “They do this every year,” Francis said, “because Saint Vincent was very smart and knew that the mission that was entrusted to them was very difficult and for this reason wanted that they renew their vows annually.”