"A society without mothers would be a society without mercy, that has given way only to the calculation and speculation." This is the warning of Pope Francis during his homily at Mass on New Year's Day, the feast of the Holy Mother of God. The homily pontiff also raised an alarm about human relationships, that seemed directed to the internet, the risks to "lack of contact physical and not virtual ranging cauterizing our hearts by losing to them the capability of tenderness and wonder, pity and compassion. "
"In the Gospels - the Pope said - Mary appears as a woman of few words, no big speeches or grandstanding - said the pontiff - but with an eye that is able to protect the life and the mission of her Son and, therefore, of all what He loves. " "Maria - added the pontiff - gave us the maternal warmth, what surrounds us in the midst of difficulties, her maternal warmth that allows anyone or anything off in the Church of the tenderness revolution inaugurated by His Son. Where c ' is a mother, there is tenderness. and Mary with her motherhood shows us that humility and tenderness are not virtues of the weak but of the strong, teaches us that there is no need to abuse others in order to feel important. "
Francis then wanted to warn against "the orphaned finding space in the heart narcissist who can only look at himself and his own interests and that grows when we forget that life is a gift that we have received from others, and that we are invited to share in this common house. " "This orphaned self - explained the Pope - is the one that brought Cain to say: 'Am I my brother's keeper?', As to declare: he does not belong to me, I do not recognize." According Bergoglio, "such an attitude of spiritual orphan hood is a cancer that quietly worn and degrades the soul. And so we degrade gradually, since no one belongs to us and we do not belong to anyone: the land degradation because I do not it belongs, degrades others because they do not belong to me, degradation God because I do not belong ...
And finally this orphan hood ends up degrading ourselves because we forget who we are, where 'name' divine we. "
The Pope added: "The loss of the bonds that unite us, typical of our culture fragmented and divided, is to grow this sense of orphan hood and therefore of great emptiness and loneliness. The spiritual orphan hood makes us lose the memory of what it means being children, have grandchildren, being a parent, grandparent to be, to be friends, to be a believer. We are keeping in mind the value of play, the singing, the laughter, the rest of gratuity ". To all this, said Bergoglio, we must react rediscovering the value of motherhood. "Mothers - said the pope - even in the worst moments, they know witness the tenderness, unconditional dedication, the power of hope." Francis confided that he had "learned a lot from those mothers who, having children in prison or prostrate in a hospital bed or subjugated by the slavery of drugs, with the cold and the heat, rain and drought, do not give up and continue to strive to give them the best. " And he cited "those mothers who, in refugee camps, or even in the midst of war, able to embrace and support without wavering the suffering of their children." "Mothers - he said - that literally give their lives so that none of the children will lose."
