In his first homily of 2025, Pope Francis defended the dignity of human life “from conception to natural death” and called on Catholics around the world to entrust 2025 to Mary, the Mother of God.
The Holy Father celebrated Mass for the Solemnity of Mary Mother of God at St. Peter’s Basilica Jan. 1, 2025, at 10 a.m. Central European Time. Citing his statement issued for the World Day of Peace, the pope called “‘for a firm commitment to respect for the dignity of human life from conception to natural death, so that each person may cherish his or her own life and all may look with hope to the future.’”
“The Apostle Paul, in saying that Christ was born of a woman, almost senses the need to remind us that God became truly man through a human womb,” Pope Francis said during the homily.
God is not, as many people might be tempted to think, “in the abstract,” he continued. “God is tangible, he is human, he was born of a woman; he has a face and a name, and calls us to have a relationship with him.”
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Pope Francis noted that “the three attitudes of God are mercy, closeness, and compassion. God comes near to us and is merciful and compassionate. Let us not forget this. By the frailty of his humanity and his concern for the weak and vulnerable, Jesus shows us the face of God.”
“Mary, the young woman of Nazareth,” the Pope explained, “reminds us that Jesus came in the flesh, and that we encounter him above all in our daily life, in our own frail humanity and that of all those whom we encounter each day.”
Pope Francis urged the faithful to model Mary by discovering “God’s greatness in the little little things of life” and called for “a firm commitment to respect the dignity of human life from conception to natural death so that each person may cherish his or her own life and all may look with hope to the future.”
“May we learn to care for every child born of a woman, above all by protecting, like Mary, the precious gift of life: life in the womb, the lives of children, the lives of the suffering, the poor, the elderly, the lonely and the dying,” the Pope said.
Pope Francis also noted that, “on this World Day of Peace,” everyone is invited to “take up the summons that flows from the maternal heart of Mary.” This includes, he said, cherishing life, caring for wounded lives, and restoring the dignity of everyone “born of a woman” as the “basis for building a culture of peace.”
In a lighter tone, Pope Francis recalled that during the council of Ephesus, “when the bishops entered the church, the faithful who were present, with clubs in their hands, cried out: ‘Mother of God!’.”
“Surely,” he continued, “the clubs were a promise of what would happen if the bishops did not declare the dogma of the ‘Mother of God’.”
“Today we do not have clubs, but we have the hearts and voices of children,” said the Pope, who concluded his homily leading the faithful present at the Basilica in shouting three times, together: “Holy Mother of God!”
LifeNews Note: Joshua Mercer writes for CatholicVote, where this column originally appeared.
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