VATICAN INFORMATION SERVICE   
   YEAR XXII - # 003   
   DATE 07-01-2015   
      
   Summary:   
   - First general audience of 2015: the central role of mothers in the Church   
   and in the Christian community   
   - To circus performers, creators of beauty: humanity needs beauty   
   - Epiphany: "the Magi did not reject the smallness of the child Jesus"   
   - Angelus: the path of the Magi is a journey of the soul towards Christ   
   - The Holy See intensifies its fight against the Ebola virus   
   - Other Pontifical Acts   
      
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    First general audience of 2015: the central role of mothers in the Church and   
   in the Christian community   
    Vatican City, 7 January 2014 (VIS) - "The first day of the year is the feast   
   day of the Mother of God, followed by the Epiphany, which recalls the visit of   
   the Magi. The evangelist Matthew writes, 'And when they were come into the   
   house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and   
   worshipped him'. It was the Mother who, after having generated Him, who   
   presents the Son to the world. She gives us Jesus, she shows Jesus to us".   
   With these words Pope Francis began the first catechesis of the Wednesday   
   morning general audiences of 2015, which he dedicated to the figure of the   
   mother, both in the family and in the Christian community.   
    "Every human being owes his or her life to a mother, and almost always owes   
   much of his or her subsequent existence, human and spiritual formation, to   
   her", affirmed the Pope. "However, although the mother is highly exalted from   
   a symbolic point of view, she is listened to and helped very little in daily   
   life, and her central role in society is not given much consideration. On the   
   contrary, often the willingness of mothers to sacrifice themselves for their   
   children is exploited in order to save on social expenditure".   
    Even in the Christian community, the mother is not always given due   
   consideration. "Yet at the centre of the life of the Church there is the   
   Mother of Jesus. ... It is necessary to better understand their daily struggle   
   to be efficient at work and attentive and affectionate at home; we must better   
   understand what they aspire to in order to express the best and most authentic   
   results of their emancipation".   
    Mothers are "the strongest antidote to individualism. ... They are those who   
   most hate war, which kills their children. They bear witness to the beauty of   
   life. Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero said that mothers live a 'maternal   
   martyrdom'. In his homily at the funeral of a priest killed by death squads,   
   he said, echoing Vatican Council II, 'We must all be willing to die for our   
   faith, even if the Lord does not grant us this honour... Giving life does not   
   only mean being killed; giving life, having the spirit of martyrdom, is giving   
   in duty, in silence, in prayer, in the honest fulfilment of one's duty; in   
   that silence of everyday life, giving life a little at a time. Yes, as it is   
   given by a mother, who without fear, with the simplicity of maternal   
   martyrdom, conceives a child in her womb, gives him life, nurses him, nurtures   
   him and cares for him with affection. It is giving life. It is martyrdom'.   
   Yes, being a mother does not mean merely bringing a child into the world, but   
   it is also a choice of life, the decision to give life".   
    "A society without mothers would be an inhuman society, as mothers always   
   know how to show tenderness, devotion and moral strength, even in the moments   
   of greatest difficulty. Mothers often also transmit the deepest sense of   
   religious practice. ... It is a message that mothers who believe know how to   
   transmit without much explanation; this arrives later, but the seed of faith   
   is planted in those first precious moments. Without mothers ... faith would   
   lose a good part of its simple, profound warmth".   
    "And the Church is a mother", exclaimed the Pope. "We are not orphans; we are   
   children, we have a mother - the Virgin, the mother Church and our mother. We   
   are not orphans, we are children of the Church, we are the children of Mary   
   and of our mother. Thank you, dear mothers, for what you are in the family and   
   for what you give to the Church and to the world. And to you, our beloved   
   Church, thank you for being a mother. And to you, Mary, mother of God, thank   
   you for presenting us to Jesus".   
    Following the catechesis, the Holy Father greeted, among others, a delegation   
   of French imams engaged in dialogue between Islam and Christianity, and a   
   group of Polish survivors of the Auschwitz concentration camp, freed seventy   
   years ago.   
      
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    To circus performers, creators of beauty: humanity needs beauty   
    Vatican City, 7 January 2014 (VIS) - "The people who perform in the circus   
   create beauty - they are creators of beauty. And this is good for the soul.   
   How we are in need of beauty!" exclaimed Pope Francis, in his greetings to the   
   performers of the Liana Orfei Golden Circus, who performed before the Pontiff   
   at the end of today's general audience. "Our life is very practical - we do   
   things, we carry out our work, we do what we have to do - 'doing' is the   
   language of the hands. But our life is also about thinking and reason. And   
   this is important, as we are animals who think - we do not think like animals!   
   Thought, the language of the mind, is important. We are also people who love,   
   who have this capacity to love: the language of the heart. ... And all these   
   three languages unite to create the unity of the person. And there beauty   
   lies: and those of you who performed today are creators of harmony, creators   
   of beauty, who show us the high road of beauty".   
    He continued, "God is certainly true, God is certainly good, God certainly   
   knows how to do things, He created the world - but above all, God is   
   beautiful! The beauty of God. Very often we forget about beauty. Let us not   
   forget this, and let us thank these people who are good at doing things, good   
   at maintaining balance, at performing, but most of all, good at creating   
   beauty".   
      
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    Epiphany: "the Magi did not reject the smallness of the child Jesus"   
    Vatican City, 6 January 2014 (VIS) - This morning the Holy Father celebrated   
   Holy Mass in the Vatican Basilica on the Solemnity of the Epiphany. The   
   ceremony was accompanied by the Pontifical Sistine Chapel Choir and, as is   
   customary, was attended by the diplomatic corps accredited to the Holy See.   
    In his homily, Pope Francis commented that the child, born in Bethlehem,   
   "came not only for the people of Israel, represented by the shepherds of   
   Bethlehem, but also for all humanity, represented today by the wise men from   
   the East". He added, "it is on the Magi and their journey in search of the   
   Messiah that the Church today invites us to meditate and pray".   
    The wise men from the East were "the first in that great procession of which   
   the prophet Isaiah spoke in today's first reading: a procession which from   
   that time on has continued uninterrupted; in every age it hears the message of   
   the star and finds the Child Hho reveals the tenderness of God. New persons   
   are always being enlightened by that star; they find the way and come into His   
   presence".   
    According to tradition, the Pontiff explained, "the wise men were sages,   
   watchers of the constellations, observers of the heavens, in a cultural and   
   religious context which saw the stars as having significance and power over   
   human affairs. The wise men represent men and woman who seek God in the   
   world's religions and philosophies: an unending quest. Men and women who seek   
   God".   
    They indicate to us "the path of our journey through life. They sought the   
   true Light. As a liturgical hymn of Epiphany which speaks of their experience   
   expresses: 'Lumen requirunt lumine'; by following a light, they sought the   
   light, 'Lumen requirunt lumine'. They set out in search of God. Having seen   
   the sign of the star, they grasped its message and set off on a long   
   journey.The Holy Spirit called them and prompted them to set out; during their   
   journey they were also to have a personal encounter with the true God".   
    Along the way, the wise men encountered many difficulties. "Once they reached   
   Jerusalem, they went to the king's palace, for they thought it obvious that   
   the new king would be born in the royal palace. There they lost sight of the   
   star. How often sight of the star is lost! And, having lost sight of the star,   
   they met with a temptation, placed there by the devil: it was the deception of   
   Herod. King Herod was interested in the child, not to worship Him but to   
   eliminate Him. Herod is the powerful man who sees others only as rivals. Deep   
   down, he also considers God a rival, indeed the most dangerous rival of all.   
   In the palace the wise men experience a moment of obscurity, of desolation,   
   which they manage to overcome thanks to the prompting of the Holy Spirit, who   
   speaks through the prophecies of sacred Scripture. These indicate that the   
   Messiah is to be born in Bethlehem, the city of David".   
      
   --- MPost/386 v1.21   
    * Origin: Sursum Corda! BBS=Huntsville AL=bbs.sursum-corda.com (1:396/45)