Eight days after the birth of a male child, Hebrew parents were obliged to circumsie him. With this the newly born start to share the covenant of God with his people! The practice goes back to Abram, father in faith of Israel! The one to be circumcise will have the right of the blessings given by God to the first-born, and so addressed to the one who was awaited by kings and prophets! Jesus is circumsied too! For him circumsicion is full of significance, even so, it’s his circumcision that give value to that of all the israelites: he is infact the blessing of Abram and of all the peoples, because he is one of them, he forms part in all and for all of the people that enjoys the promises! All the peoples are important before God because of this child!

On this occasion he receives also the name. Mary and Joseph know already the name that belongs to him: both had the revelation by the angel and so they call him Jesus, which means, God saves, salvation of God! Hence God brings to fulfilment the promises, promises of kindness and peace: this child was to fulfill God’s plan!

Mary, who came to know God’s plans for the child from the angel, contemplates in silence. Her child is like all the children of the people, poor, small, in need of help and attention, to be feed and given love. In silence She meditates, repeats in her heart the words she heard, reads them in relation to what was happenning around her: the visitation of the shepherds, full of awe and joy, show that God is at work.

God continues to work in his preferable way: he started with a hidden place, Nazareth. He called an unkown girl to cooperate in his plan, and now he reveals all to poor shepherds! Jesus himself, later on in his life, bless the way of acting of his father:" I bless you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for you have kept hidden these things to wise and intelligent and revealed them to little ones".

Mary almost holds the place of attention: she is the one to hold the Little One looked for by the shephers. She is the one to show him and offer him to them. She is the one who takes care of him. All look at him, and we too know that he is the only one, the true "Jesus", our saviour. But today we cannot forget her, the silent mother, we don’t want to forget those arms that hold and hand out to us that sweet burden, we don’t want to be ungrateful not to remember that heart that beated for him every minute. Today we proclaim the great truth: Mary is "Mother of God"! Yes, because that child is the incarnation of the great love of God, it’s God in bone and flesh, the child, "born of a woman, born under the law" to make out of us sons and daughters of God! Honoring Mary as Mother of God, we want to strengthen our faith in the divinity of Jesus, and so confirm our obedience to the Father! Mary is still the handmaid of the Lord, for us!

This feast falls with the beginning of a new year: we want to welcome it as a gift from the hands of the Mother, so that we can promise to live it offerring it to her Son. Every beginning should put us on guard to see the one from whom all good things come to thank him and to remember that we are only administrators, charged by God, for his reign! Let us therefore begin the new year giving thanks; we begin it with the humility of the mother who knows that she is important only because her son is necessary for humanity! We too are to be important when we succeed to give out something of him to our brothers and sisters, and so we make grow the peace, that is the comunion of love that comes from above!