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January 13, 2024Today, we are gathered around the altar to celebrate Holy Mass on a special occasion. First of all, today, we celebrate the solemnity of our Lady of Arabia, the patron of the Gulf. We invoke Our Lady, Mother of God, and our Mother, as protector of all the people of God who live in the Arabian Peninsula. The Mother of Jesus extends her maternal mantle of protection over all of us. Under her maternal care, we begin the greatest call, the National Conference of the Nurses' Ministry Association.
It is a gift of Providence to celebrate the national nurses' conference on the day of the solemnity of Our Lady of Arabia. What inspiration do you take from Mother Mary for your ministry in celebrating this solemnity on the day of your conference? Following the word of God that we have heard, we must first say that Mary invites us to joy:
Shout for joy, daughter of Zion, Israel, shout aloud!
Rejoice, rejoice with all your heart, daughter of Jerusalem!
This is an invitation to joy that comes to us from the prophet Zephaniah. This invitation is fulfilled in the Gospel, in which we find the meeting between Mary and Elizabeth and the song of victory and joy pronounced by the Mother of God.
But what is the meaning of this joy? It is not a passing feeling that we have according to our different moods during the day. This joy has a foundation: God intervenes in human history and changes the lives of those oppressed by evil. The lives of Mary and Elizabeth are the clearest examples of how God can intervene in history and perform miracles. Therefore, God is not far from us. God involves himself in our history and the world's life, frees us from evil, overcomes the arrogance of the powerful, and exalts the humble.
But how can we experience this joy? We must welcome God's presence in our lives with Faith. Mary teaches us faith. She welcomed the word of God and the working of the Holy Spirit into her life and allowed herself to be changed. Having faith means being open to the presence of God and entrusting ourselves to him daily in our work and our relationships with all the people.
Dear nurses, you must be bearers of joy. You must help the sick and all those in need to have faith in God with trust and courage. You have the excellent opportunity to be close to people in situations of suffering and need. The sick have in their hearts not only the question of healing from illness but the desire for salvation, for a good life illuminated by God. Be witnesses for them of the joy of the gospel. Teach them that it is possible to be joyful even in difficult situations because God is close and never abandons us.
Furthermore, we welcome Saint Paul's strong invitation in his letter to the Romans always to choose good and never evil. I appreciate that in your association, you greatly emphasize the value of holiness. For you, being a nurse is not simply doing a job like any other. You experience your work as a call to holiness. The vocation to holiness is nothing other than the call to love and has its roots in baptism.
How many opportunities for love your work offers you every day! Be like Mary, who leaves her house to visit her cousin and Elizabeth and stays with her to help and care for her, who is expecting a child at an advanced age. May you, too, be ready to serve others with sincere and available love. Bring love to others. Bring Jesus to others. Please bring hope to all those who suffer. Christian hope allows us to face even the heaviest difficulties.
Finally, we welcome the invitation never to stop praying. Do not give up if trials come and, keep on praying. The Secret of a holy life is constant prayer. Prayer keeps you united with God and enables you to live your daily work as a mission for the kingdom of heaven. In particular, I recommend participating in the Eucharistic celebration, which allows us to fully participate in the mystery of Christ's passion, death, and resurrection, the foundation of our hope and complete revelation of the love of God.
Mary is the virgin in prayer. She is a model of prayer for us. Let us learn to pray from the Mother of God. Furthermore, let us never tire of praying to her and asking for her intercession.
I entrust your association to our Lady of Arabia. She saw your beautiful ecclesial reality born under her maternal gaze. May she continue to accompany you and help you grow in faith, hope, and love towards God and everyone, especially towards the sick who are entrusted to your care every day.