With ‘decluttering’ a popular New Year activity, Pope Francis has urged Catholics to emulate Mary by leaving behind “useless baggage” and learning what truly counts.
“Devotion to Mary is not spiritual etiquette; it is a requirement of the Christian life,” the Pope said in his homily in St Peter’s Basilica on the solemnity of Mary, Mother of God. “Looking to the Mother, we are asked to leave behind all sorts of useless baggage and to rediscover what really matters,” he added.
Noting how the year begins in the name of the Mother of God, the Pontiff urged Catholics to start afresh as pilgrims from the centre of their Faith, focused on the crib without being burdened by the past.
Fragility
The crib reminds us of the fragility of the infant Christ and how service to our fellow humans serves God, he said, stressing that “all life, from life in the mother’s womb to that of the elderly, the suffering and the sick, and to that of the troublesome and even repellent, is to be welcomed, loved and helped”.
Silent reflection is key to remembering this, he urged: “To set aside a moment of silence each day to be with God is to ‘keep’ our soul; it is to ‘keep’ our freedom from being corroded by the banality of consumerism, the blare of commercials, the stream of empty words and the overpowering waves of empty chatter and loud shouting.”