Dear brothers and sisters,

as you will recall, already «in the first days of the pontificate I felt the duty and a profound desire to draw near to Genazzano, to the shrine of Our Lady of Good Counsel, who throughout my life has accompanied me with her maternal presence, with her wisdom and the example of her love for the Son, who is always the centre of my faith» (Dedication in the Shrine's visitors' book, May 10, 2025). With joy I am here again, to celebrate with you the Vigil of the Nativity of the Most Holy Virgin and to entrust to the Child Mary all that in this poor and magnificent humanity is still being born: fragile as a shoot, yet a sign of God's fidelity. Yes, Mary is the dawn of a different day, of our world finally freed from evil. And we are here, close to her, around the Altar from which salvation comes to us and transforms us, children in the Son. Let us ask her for her Good Counsel, to welcome the divine Word, to guard it within us and to bring it to light through courageous and wise decisions, decisions of authentic conversion.

My dear friends, in this place of ancient Augustinian presence I will return to the biblical passages just proclaimed with the help of Saint Thomas of Villanova, an Augustinian friar and bishop who, devoting his life to the service of the poor, penetrated deeply the truth of the faith. He was able to see the paradox of the littleness and, so to speak, the marginality of Mary, made central in the economy of salvation. Let us ask ourselves: what must the birth of a baby girl have meant in the time of Joachim and Anne? Saint Thomas digs deep: «I have reflected many times – he writes – and asked myself why the evangelists, who spoke so extensively of Saint John the Baptist and of the apostles, tell us so succinctly the story of the Virgin Mary, who surpasses everyone in her story and her personal stature. Why, I ask myself, have we not been told the manner of her conception, her birth, her upbringing, her habits, the virtues that adorned her, what human relationship she had with her son, how she related to him, how she lived with the apostles after his ascension? All these things were important and the faithful would have read them with singular devotion and they would have pleased the ordinary people. O evangelists, I turn to you! Why have you deprived us of so great a joy with your silence? Why have you left out details so joyful, so longed for, so pleasing?» (Complete Works VII, 266,8).

We find in these words an important suggestion for our faith: to question Scripture and its authors, to discuss with the text and dialogue with the witnesses of Revelation, as with friends. We are indeed «fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God» (Eph 2:19), and from Mary herself we learn the understanding that converses with God, that asks questions (cf. Lk 1:34) and interprets events by keeping them and connecting them in the heart (cf. Lk 2:19,51). The Gospel according to Matthew, however, seems to prove Saint Thomas of Villanova right with its silence. We have heard it: of Mary it reports the presence, but not a word. And yet, the simple being-there of Mary – and of the Son in her – moves the whole of history: that of Joseph and of all his house. The presence of Mary causes something like a leap in the genealogy, like an unexpected newness, capable of changing not only expectations but also the predictable behaviour of a man. What Joseph hears, what he decides and what he does is in fact a response to God and to the presence of Mary, to her absolute difference, which surpasses every possible discourse and account. In Mary salvation finds a home: God with us!

Our Saint Thomas writes further: «Now, regarding these reflections of mine to which I referred, on why a book has not been written about the deeds of the Virgin, as was instead done for the deeds of Paul, […] it only occurs to me that it was so because it thus pleased the Holy Spirit, and that by his prompting the evangelists were silent about her, for the simple reason that the glory of the Virgin, as we read in the psalm, was all within her (cf. Ps 44:14 Vulg.), and could be imagined more than described, and that, as a summary of her story, what is expressed in the title suffices: that from her Jesus was born. What else do you want to know? What else do you seek in the Virgin? Let it be enough for you to know that she is the Mother of God» (ibid.).

Dear brothers and sisters, we feel something like vertigo before this Mystery: it is impossible to grow used to it! We celebrate the birth of a baby girl called to become the Mother of her Creator, the Mother of the God who saves. And yet, a baby girl is simply born, like the daughters and granddaughters we hold in our arms. We have today for her noble and lofty titles, of Lady and Queen, but the way of God has been and remains simpler and more silent, yet no less powerful and transformative. It is the way of Jesus himself, «the firstborn among many brothers» (Rom 8:29). Well then, like Mary, we too are «predestined to be conformed to the image of the Son» (ibid.): by grace, certainly, but by desiring and preferring to other ways his road, his choices, his path. In Jesus Christ, God chose the most humble historical conditions and the most humble of creatures to manifest the originality of his Kingdom, in which arrogance has no place and omnipotence is creation, service and care for life.

Saint Thomas of Villanova then adds: «Let your imagination run, expand the boundaries of your understanding and paint in the depths of your soul a young woman most pure, most prudent, most beautiful, most devout, most humble, most meek, full of every grace, most rich in holiness, adorned with every virtue, beautified with every charism, absolutely pleasing to God; amplify her as much as you can, imagine as much as you are able» (ibid.). Saint Thomas invites us to this wonderful exercise of imagination. And he observes: «The Holy Spirit did not describe her in writing, but waited for you to paint her interiorly» (ibid., VII, 266,9). Dear brothers and sisters, it is exactly so: in contemplative prayer there takes shape what the world does not tell us, but which already exists; what is still invisible, but which in itself has a new kind of strength. This is not fantasy, but prophecy. We need it, in times of destruction and uncertainty, in order to see God's work and to serve it.

The prophet Micah in tiny Bethlehem glimpsed the rising of a King of peace, thanks to whom we may dwell on the earth finally secure (cf. Mic 5:1-4). And today, in the Collect prayer, turning to little Mary, we asked that «the feast of her birth may increase peace in us». Yes, my dear friends, we want to imagine peace – to expand the boundaries of understanding and paint it in our soul – in order to recognise that it already exists, to welcome it and serve it. It is God's gift, the breath of the Risen One, the work of the Holy Spirit. Let peace grow in us. It will blossom in the world. And the Mother of Good Counsel will accompany us in this mission.