My brothers and sisters, may the Lord give you peace. Today we celebrate the dedication of the Basilica of Saint Mary Major here in Rome — a temple that has stood for more than 1,500 years as a visible sign of the Church’s love for the Mother of God. I am blessed to live here in the Eternal City, and as a friar and priest, I have walked by it and through its doors countless times. I also have the joy of serving daily just down the road at the Lateran Basilica which is very close to Saint Mary Major, hearing confessions and welcoming pilgrims who come from all over the world to encounter the mercy of God.
Saint Mary Major is one of the four papal basilicas, and the largest church in the world dedicated to Our Lady. It was first built in the year 432 by Pope Sixtus III, shortly after the Council of Ephesus proclaimed Mary as Theotokos — Mother of God. Tradition tells us that its location was chosen after a miraculous snowfall on the night of August 4th, marking the outline of the church on the Esquiline Hill. Inside, the basilica holds priceless spiritual treasures: the relics of the Holy Crib of Bethlehem, a 5th-century icon of the Madonna and Child known as Salus Populi Romani, and mosaics that tell the story of salvation.
Standing beneath its golden ceiling, one cannot help but feel that heaven has stooped down to kiss the earth. And in truth, that is exactly what happened through Mary — heaven touched earth in the incarnation of God’s Son, through Her maternal gift.
In our first reading from Revelation, we hear of the New Jerusalem, prepared as a bride for her husband, where God will dwell with His people forever. Mary is the first and most perfect image of that reality: a dwelling place for God Himself.
In the Gospel, when a woman praises the physical motherhood of Mary, Jesus points to the deeper reason for her blessedness — she heard the Word of God and kept it. This is what makes Mary not only the Mother of Christ, but the Mother of all believers: she is the first to receive the Word into her heart before conceiving Him in her womb.
Through this holy basilica, we are reminded that the same God who filled Mary with His presence, desires to dwell in each of us. Mary’s “yes” allowed the Word to become flesh; our daily “yes” allows Christ to be born anew in the world through our lives.
So today, as we honour this great basilica and the Mother it glorifies, let us ask her to help us hear the Word, treasure it, and live it — so that we, too, may become living temples where God is pleased to dwell. Let us also remember that we can never love our Blessed Mother, more than She was loved by Her Son. For this reason we should never worry that perhaps we are loving her too much. We only need to remember that our love which is borne out of adoration and worship is only given to God, and this is the distinction which our protestant brothers and sisters fear isn’t made, but which they do not make themselves.
This temple is a magnificent reminder that as the Queen of Heaven, placed their by Almighty God, she deserves all the honours we can bestow on her just short of that honour we give solely to God. Likewise, no saint gets the same honour we give to Her, for no saint is as close to God as she is.
Mary, Queen of all Saints, pray for us who have recourse to thee.
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