Friday, August 15, 2025
I greet all of you here present at this special Eucharistic celebration on this joyful feast of the bodily assumption of Blessed Virgin Mary in the ancient Maronite church of Kambilis. This shrine is an expression of the deep faith our Maronite ancestors had in the consoling presence of the Blessed Virgin Mary. They believed what we believe. If they could travel through time to be with us today, they would feel right at home with us as we honour the Mother of God on this special feast. For this is our Catholic Maronite faith: that after a life spent completely given to God, the Blessed Virgin Mary breathed forth her last breath in a great crescendo of love and God justly rewarded her fidelity by bringing her body and soul into heaven. The Catechism of the Catholic Church in paragraph 966 states this truth: “Finally the Immaculate Virgin, preserved free from all stain of original sin, when the course of her earthly life was finished, was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory.”
And while her assumption into heaven was only just, right and proper for God to reward his holy mother, Our Lord had a very specific reason for this grand gesture. He wanted his Mother to be where He is so that if we seek Mary, we will find Jesus, and by finding Jesus through Mary, we will discover something of what is in the Heart of God, who humbled himself, putting all signs of his divinity, power, and majesty on a shelf, so that he could take the form of a servant.
When we come here to this holy site, soaked with the prayers of centuries of Maronites opening their hearts to Mary, we know that this is how we will find Jesus. Wherever Jesus is, there is His mother. Whenever we speak to his mother, she takes it directly to Jesus. The feast we celebrate today dogmatically assures us that this is the truth.
May our Maronite faith be renewed by the simple return to pious traditions of our forefathers! With the prayers we learned as children from our own mothers at the beginning of the day, the reciting of the Angelic salutation at the hour of noon, the custom of greeting and kissing her icons, the daily recitation of the rosary in the family home, the child-like prayers we learned to offer Mary at the end of the day beside our bed … these are tried, tested and true means to find Jesus and to live the life of grace that He obtained for us by dying on the Cross and rising from the dead.
I wish to conclude by asking Mary, Mother of the Maronites and Queen of Kambilis to obtain for us a new springtime of the spirit, especially for our young people. May our efforts to be instruments of unity and peace bring about a great reconciliation in the land of Cyprus and restoration of our ancient Maronite fervour.