Today, we are going to pray looking at this beautiful round bas-relief made by Luca della Robbia, they were two brothers, I think, of the Italian Renaissance… And when you look at it, the first thing you see is the Child Jesus; at least it happened to me. I look at Jesus; he's the central figure… Right? Why? Because he is God; he is the center of everything; we come from him; we begin with him, whether we like it or not; he gave us existence, that's why we exist, we are what we are.
And what is he doing? He is looking at his Mother. So, our eyes immediately go to his Mother. Look at her face; it's inclined; it's not vertical, right? It is inclined towards Jesus, looking at him, listening to him, loving him.
What about you and me? Is our head, our glance, inclined to Jesus? Our thoughts in Jesus? Learn from her; she is embracing Jesus.
You see, the Child Jesus is holding practically her dress, as if not allowing her to go away; as if sustaining himself in her.
What about you and me, do we embrace Our Lady, as Jesus does? He is indicating it to us, and he knows a lot about this. He's God, imagine…
Devotion to our Mother, she does not ignore us because she is our mother. On the contrary, she looks at us, she's ready to help us… sometimes she scolds us because she's a real Mother.
Look at her, you see, her head and body are covered with the mantle. That mantle covers her, indicating her modesty. She's not a crazy woman going around shouting and demanding… No. She is a Mother; she's the Mother of God. Even so, she lives the virtue of modesty, keeping herself away from whatever may offend God.
That veil, in the Jewish custom, indicates also that she is a married woman; that on top of her, she has the Spouse, in a symbolic manner; that's why she uses the veil on top of her head. Men did not use veils; it means that Our Lady is the spouse of God the Holy Spirit. She recognizes that God has loved her, all the time.
She represents also the Church. The Church is the Bride; Jesus Christ is the Groom, the Bridegroom.
Continue looking at Our Lady, she has a cincture at her waist, which represents traditionally the virtue of chastity, purity. She had no eyes but for God. How will it happen, I have no man? she said. She has eyes only for God, to receive the Light from God; that's why the Child Jesus has a halo. By the way, it's the only figure with halo. Our Lady does not have it, in this representation, meaning, all the life comes from God, from Jesus.
Where is my life? Where do I want to receive life from? From material satisfaction, or from God?
Look at Our Lady, look at Jesus, she's holding Jesus, her hand under the Child Jesus is holding him up, materially… the weight of Jesus is on her hands.
The Body of Jesus is the Church. So, the weight of the Church should be on us…on you and me. You and I have to sustain the Church with our prayer, with our self-denial, with our apostolate, with our thinking of the others: sustaining Jesus, not just hanging but sustaining Jesus.
What do you sustain? What are you attached to?
Look at the other hand of Mary, she is holding the feet of Jesus. Jesus has no sandals. The Child cannot go around without sandals. He needs sandals; and the sandals it's you and me. We have to be “the sandals of Jesus”, to go to the world, to bring him to the world. Sandals, in a manner of speaking, bring people to other places. Our Lady covers the feet of Jesus, like indicating, I go where you go, and I will preserve the sole of your feet.
Continue looking at the figures; Our Lady and the Child Jesus are over a background in blue, with light scratches. It's not very clear, right? Why? Because it represents heaven; and heaven… well, we know what heaven is, but isn't it true that sometimes it's not clear to us? Sometimes we prefer to make a little heavens for ourselves here, on earth, despising the real happiness. Well, even if you don't see clearly heaven, because we are just human beings, heaven is there; the blue sky, the blue heaven, the real thing.
The whole thing is framed, with a round frame, right? This represents the world; this represents all of us; this represents everything that is in the world; there is nothing outside… and everything is centered on Jesus Christ. The world cannot go anywhere but to God… for glory, or for condemnation.
Where to am I walking? Ask yourself.
You see, every point of the frame is equidistant to the center, to Jesus. So, all of us have the same obligation to follow Jesus… the Pope? yes; the cardinals? yes; the bishops? the priests? the lay people? the religious?... All are people, women and men, yes, all of us are there, in the fray; no one is, you know, preponderant; no one there is exceptional. In these matters of salvation, we are all Christians. This is called the baptismal priesthood, we are all baptized with the same baptism: one baptism, one Faith.
So, continue looking at the frame… don't you notice so many defects, pockmarks, right? Yes, we are not perfect…but, still, it’s a frame, and Our Lady is happy with it. Still, it gives glory and testimony to God.
Look down at the lower part of this frame: it is broken, right? Yes. Yes, maybe, some people have abandoned the Church, have abandoned the struggle to follow God, have begun thinking of themselves…
Where are they? Where is that missing piece? The little missing piece, where is it? I don’t know; most likely in the garbage pile! You know, it fell off, you know? Nobody cares for it; well, yeah, it went off on its own, because it wanted to.
But look at the others… even with their defects they are centered in Christ…hoping to go to the inner part, to heaven, to the happiness of heaven.
Look how, in that small representation, the sculptor Luca della Robbia represents so many things useful for us.