Homily of S.E.R. Cardinal Juan de la Caridad on the Feast of Our Lady of Peace

Blessed are you, Virgin Mary, created by God the Father in his image and likeness, in the womb of Elizabeth for the love of Zechariah and conceived without the original sin that Adam and Eve left us.

Blessed are you, Virgin Mary, chosen to be the Mother of the Son of God made man whom you carried in your virginal womb, you carried him, you loved him, you bathed him, you fed him, you taught him, you learned from Him and like every Mother, you were next to Him on the roads, the weddings, the cross, the resurrection.

Blessed are we, Virgin Mary, who reminds us that we are the image of God the Father, who is love, peace, harmony and created us like this in mother’s womb.

Blessed is our mother, who, like the Virgin, told us when she found out that we were inside Her: Welcome, Welcome, and defended us when someone asked her to have an abortion.

I really like what Father Rolando does. When he sees a pregnant woman, he congratulates her and she becomes happy, he blesses her and his child kicks her as if to say: Thank you, and then he gives her a small but great material help for the love: 500 pesos.

Blessed are you, Virgin Mary, because you are the mother of our children. Help us teach them that the greatest happiness is being together. Walk the path of Christ by which no one has ever been lost.

Blessed are you, Virgin Mary, health of the sick, consolation of the afflicted, hope of sinners, encouragement of the elderly, help of the mothers of prisoners.

Blessed are you, Virgin Mary who taught us to share food and material goods with those who need it. What peace those who give! What peace to those who receive!

Sister Claudia learned from her father to be a carpenter.

Not long ago, two brothers who lived on adjacent farms began to argue. This was their first serious discussion in 40 years of farming together shoulder to shoulder, sharing machinery and continually exchanging crops and goods.

This long collaboration fell apart.

It started with a small misunderstanding and grew into a major difference between them, until it exploded into an exchange of bitter words, followed by weeks of silence.

One morning someone knocked on the older brother’s door. When he opened the door, he found a man with carpenter’s tools. “I’m looking for work for a few days,” my name is Jesus, “perhaps you require some small repairs here on your farm and I can be of help with that.”

“Yes,” said the eldest brother, “I have a job for you. I looked across the stream at that farm, my neighbor lives there, well, in fact he is my younger brother. Last week there was a beautiful meadow between us and he took his tractor and diverted the riverbed so that it was between us. Well, he may have done this to anger me, but I’m going to do him one better. Do you see that pile of scrap wood next to the barn? “I want him to build a fence, a six-foot-high fence, I don’t want to see him anymore.”

The carpenter told him: “I think I understand the situation. Show me where the nails and the shovel are to make the post holes and I will give you a job that will satisfy you.”

The older brother helped the carpenter gather all the materials and left the farm for the whole day to go to town for food. The carpenter worked hard all day measuring, cutting, nailing. The farmer returned as night approached, the carpenter had just finished his work.

The farmer’s eyes were wide open and his mouth was open. There was no fence two meters! In its place was a bridge. A bridge that linked the two farms over the river! It was a nice bridge with handrails.

At that moment, his neighbor, his younger brother, came from his farm and, hugging his brother, said: “You are a great guy, look at building this beautiful bridge after what I have done and said!”

The two brothers were in their reconciliation, when they saw the carpenter take his tools. “No, wait!” said the older brother. “Stay a few days. “I have many projects for you,” the older brother told the carpenter.

“I would like to stay,” said the carpenter, “but I have many bridges to build.” If you want to help me…

Virgin of Peace, pray for us, so that we live in peace, work in peace, suffer in peace, help in peace, die in peace. We know that he is by our side. We pray for people in conflict so that peace defeats war, resentment, and contempt.