To lead everyone to the Redeemer. To bear witness to him even without words, only with love, in which "the genius of the mother" is expressed? To approach even those who put up the most resistance, those for whom it is most difficult to believe in love; who consider the world a great polygon "in which everyone struggles against everyone" as one of the great philosophers expressed it.

To bring all—that is, each one—closer to her Son. To reveal the primacy of love in man’s history. To announce the final victory of love. Is not the Church thinking of this victory when she reminds us of the words in the Book of Genesis: He (the woman’s seed) shall bruise the serpent’s head (cf. Gen 3:15)?

Today the new bishop of Rome crosses the threshold of the Basilica of St. Mary Major, the Marian temple of the Eternal City, conscious of the struggle between good and evil which pervades every man’s heart, which takes place in the history of mankind.

In this connection, the last Council tells us the following: "The whole of man’s history has been the story of our combat with the powers of evil, stretching, so our Lord tells us, from the very dawn of history until the last day. Finding himself in the midst of the battlefield, man has to struggle to do what is right, and it is at great cost to himself and aided by God’s grace, that he succeeds in achieving his own inner integrity (Gaudium et Spes, 37)."

And therefore the pope, at the beginning of his episcopal service in St. Peter’s Chair in Rome, wishes to entrust the Church particularly to her in whom there was accomplished the stupendous and complete victory of good over evil, of love over hatred, of grace over sin; to her of whom Pope Paul VI said that she is "the beginning of the better world."

He entrusts to her himself, as the servant of the servants of God, and all those whom he serves, and all those who serve with him. He entrusts to her the Church of the city of Rome, as token and principle of all the Churches in the world, in the universal unity. He entrusts it to her and offers it to her as her property.

Totus tuus ego sum et omnia mea tua sunt. Accipio te in mea omni! (I am all yours and all that I have is yours. May you be my guide in everything.)

With this simple and at the same time solemn act of offering, the Bishop of Rome, John Paul II, wishes once more to reaffirm his own service to the people of God, which cannot but be the humble imitation of Christ and of her who said of herself, Behold I am the handmaid of the Lord (Lk 1:38).

Let this act be a sign of hope, as the day of the Immaculate Conception is a sign of hope against the background of all the days of our Advent.