Mary, he said, "is the new wineskin brimming with contagious joy. She is the handmaid of the Father who sings his praises."
As someone who promptly responded to the angel's announcement by going to visit her cousin Elizabeth, Mary helps us overcome fear and "the temptation to keep ourselves from being filled to the brim, the temptation to a faint-heartedness that holds us back from going forth to fill others with joy."
A second image the Pope pointed to was the jug and wooden ladle carried by the Samaritan woman who met Jesus at the well.
The image of the jug and ladle point to the crucial importance "of concrete situations," Francis said, explaining that since Jesus had no way to draw water, the woman with her jug and ladle was able to quench the Lord's thirst.
"She sated it even more by concretely confessing her sins," he said, and pointed to Mother Teresa as another example of a new wineskin filled with "inclusive concreteness."
In starting her mission with one concrete person, Mother Teresa, "thanks to her smile and her way of touching their wounds, brought the good news to all," he said.
Pope Francis then pointed a third image of the Good News, which he said is "the fathomless vessel of the Lord's pierced heart: his utter meekness, humility and poverty which draw all people to himself."
"From him we have to learn that announcing a great joy to the poor can only be done in a respectful, humble, and even humbling, way," he said, stressing that "evangelization cannot be presumptuous. The integrity of the truth cannot be rigid."
In every situation, the Holy Spirit tells us what we need to say to our enemies and guides our steps forward, he said, adding that "this meekness and integrity gives joy to the poor, revives sinners, and grants relief to those oppressed by the devil."
Pope Francis closed his homily praying that as priests contemplate these three "icons" of the Gospel, the Good News would find in them "that contagious fullness which Our Lady radiates with her whole being, the inclusive concreteness of the story of the Samaritan woman, and the utter meekness whereby the Holy Spirit ceaselessly wells up and flows forth from the pierced heart of Jesus our Lord."
Elise Harris was senior Rome correspondent for CNA from 2012 to 2018.