HOLY AND HUMAN CHRISTMAS

Christmas in difficult times and intrepid believers to recover the Christ Child.

On Christmas day the Light is born that illuminates our life and our walk, "The people who walked in darkness saw a great light" (Isaiah 9:1). The Lord of Life shows us his Face so that we can look at him and be enlightened, as it is said in the psalm 34: 6, through Jesus we discover the life of the Spirit. And the Word became flesh, "And camped among us" (John 1: 14).

Today we need that Light more than ever because the darkness of these times of the 21st century darkens the hearts and steps of today's man. The blackouts make it difficult to see the Face of the God who came and who comes. A world trapped by political turmoil that leads to economic ruin, moral and human, with their neuroses of power and having, with provocative laws that threaten the gravity of life, and to the dignity of the person, and to the reality of man and woman. A world where there is no place for God "came to his own and they did not receive him" (John 1: 11); "And to those who received him and gave them the power to become children of God" (John 1: 12). These encouraging and hopeful words that the shepherds heard were of "great joy to all the people" (Lucas 2: 10).

They are poor shepherds, the only ones awake to hear the news. God is free and more easily welcomed by the simple. Mystics are right when they tell us that three steps are necessary to welcome God: empty ourselves, deprive ourselves and become poor. We have more and more things to enjoy, but they should not occupy or displace the place that corresponds to God. What can be really in these parties so spoiled by consumer interests and our mediocrity? There are many people who do not care to believe or not believe, that God has died or that he has been born. They don't seem to need God.

Christmas is always a call for believers to be reborn to joy, the hope, solidarity, brotherhood and total trust in the Father. A party much deeper and more joyful than all the gadgets of our consumer society. Believers have to regain the heart of this party from silence. Christmas like Maria, contemplate from the silence and mystery of God, Love that calls us to change, to live for others, to build in the world anew the sacrament of God's presence that infects us with his breath. A God who reaches out to men to become our brother. It is Christ who reaches the history of man, of every man, of every man. It is Christ who comes to the manger in Bethlehem and to each manger, to every heart. Christmas cheer, only possible if the heart recognizes itself as a poor manger and is ready to receive the God of Love. That above the night of difficulties, twitching, resentments, hostilities, Apathy, great religious crisis, and tormented by the confusion of this pandemic in its different features that lead us to change our step towards God, towards ourselves and towards others. Let's undertake, like magicians, the long journey of personal and collective responsibilities, without letting ourselves be anesthetized by this dire political reality, to proclaim with works and words the gospel of truth and hope, with full attention to the spirit of God, that arouses words and actions capable of igniting the light of the hearts that we meet on our way.

I hope that these Christmas holidays are once again a joyful today and a profound encounter with Jesus in the Bethlehem of our lives., with the same spirit, joy and simplicity of the shepherds (Lucas 2: 8-20). An encounter that requires us to break, let, and separate fears, difficulties, reassurance, selfishness and apathy, and that commits us to tell what we have seen and heard. Living Christmas is discovering in the deep night, when the most complete darkness reigned, that the Lord has smiled on earth and his smile has resounded in a thousand echoes of peace. He has become a companion of our walk through stumbling and pain. Christmas is a light to project in our hearts and transmit to others a new image of God.

Mary, Mother, doctor of faith, of hope and love, walk with us and be a bond of ecclesial communion.

Christian and human Christmas, with my affection and blessing

Father Rolando.