During these days as we prepare for Christmas, my thoughts go first to all of you,
to send you my Christmas greeting now in advance.
And to all of you who also form part of the Work, also the cooperators,
to the Saint Raphael boys and girls, to the families, because we are all united in the Church,
in the Communion of Saints.
We should always feel very closely united.
These times are truly complicated and difficult, with so many deaths,
also of people we know, loved ones, with so many sick people.
And in many countries all this is made even worse by already quite difficult situations due to poverty, and war.
All this should spur us, especially during Christmas time,
to pray a lot, to pray a lot for the whole world.
To see these concerns as very much our own.
Perhaps remembering these words of Saint Paul:
“All things are yours; and you are Christ’s; and Christ is God’s.”
Seeing what happens in the world, everything, as very much our own, in order to pray a lot.
While also uniting ourselves to the prayer of the Pope,
who carries on his shoulders the whole Church, and also in some way the whole world.
Thus we will all be closely united in prayer during these difficult times.
And now at Christmas, some words often come to mind
that we will pray in the liturgy on Christmas day:
A child is born for us, and a son is given to us; And it continues:
upon whom rests all power, all sovereignty, all strength.
This Child is born for us, He has been given to us.
This is our great security, the “Deus nobiscum” of Saint Paul that our Father liked to repeat.
Christmas also, when we see our Lord’s self-giving for us,
speaks to us of what later on our Lord himself will say:
I am in the midst of you as one who serves.
Serving with a total self-giving, right to the Cross.
I recall how Don Alvaro once told us:
although we will all die one day, since we have
been born and will die like everyone else,
our Lord was born to die for us.
So may we, with our self-giving, try in some way to imitate our Lord,
to identify ourselves with Him, to truly be “ipse Christus,”
the “Christ himself” that our Father spoke of, also in our spirit of service,
in giving ourselves to the others.
May Christmas be a time especially for this, for looking at Jesus,
who gave Himself for us in Bethlehem. And may we, who want to be Christ himself,
despite our weakness and our wretchedness,
also outdo ourselves in self-giving, in service to the others.
And then also looking at our Lady, at Saint Joseph, at the Child,
who we see were also in a very difficult situation.
Consider what it would have meant for our Lady
to see the Son of God, and her son, born in a place for animals.
And then having to place Him in a manger.
Difficult moments, filled with suffering, but also certainly,
we can be absolutely certain that it was also a time of great joy.
Therefore we too need to always be happy,
also when one has to suffer, with joy, with the joy of the children of God,
with the joy of knowing we are loved by our Lord,
although often we are unable to comprehend the dimensions
of God’s love for us. Good, that’s all I have to say.
Once again, my warmest greetings, and may God bless all of us.