Let us go to the grotto of Bethlehem welcoming the great novelty and immense joy!
Newsroom (24/12/2021 11:00 AM, Gaudium Press) It’s Christmas in the world! There is a contagion of good! We Catholics, after the journey of Advent, come to not just this day, but the octave, a solemn time with great joy! “I announce to you a great joy (…): today in the city of David a Savior has been born to you, who is the Lord Messiah” (Lk 2:10-11).
On this solemn day, the Angel’s announcement resounds as an invitation – addressed also to us, men and women of the third millennium – to welcome the Savior. May the present humanity not hesitate to make Him enter their homes, their cities, their nations, and in every corner of the earth!
It is with great joy that we must proclaim the message of Christmas: God became man, He came to dwell among us. God is not far away: He is near, even more, He is Emmanuel, God-with-us. He is not a stranger: He has a face, the face of Jesus.
It is a message that is always new, that never ceases to surprise, because it goes beyond our most daring hope. Especially because it is not just an announcement: it is an event, a happening, which credible witnesses have seen, heard, touched in the person of Jesus of Nazareth!
Staying with Him, observing His actions and listening to His words, they recognized in Jesus the Messiah; and, seeing Him risen, after He had been crucified, they were certain that He, true man, was at the same time true God, the Only Begotten Son come from the Father, full of Grace and Truth (Jn 1:14).
“Awake, O man! For you, God became man” (St. Augustine). O modern man, adult and yet sometimes weak in thought and will, let the Child of Bethlehem lead you by the hand; do not be afraid, trust in Him! God became man for the love of man!
We are invited to form a choir with the Angels: Glory to God in the highest heaven and peace on earth to people of good will. Salvation has arrived! The light has appeared to illuminate the paths of humanity, which longs for peace and brotherhood. God becomes present in our midst. The Word became flesh and came to dwell among us!
On this solemn day, the Angel’s announcement resounds, and it is an invitation – addressed also to us to welcome the Savior. May the present humanity not hesitate to welcome Him in their homes, cities, nations, and in any corner of the Earth!
In the last centuries, much progress has been made in the technical and scientific fields, and today we have vast material resources at our disposal. But the man of the technological age runs the risk of becoming a victim of the very successes of his intelligence and the results of his inventive capacities, heading towards spiritual atrophy, an emptiness of the heart. That is why it is important to open his mind and heart to Christ’s Christmas, the salvation event capable of imprinting renewed hope on the existence of every human being.
Let us go to the grotto of Bethlehem welcoming the great novelty and immense joy! Let us have our soul more delicate, more clean, more joyful for being more conscious of the divine filiation, and well prepared through a really contrite confession, so that the Lord may reside more fully in us: this confession that perhaps God has been waiting for so long…
The angels, as well as Mary and Joseph, are inviting us to enter. And already inside, we say to Jesus with the Church: “King of the universe, whom the shepherds found wrapped in swaddling clothes, help us to imitate always your poverty and your simplicity” (Lauds Prayers).
Let us be heralds of the Good News of Salvation that has come to us! Indeed, what good would it be to celebrate the Nativity of Jesus if Christians did not know how to announce Him to their brothers and sisters with their own lives? Christmas is truly celebrated by all those who welcome the Savior in themselves, with ever more intense faith and love, who let Him be born and live in their hearts so that He can manifest Himself to the world in the goodness, kindness, and generous giving of all those who believe in Him.
Let us turn to the Child of Bethlehem, to the Son of the Virgin Mary and say: “Come save us!” Let us repeat it in spiritual union with so many people who are going through particularly difficult situations, making ourselves the voice of those who have none.
Let us welcome Christ’s Christmas as an event capable of renewing our existence today. The encounter with the Child Jesus makes us people who do not think only of themselves, but are open to the expectations and needs of our brothers and sisters. In this way, we too will become witnesses of the light that Christmas shines on the humanity of the third millennium. Let us ask Mary Most Holy, tabernacle of the Incarnate Word, and Saint Joseph, the silent witness of the events of salvation, to transmit to us the sentiments that they nurtured while awaiting the birth of Jesus and that they now experience in the presence of the newborn Child God!
By Cardinal Orani João Tempesta, O. Cist. – Metropolitan Archbishop of São Sebastião do Rio de Janeiro, RJ
Compiled by Camille Mittermeier