How many remember to give a gift to the real “birthday boy”?
Newsroom (23/12/2021 8:08 PM, Gaudium Press) As we get closer to Christmas, little by little the joy proper to the highly esteemed date begins to make itself felt. The streets fill with decorations, Christmas trees are everywhere, nativity scenes begin to piously decorate Catholic environments, and it is common for children to start asking for their Christmas presents. However, how many of us remember to give presents to the real “birthday boy”?
However, we find ourselves in a delicate situation, because the “birthday boy” is God Himself. And the most pleasing gift to Him is not decorations, Christmas trees, or nativity scenes, but our soul!
And it is to prepare it that the Holy Church reserves four weeks before Christmas, which are marked by asceticism and constant concern for conversion.
“Rejoice,” but… how?
St. Augustine tells us that “everyone wants to be happy, but not everyone wants to live in the only way one can be happy.” If there is only one way to be happy, then all the other happinesses are not the true happiness that is found in orienting our existence toward God, the Supreme Good and the ultimate end of man.
Those who allow themselves to be ensnared by the world and walk parallel paths to the true and only path will never be happy, simply because they are following a route that does not lead to God.
The reason why we should rejoice is the birth of Jesus, and we have to base this contentment on the fulfillment of God’s Law, on the continuous desire for inner transformation, and on concrete gestures, proper to each one.
Conversion and Trust
We have to renounce our sins and always ask God: “Lord, what do you want me to do?” It is certain that He will answer us, sometimes by a simple inner voice.
And let us remember Confidence, this indispensable virtue. How often we strive to practice virtue, but after a while we find ourselves prostrated by our miseries and contemplate with sadness the gravity of our faults!
But how much joy pervades our souls when we consider that “the Lord is near” (Phil 4:5) and will come to heal our sins! In these moments, we must not let ourselves be discouraged, but, on the contrary, we must consecrate ourselves more eagerly to the path of virtue.
Without a shadow of a doubt, the gift that the Child Jesus hopes to receive on his birthday is a joyful heart, trusting and entirely transformed by a sincere desire for conversion and abandonment into his hands.
Will we dare refuse him this gift?
May God not allow it!
By Lucas Rezende
Compiled by Camille Mittermeier
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