Dear brothers,
I wish you all a Merry Christmas! This wish of mine is intended “to enter, above all, into your hearts, and bring you the feeling of joy, peace, serenity and trust that springs precisely from this holy holiday and that constitutes one of the most consoling hopes in life. May each one…inwardly feel its sweetness and comfort, its happiness” (Cf. St. Pope Paul VI, Radio message, December 23, 1963).
I have taken the liberty of using this beautiful greeting by St. Paul VI to express what I sincerely wish for each of you, and for your fraternities. Through faith, the Liturgy, and our cultures and traditions, that “sense of joy, peace, serenity and trust” comes to us as we celebrate the God made man, the God made humility and the God made salvation.
This is our “consolation.” This is our “sweetness.” This is our “comfort.” He, the Lord, the author of History, raises us up, cheers us on, gives us peace and encourages us. In becoming man, He clothes us with Himself, with His divine Life. What else can we desire but the sense of fullness that is Christ Himself?
I always like to remember that Christmas is also the Good News of God’s humility. God is made flesh to associate us with his Life! God takes on our weakness and littleness to reveal to us who He is and what his Heart is like!
Brothers, this is what we want, this is what we desire! To clothe ourselves in Christ—as He clothed Himself in the very finiteness of creation.
On this feast, as we contemplate the Mystery of the Incarnation, “we are invited to set out on a spiritual journey, drawn by the humility of the God who became man in order to encounter every man and woman. We come to realize that so great is his love for us that he became one of us, so that we in turn might become one with him” (Pope Francis, Apostolic Letter Admirable Signum, December 1, 2019).
As we contemplate the Savior who made Himself a child in the midst of His creatures, let us allow our hearts to be softened, so that we may not only take part in the divinity of the Lord, but also take part in his saving humanity, a humanity that knows how to reach the pain of the world, the suffering of peoples, the irrationality of many, to reach that thirst for love, which afflicts our times and our fellow human beings—our neighbors.
Merry Christmas!
Carlos A. TROVARELLI
Minister General