As we know, the season of Advent-Christmas-Epiphany beckons us. It calls us to enter into one of the tenderest moments of God’s encounter with humanity: God’s desire for our well-being manifested in Jesus, God-with-us. Each year we return to this mystery of love. We touch it with our own desire for inner peace and with waiting in patience. We find it awakened in listening to the prophet Isaiah. More than anyone, he is the prophet of longing, the prophet who constantly saw signs of God’s promise. We see this love in the Visitation of Mary who threw open the doors of her heart and ran with haste to accompany Elizabeth. We find this same love prophetically revealed in the loving witness of confreres such as Angelo Cavagna, Marcelo Palentini, Frans van der Hoff, Bob Bossie, Johnny Klingler, Claude Bédard and so many others throughout the Congregation. Standing on their shoulders, today we are called to accompany those most hurting and join with others to work with the structures that dehumanize. We are challenged, wherever we may be, to continue to “welcome, protect, promote and integrate” (Pope Francis) migrants from the devastated places of our Earth.
This Advent may we “involve ourselves without reserve for the coming of a new humanity in Jesus Christ” (CsT. 38). Together, may we listen to the prophetic voices of migrants calling us to be God’s innkeepers: “Welcoming Christ in our dear neighbour”.
Together in solidarity with all refugees and migrants.
