Christmas of the lips
When Christ came into the world, he said:
“Sacrifice and offering you did not desire,
but a body you prepared for me;
holocausts and sin offerings you took no delight in.
Then I said, ‘As is written of me in the scroll,
Behold, I come to do your will, O God.’”
(Heb 10.5-7)
God has prepared the body and absolutely assumed our human condition, he became a man like us. Nobis natus, nobis datus …
MOVEMENT 1: YOU HAVE PREPARED THE BODY… WHICH HAS LIPS (CONSECRATION)
From these lips come out:
– a definitive word: God has a name, Father; and you have a name: a name pronounced by the mouth of God.
– the way to be a child of God.
– a simple kiss: the eternal kiss between a person and God.
Teach us, Infant Jesus, the tenderness of these lips that modulate the words of life and love, which manage to convey his truth with concrete and close gestures. This is why you have called us to be with you and have consecrated us for your service and that of the Church; to serve: here is our way of meaning and happiness.
Christmas of the eyes
God has prepared the body and absolutely assumed our human condition, he became a man like us. Nobis natus, nobis datus …
MOVEMENT 2: YOU HAVE PREPARED ME A BODY… THAT HAS EYES (COMMUNION)
The gaze of Jesus falls:
– on the crowd
– on the tax currency
– on the poor woman’s role,
– on his apostles
– on the young man who wanted to follow him,
– on the intentions of his enemies,
– on other looks, full of rage,
– on those who look full of tenderness, like Zacchaeus,
– glances raised upwards to pray taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, (Mark 6:41)and Jesus raised his eyes and said, “Father,I thank you for hearing me (John 11:41), he raised his eyes to heaven and said, “Father, the hour has come (John, 17,1).
Teach us to know how to see and discern things, see the signs of the times, observe the beauty of your creation, the need of the wounded on the next path.
Watch for:
1. sharpen our gaze on what surrounds us, our country, the brothers who are suffering, our problems and difficulties,
2. see our interior and our conscience,
3. discover how He looks at us, with love and tenderness, with a look of friendship and companionship.
The gaze of the Child Jesus transforms our lives and brings us together in a new way every day in a community of life and love, of authentic love. The Child demands from us religious fraternities able to grow new life.
Hands of Christmas
God has prepared the body and absolutely assumed our human condition, he became a man like us. Nobis natus, nobis datus…
MOVEMENT 3: YOU HAVE PREPARED THE BODY… THAT HAS HANDS (MISSION)
Hands that will replace those of Joseph in the face of family carpentry
– to work,
– to create,
– to build,
– to model
– to feed the others (press five loaves and five fish)
An action that is prolonged, Lord, because you believed in us.
Hands for the mission. May our hands never turn away from your plow, Lord.
Hands to pray, like that other holy night when you took in your hands holy and venerable bread. And leave us your body. Those holy and venerable hands that took the cup (this cup), the cup of blood shed for the forgiveness of my sins and of all men.
Hands that are a pure and healthy expression of tenderness; the one that will save the world. Tenderness of an open and supportive heart. Mission that gives us happiness, fullness.
This is the believable God in everything that tells us and repeats (for centuries). He announces that it is possible, the newness, the transformation; it is possible to do all that God’s plan proposes and disposes. And he demonstrates this with his concrete life. We can no longer say that we do not understand. This man (even a child) is like us.
Among us, to you, a child: the criterion, the norm, the way, the truth, the life.
Sisters and brothers: This is the life to be delivered. Nobis natus, nobis datus…
