Dear Brothers and Sisters,
May the Lord give you peace!
This Christmas falls almost 800 years after the Christmas of Greccio. This Christmas, we once again see signs of light and also signs of darkness.
The light of the birth of Jesus comes at a time when peace is threatened. Many of our brothers and sisters live in these frontiers of war. They remain among and with the people, especially the poor.
Today we want to make our own, the cry of wounded humanity, which waits and wants peace. Being one human family means feeling the pain of others, even on our skin, the despair of those who fear for their children, those without enough food, and those with pain in their hearts.
God looks at this world of ours in crisis with love, and for this, he gives his Son. In faith, he allows us to recognise more opened doors than barred ones, more opportunities than signs of death.
The crisis of this dark time is, therefore, also an opportunity. Opportunity to cultivate dialogue for a new encounter with the One who became poor for us. A chance to reaffirm faith in Jesus Christ as memory and prophecy today.
Dear brothers and sisters! Today we prepare to experience a Christmas that is both bright and dark, as in Bethlehem, where a Child is born who is Peace and yet threatened at the same time.
