Dear friends,
May each of you experience God’s nearness and affectionate love in your unique circumstances, during these days of celebrating Christmas.
One of the beautiful truths about Jesus’ birth that’s come home more to me, is that it reveals God’s preferred style of approaching us: “which is neither grandiose nor noisy, but rather a style characterized by hiddenness and littleness.” (Pope Francis)
He just quietly moves into the neighbourhood.
It conveys to me God’s gentleness, who does not come to us to terrify us with His greatness or to impose Himself with His magnificence, but makes Himself present in the most ordinary way, becoming one of us. And leaves me free to respond to him as I choose!
He chose to be born in a simple stable in Bethlehem, as a sign of God’s desire to be close to all and to assure us that he is approachable.
As he did, at the first Christmas, he continues to quietly draw near to you and me, inviting us to open our hearts to him and let him accompany us on our unique journey of life. If you are willing, I invite you to take a few moments of quiet in these days, to communicate your response to Jesus. He doesn’t need any fancy words; just words from your heart to his.
By coming to you and me in this way, he wants us to also know that he sees our love, in the hiddenness and littleness of daily gestures, when we become more like him. He sees your attentiveness to the little things of everyday life, to small gestures of gratitude, to the care and concern for others. He is proud of you!
