MONDAY 25th DECEMBER 2023
Luke 2, 1-14
“Today a Saviour is born to you”.
Pope Francis comments: The Gospel of Jesus’ birth seems to be written precisely for this, to take us by the hand and lead us where God wants us. In fact, it begins with a situation similar to our own. Everyone is busy, arranging for an important event to take place, the great census, which required a lot of preparations. In this sense, the atmosphere then was similar to that surrounding Christmas today. But the Gospel narrative distances itself from that worldly setting; it separates itself from that image to frame another reality, which it insists on. It focuses its attention on a small, apparently insignificant object, which it mentions three times and on which the protagonists of the narrative converge. First, Mary, who places Jesus “in a manger”; then the angels, who announce to the shepherds “a newborn child wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger” and then the shepherds who find him in the manger.
Jesus, we look at you, huddled in the manger. We see you so close, you are with us forever. Thank you, Lord. We look at you poor, teaching us that true wealth is not in things, but in people, especially in the poor. Forgive us if we have not recognised and served you in them. We see you concrete, because concrete is your love for us, Jesus, help us to give flesh and life to our faith. Amen.
Happy Christmas.
Antonio Sanjuan Cmf
