Messaggio di Natale della Madre per il sito web 1
25 dicembre 2015
Greetings from Mother: Christmas of Mercy
Dearest Sisters,
It gives me much joy to be able to meet you, even through technology, to give you my Christmas wishes that I extend to all the young people, to all the families, to the various groups of the Salesian Family, beginning with the Rector Major, Fr. Ángel Fernández Artime with his Council, to all our Salesian brothers to whom is given special gratitude for their fraternal closeness and spiritual service.
We are living the Christmas of the Holy Year of Mercy. There is no celebration more appropriate. In fact, what is Mercy if not the entrance of Jesus into humanity to share the human condition and save all of God’s children? Contemplation of the Baby in the manger then becomes contemplation of this overflowing love of the Father who, for the salvation of His creatures, does not hesitate to sacrifice the Son; and the Son who offers Himself, “See, I come, Father” (Cf. Hebrews 5:7), so that His brothers and sisters could be inundated with mercy, rediscover their original condition of creatures who speak face to face with the Creator, who feel loved by Him, and who love Him.
In fact, we can affirm that God is mercy just as we affirm that God is love. Mercy is love given to weak creatures to make them strong and similar to the Son. It is love that goes beyond the merits or demerits and bends with more tenderness over those who show greater fragility.
However, this Christmas is also a Christmas marked by many painful situations. The Pope speaks of a third world war fought piecemeal and we are all witnesses of this. It is enough to open a newspaper, to put on the television to feel ourselves assailed by news of suffering, of death, of gratuitous violence, of contempt for life and for innocence. There is no Country in the world that does not feel fear for life, for peace, for pacific living together.
Many experience what Baby Jesus did: the need to flee their own country and go as refugees elsewhere in order to escape persecution and death. Others have to live in hiding and hunted down, simply because they are Christians, only because they pray, possess a Bible, and are faithful to their Baptism. It is not surprising to know that the martyrs of our time are more numerous than those of the first centuries.
In many places, they fight for a piece of land, for a scrap of power, for the pride and arrogance of a leader, for possession of a pool of oil, and for wealth beneath the land. And the people die of hunger, of thirst, of underdevelopment, even when their land would have the resources to allow them a dignified life. Many innocent children, young people, and women are victims of violence. Poverty not only persists, it increases.
Let us ask ourselves as individuals, as FMA Communities, as educating communities, what it means to live the Year of Mercy in a context of this kind.
God always offers us His mercy that is gratuitous love, unconditional forgiveness without second thoughts. But are we, His sons and daughters, aware of this? Are we aware that we need mercy because we would never be able to respond with a love equal to the gift He gives us? Do we, His sons and daughters, try to love with the same great heart, with the same capacity for forgiveness? Do those who live with us experience this mercy? Do they feel touched by God’s mercy through us?
We have taken the journey toward Bethlehem during this Advent. Now we stop before the grotto, before that mangerwhere God touches the depths of His mercy, sharing it fully with the human condition. To Him let us bring every tear, every lament, every cry, and every drop of blood that falls from the earth, from this our earth.
Let us bring to Him the tears that are shed by families lacerated by misunderstanding, by lack of love; the tears of neglected children or those made objects of blackmail for one reason or another; the tears of children without homes, without parents, used and abused…the groans of the elderly and of the sickwho are only wished that they die quickly; of fathers and mothers who do not know how to feed their own children…the cry of those who see the destruction of their home, their city, their belongings, the life of their dear ones, and their own life by bombs, by betrayal, by exploitation, by false accusations, by hatred because of race or religion. The blood that the earth drinks each day isstill shed by brother killing brother.
To Him, we also bring many gestures of love, of solidarity that flow from many hearts working for the triumph of the good. If all this becomes an offering at the cradle of Bethlehem, it will be the Baby who dries the tears, consoles those who mourn and cry out with desperation, who cures and heals wounds, and reconciles brothers.
We are called to collaborate with Him. Prayer and offering are the fuels so that our little daily choices are in keeping with mercy; so that our presence, our service, our fraternity fall like balm on the hearts and lives of those we meet, of those we serve, the little ones of the Gospel, the inhabitants of the outskirts, those who are victims of a throwaway culture, but also of those who think they do not need it because they are ‘powerful’…they need it more than the others.
It is our own existence that must become ‘the place’ in which one can experience mercy, learn to desire it, and receive it. We are the ones called to make ourselves the ‘sign’ of God’s mercy.
As daughters of Don Bosco and of Mother Mazzarello, let us help the young, above all, to discover that mercy is foreseeing love.It is the love that reaches us, fills us, satisfies us, provides for our happiness before we can even think it exists and is interested in us.
During this Christmas, our prayer reaches all the Nations of the world horrified by war, by natural calamities, by serious disasters caused by human negligence. Let us reach all the people far from their families, forced to migrate, alone and abandoned; all our sisters and brothers of whatever religion who have not yet found the God of mercy because no one has helped them to meet Him.
I thank the whole Institute for the expressions of solidarity for those who have been struck by multiple forms of suffering.
Merry Christmas 2015 and Happy New Year 2016 to you, to your families, to the young, to the collaborators, to all those you meet each day. With the young people, bring to all the Gospel news: God-Mercy-is -with-us!
My wish is that in this new year, a Holy Year, many young people will decide to follow Jesus, giving their life for the service of the poorest!
It would really be beautiful if this Christmas, each sister, each community, each educating community would make the effort to perform at least one of the works of mercy, following the invitation of Pope Francis and thus giving real substance to the Jubilee.
I thank you for the prayer and affection with which you support each other, for the effort all the Provinces are making to translatethe commitments of General Chapter XXIII into life, for the greetings and the various Christmas gifts that continue to arrive.