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Buenos Aires, Sunday, December 24, 2006

Father Oscar Pezzarini

Glory to God in the highest...

We are experiencing the days of Jesus' birth, in which “all things are renewed”... but I wonder if they actually will renew? Will we seriously renew ourselves this Christmas? Will there be actually something different in the life of each Man from now on? And the answer should be Yes of course, how can we not renew when we are experiencing the mistery of Christmas, in which God becomes Man in order to fill us with His Peace and Love, when He comes to tell us that Salvation is near, that we shall not be afraid. Therefore I imagine that all this must help us to renew, to rejoice, to realize that something can and must change in our lives. From the depth of our hearts, if we know how to share such a joy then the expression of “shouting” MERRY CHRISTMAS! to whoever we find on the road will become true, otherwise it will be some other red-letter day on which we will rest together with our family, but we will have lost the chance of welcoming in our heart “the One who truly renews all things”.

And on Earth peace among men..., it's Christmas, God became Man, God has drawn nearer, He “came down” to Man so that Man could have the chance of reaching God from now on.

We are experiencing the days of Jesus' birth, in which “all things are renewed”... but I wonder if they actually will renew? Will we seriously renew ourselves this Christmas? Will there be actually something different in the life of each Man from now on?

And the answer should be Yes, of course, how can we not renew when we are experiencing the mistery of Christmas, in which God becomes Man in order to fill us with His Peace and Love, when He comes to tell us that Salvation is near, that we shall not be afraid. Therefore I imagine that all this must help us to renew, to rejoice, to realize that something can and must change in our lives.

Glory to God in the highest... a child is born, a “baby”, God became a “baby” in order to avoid us being afraid of approaching Him since who can be afraid of a newborn child. Although on second thought there may be some who are afraid of it. In some of this customary reflections I share with you, some time ago I said it seems to me that there are people who can be afraid of a baby, a child, their own child, and this is the reason why people attempt to defend such atrocities like what they call “abortion” which is no other thing as “killing one's own child”.

But surely most people grow tender when faced with a newborn child, and such happens this Christmas when we approach the manger and look at Baby Jesus who seems to look at us saying “do not be afraid of Me”, I was born, I came to the world in order to fill you with peace, to bring you salvation. I only ask you to share the joy of Christmas with all other Human beings.

It's Christmas, my brethren, these are the days of the silent nights of Peace, of the days of Love, of Happiness because God does not doom Mankind, He does not reject her, on the contrary He assimilates and bestowes dignity on her and keeps on trusting us Human beings, He shares His love with us, He makes us participants of His very own reality and invites us to therefore rejoice, and as with every joy we are expected to show it to others.

It's Christmas, God becomes a child so He can grow at our side so we will not be afraid of Him, to tell us He still trusts Mankind, to encourage us to “go out of ourselves” and to share this joy with our fellow men.

From the depth of our hearts, if we know how to share such a joy then the expression of “shouting” MERRY CHRISTMAS! to whoever we find on the road will become true, otherwise it will be some other red-letter day on which we will rest together with our family, but we will have lost the chance of welcoming in our heart “the One who truly renews all things”.

Father Oscar Pezzarini
Provincial Superior of the Work of Don Orione in Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay and Mexico

Father Oscar Pezzarini together with Fr. Leonardo Abregú makes us reflect on Saturdays from 8 to 12 AM (GMT-03:00)with "VENTANA A LA VIDA", the Don Orione radio program he conducts on FM PROVIDENCIA, 90.3 MHz together with some residents of the Claypole Cottolengo (Raúl Romero, María Laura Andrada, Alberto Zoroch, Américo Torres), with the production of Roberto Beluzzo and Ignacio Cavalli as technical operator. You can also listen to FM PROVIDENCIA by clicking here.

Pequeño Cottolengo Don Orione 0800-333-6746 in Argentina, or +54 (11) 4268-7722 from abroad.

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