“Even if our heart lacks love, it longs for love” (St. Francis de Sales).
St. Francis de Sales was a very sensitive spiritual guide who always knew how to encourage a soul and build on the good he found in it, especially when it was in darkness. Thus, today’s phrase can also serve as a consolation and speak to us in the midst of our inner darkness, when we feel incapable of loving and our heart seems closed in on itself.
If, at the beginning of the year, we set our gaze on the Mother of the Lord, as the Church urges us to do, then everything becomes enlightened, despite the dark clouds that currently hang over the world.
Everything becomes enlightened, because you, O Mary, were chosen as the daughter of the human race. You not only gave birth to the Son of God, but you also followed Him as a disciple. Thus the Lord included you in a special way in the plan of salvation. This gives us hope, because our Father, who entrusted you with his only begotten Son, also made you the Mother of redeemed humanity.
Beloved Child, we have almost reached the end of these Christmas meditations, and also the year is about to end.
Beloved Lord, to whom can we turn if not to You, who even in such confusing times are present, and perhaps in a special way when You see people’s need and distress?
Hardly had You come into the world, O Divine Child, when Your parents had to flee with You to Egypt. The obedience of Your adoptive father, St. Joseph, in leaving immediately after having received this order in a dream, is admirable (Mt 2:13-14).
Toil, hardship and adversity, suffering and death characterise this world as a consequence of sin, and we would be lost forever if it were not for the fact that You came to us and brought us the light of hope.
As Jews faithful to the Law of the Lord, eight days after Your birth Your parents circumcised You and gave You the name of Jesus, the Saviour (Lk 2:21).
When, forty days later, they brought You to the Temple to present You to the Lord, You met Simeon, one of the faithful of Your people (Lk 2:22-25). The Holy Spirit had revealed to him that he would not die before he had seen you. And so it happened! Filled with the Holy Spirit and taking You in His arms, He pronounced over You those unforgettable words:
Beloved Child, we could exult with joy without ceasing, especially when we look at Your incomparable Mother and Saint Joseph….
What warmth surrounds the Holy Family! With its humanity, permeated by the Spirit of God, it sanctifies the core of human society: the family.
You wanted to choose simple people: they were shepherds (Lk 2:8-20). You, Beloved Child, love simplicity. You can enter more easily into a simple heart.
And You also make us simple. It is not necessary to know everything at once. It is more important to let Your love burn in us and to hasten like shepherds to pass on the Good News.
“Glory sing the cherubs in the fields of Bethlehem…”
You are not only the joy of Israel and of all mankind; you are also the joy of the angels, our friends in heaven.
How you must have rejoiced, beloved angels, when you recognised in God’s light His immense Wisdom in choosing this way of salvation!
Now you are here, Divine Child!
What moved You to come to us, to such a hostile world?
The reason can only lie in Your immeasurable love for our Heavenly Father, and in Your infinite love for us men.
Who can understand it?
