THE INNOCENT LAMB BEGGAR OF LOVE
Dear friends of the Lord’s beloved Garden, peace be with you!
It is not automatic for us all to live the mystery of Christmas with serenity, without a veil of sadness, knowing that there are people, families, elderly and children, under tents, exposed to cold and hunger... At the same time we cannot keep silent or remove the strength and hope that the Nativity of the Lord has brought to our humanity. It is the mystery of the Incarnation!
Salvation comes only from the Lord and not from our own abilities of conquest or domination, we can only actively accept it, opening our hearts and giving thanks. Even the jubilee year that began a few days ago must be animated by the certainty that God has made his Son, the Emmanuel, truly God with us, shine as an eternal Light.
We are called to bring this Light of Christ into our darkness, into our contradictions, into our compromises and into our collective and personal history. He comes to give light, and we are made for him, to "walk in his Light" (cf.Jn 1,7). Hope is born in us, to the extent that we live it. Faith asks to be incarnated in our concrete reality, an open hand and a good word, to be 'good bread' for the love-hungry of today.
An image, with strength and emotion, came back to me several times in prayer, I perceive it as an invitation from the Lord: I feel like seeing Him as the Lamb that walks with us, as a "Beggar of Love", looking for his loved ones, who still wishes to find a faithful shoulder, on which to rest for a moment his Head, weary and wounded by the thorns... He is the gentle King, the strong God, our Redeemer, the love that seeks love. It is always He, the same Child of Bethlehem! Even today, in this world full of aggressiveness and contradictions, amid faces distracted by false and mediatic relations, the Lord Jesus comes to meet us, becomes small and wants to be born again in our homes, in our relationships, inside us.
Let us welcome this our King, comfort the Lamb, love the Love that is too little loved!
May this new jubilee year be an opportunity to love the Lord more and to live (receive and give) his forgiveness. May Mary, Queen of Peace, intercede for us all.
With fraternal affection,
Happy New Year in the Lord
