Fr.Martin M. Barta
Eclesiastic assistant
In Bavaria, Tyrol and Switzerland there is an old tradition around Advent: the children go home to home, knock the door, sing carols, get a present or reunite money for a good cause. The tradition is special because the children and the locals sing and recite poems and versicles that recreate the search for shelter of Saint Joseph and the Virgin Mary in Bethlehem.
Yes, the story of Christmas begins with the painful rejection of the Divine Child: “There was no place for them in the inn” (Lc 2,7). “He came to their home and his own folk did not welcome him”.(Jn 1,11). And yet, He wanted to stay among us and was content with a manger. The light of the world shined through a dark hole, in a stable. We have to go there to become light ourselves. But the more we approach the light, our own shadows become more clear, our pains turn more burning and the world’s tragedies become more terrible. The Divine Light exposes, implacably, all the things that we have broken in our lives and in others lives. It shows us the loneliness and lack of love in our relationships and in our families and it shows clearly the bitter sorrow, the persecution, the wars and the catastrophes that countless people suffer.
The Baby Jesus brings everything to the light, not to judge but to heal, save and transform. Facing the darkness, His light makes our hearts more warm, more shiny, more joyful, more eager towards the sacrifice. He lights our hearts with His love, that has the power of transforming the darkest holes and the darkest nights into the most shining light of Heaven.
That’s how we can “be His light” to the others, like Saint Mother Theresa of Calcutta used to ask the christians. She gave us a beautiful example about how love can light through any darkness:
“I will never forget the visit I gave to a man that lived in a poor house made of calamines and old cardboards. When I was cleaning his poor room, I found a big and dirty lamp in a corner and I asked: ‘¿You never turn on this beautiful lamp?’ He answered: ‘To whom? It’s been months since someone comes to visit me’ – ‘Would you turn it on if my sisters visit you?’ ‘Yes?, he answered. And so the sisters began to visit him every day and every day they turned on the lamp together. Little by little, the sisters began to increase the time intervals of the visits until they stopped visiting him. Two years later, the men sent a message through a sister: ‘Go tell my Mother, my friend, that the light that she turned on me is still burning”.
I wish you a blessed and lightened Christmas to all of you and your families.
I express my gratitude.