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Guatemala City (Agenzia Fides) – Cardinal Rodolfo Quezada Toruño, Archbishop of Guatemala City, has issued a Pastoral Exhortation for Advent and Christmas, in order to offer several reflections that can help the faithful to live these liturgical seasons well.
The Cardinal begins by mentioning an idea that he has harped upon in other occasions: the need to celebrate Christmas in a Christian manner. He says that “we cannot reduce it to an opportunity to buy more things, an exchange of gifts, a celebration for children, or merely an excuse for profane festivities.” In order to avoid this growing danger, “true Christians must consider Advent as a spiritual journey towards Christmas that is not subjected to the consumerist mentality of this day and age.” Moreover, “the irreplaceable and only center of our Christmas celebrations should be Christ.”
This journey should be made hand-in-hand with the Virgin Mary, Saint John the Baptist, and the Prophet Isaiah. In fact, “Advent is the privileged time to honor Mary, the Mother of Jesus. Mary is united by a indissoluble bond to the saving work of her Son.” She is “the greatest model of how to wait upon the Lord.”
The Archbishop of Guatemala City makes reference to two expressions typical of the Christmas traditions of Guatemala: the “posadas” and the nativity scenes. “I am convinced that these two Christmas traditions will provide a solid preparation for Christmas, as long as we carry them out with a true spirit of piety.” The tradition of the “posadas” is “an excellent preparation for Christmas, and a great opportunity to share our faith with others and unite our families and neighborhoods. Thus, the Cardinal asks parish pastors to “promote these 'posadas' with celebrations of the Word of God” and thus, contribute to a Christian preparation for Christmas and to the recuperation of a tradition that is popular in the true sense of the word.
As for the nativity scenes, the Cardinal says that they are also “an act of prayer and piety” and asks that they become “small domestic altars, places of prayer, reflection, and great spiritual content.”
The Prelate also exhorts the faithful “to celebrate an austere and sober Christmas,” in imitation of Christ, “who is born, lives, and dies in poverty.” He also reminds his flock that “the good Christian should never fall into the traps of a consumerist society,” “considering superfluous goods as necessary and making every effort to acquire them...this is a new form of slavery.” He also asks that they celebrate a Christmas in peace. This requires a “sincere renovation of our desire to contribute in the establishment of a civilization of Christian love.” There are many situations that do not allow us to live in peace, the Cardinal said, due to the profound lack of respect for the human person that is manifest in a violence that is out of control and makes us all suffer, organized crime, drug-trafficking, contraband, lawlessness, the international financial crisis, and the effect this is having on the already fragile national economy. The text continues: “However, all of us should denounce this violence as an unacceptable evil, one that is against the dignity of the human person. We should be convinced that only in eradicating it from ourselves, from our heart, from our interpersonal relationships, our families, our neighborhoods, our cities...will we begin to live in peace.”
The Cardinal says that this alone is not enough; we must “live in a new way,” according to God's law, according to the Church's Social Doctrine. “May we all find in this celebration yet another reason to be coherent with our faith in our personal, familiar, and social life,” the text concluded. (RG) (Agenzia Fides 11/12/2008)
