portal

congregation

p.m.s.

urban college

urban web site

fides

holy see

HOME ITALIANO ESPAÑOL ENGLISH FRANÇAIS PORTUGUÉS DEUTSCH CHINESE

Gospel Saints Papal Teaching Congregation Pontifical Mission Societies Urban University Mission texts Animation Statistics From the Holy See Testimonies Martyrology Jubilee 2000 Church life Missionaries Religious institutes Movements & Associations Catholic universities Culture History Art Cinema / Photo Radio & tv Music Poetry Health Technology Geography News 360° Dossier In-depth study Interviews Stories Book review Children’s corner		"That the celebration of the birth of Christ the Saviour may help people of every culture to have every greater respect for the little ones and the disinherited". Pope John Paul II's Missionary Prayer Intention for December 2002 - Comment for Fides Service by Mons. Massimo Camisasca, founder and superior general of the Priestly Fraternity of St Carlo Borromeo Missionaries. Rome (Fides) - Habit reduces the novelty of events and tends to level everything. What is more the avalanche of news that assails us daily, often having no relation to what is really happening, can cause us to overlook the news that the Church re-lives year after year: God took human flesh and became man in the womb of a woman. Just like any one of the millions and millions of babies who have came into the world since mankind began to exist. Like all children, He came into the world to the amazement of his mother and father. The birth of a child always brings to mind, particularly to the mother who carried it for nine months, wonder at the sight of a new life, and also amazement that life is so defenceless, so easily manipulated, tragically used and therefore in need of protection, defence, education, respect. But on that day in Bethlehem the birth was that of the One who created all things and who had come to save all things and all people. In that absolute and mysterious condescendence which infinite time and all the reflection of scholars can only lightly brush but never exhaust, lies hidden the secret of every existence. That child revealed, rendered visible in the flesh the One who made everything, sustains everything and who sent his Son to gather together our humanity poor, dispersed, lacerated, abandoned. At the same time then, in that Child we see how we must look at the Mystery and how we must treat all life. The Child is then the school of the mystery, the place where we learn to recognise the One who made us and how he made us. This is why, revolutionising the Greek-Roman world's view of mankind, Jesus enclosed ideal humanity in the eyes of that Child, in his helplessness, receptivity, love without preclusion and without defence, unlimited openness to others, the hypothesis of happiness written in every life and in everything, the need to start again, by offering forgiveness. In that poverty of spirit Jesus summed up the totality of human happiness (cfr Mt 5,3). Since Jesus never made theoretical speeches but always taught with actions, in order to explain to those around him the attitude they should have towards life "he took a child, and put him in the midst of them; and taking him in his arms, he said to them, "Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me; and whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me". (Cfr Mk 9, 35-37). To welcome little ones does not mean we must simply not despise them, we must learn from them, learn that original attitude to life, testified by the child. To despise children, to mar their innocence, not to mention putting the life of children at risk with the terrible violence of wars, sexual marketing, means killing in us and in others something truly profound, it means drying up the very source of our ability to be men and women. For Jesus, the child is a creature in whom all the beauty and all the helplessness of the world is enclosed. All the greatness of mankind lies in fact in constantly searching, being open to life, to mystery, to everything that happens. This we see in children and in the poor. At Christmas, each of us is called to look once again at this great beatitude, and we must want and we must pray that we may be as Jesus wants us to be : if you wish to enter the kingdom of life you must be once again like a child. (Fides Service 30/11/2002)

Palazzo "de Propaganda Fide" - 00120 - Città del Vaticano Tel. +39-06-69880115 - Fax. +39-06-69880107 - e-mail: fides@fides.va © AGENZIA FIDES