jueves, 27 de diciembre de 2007

Heaven has come down to Earth

In his Christmas’ midnight mass homily, Benedict XVI recalled me the reflection that I should have done myself (but I fear I have not) these holy days: “Do we have time for our neighbour who is in need of a word from us, from me, or in need of my affection? For the sufferer who is in need of help? For the fugitive or the refugee who is seeking asylum? Do we have time and space for God? Can he enter into our lives? Does he find room in us, or have we occupied all the available space in our thoughts, our actions, our lives for ourselves?”.

Sadly, every day my evidences proof that I lack time, that I lack space for my neigbour, for God. And if there is this lack, I am the only one to blame. Thus, regardless of my declarations, I move away from the crib and therefore from heaven, from the source of my happiness -where “Heaven and Earth meet. Heaven has come down to Earth” – as the Pope points it out. Il Cielo, like l’Inferno, is not a mere spiritual-abstract place, but something geographical: “Heaven does not belong to the geography of space, but to the geography of the heart. And the heart of God, during the Holy Night, stooped down to the stable: the humility of God is Heaven. And if we approach this humility, then we touch Heaven”. How are going to meet two hearts? In humility, says the Holy Father. Again, I lack this humility, submerged in selfishness as I am. It seems that I cannot and I don’t pretend to get out. Pride against humility, this is the stable and the dunghill I have prepared to my Lord.

But the humble God is back one more year so I can touch Heaven soon. He is coming to me because I need him! The very next morning of Christmas, Benedict XVI explained it: „This is Christmas - the historical event and the mystery of love, which for more than two thousand years has spoken to men and women of every era and every place. It is the holy day on which the "great light" of Christ shines forth, bearing peace! Certainly, if we are to recognize it, if we are to receive it, faith is needed and humility is needed”. Lacked of faith and humility myself, I turn to Mary and Her humility, because she “believed in the word of the Lord”. I turn for help to the “little ones, the poor in spirit: they are the key figures of Christmas, in the past and in the present; they have always been the key figures of God's history, the indefatigable builders of his Kingdom of justice, love and peace”.

And in such a little and forgotten way, “in the silence of that night in Bethlehem, Jesus was born and lovingly welcomed” not by my hands, but by Her “premurose mani”. She is welcoming Him for me. Let me say one thing: Gràcies mare!

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