“It is worth being a man, if God wanted to be a man all the way”

From a Homily on Christmas by dear friend Fr. Eusebio Viretto, a priest from Vercelli who arrived at the Father’s House on Oct. 27, 2024…

“I would like this Celebration, this being together this Christmas to be like a breath of fresh water, which we all need, a true and authentic moment of peace and hope.

All this is Him, this Child here before us, poor, humble, helpless. So what are we to do?

Like Him, let us go, become children at heart, take off our masks and armor and present ourselves before Him.

Not only today, but every day, as we are: with our qualities and merits; but also and, I would say, above all, with our most secret aspirations, frailties, weaknesses, fears, thorns.

Before this Child who reads our hearts and understands us more deeply than what we think and say, let Him come in and speak to us; we should not be afraid of intimacy, on the contrary.

And certainly, He has something important to tell us and to give us, to each one, just what he needs and maybe not even imagines; and He will give each one of us, one by one, a gift.

In each case, for everyone, the greatest gift is Himself who gave Himself fully for us from the manger to the cross, from Bethlehem to Jerusalem. It is worth being a man if God wanted to be a man to the fullest. God is present as our brother, sharing everything, everything about our lives.

Says Karl Rahner, one of the greatest theologians of the last century: God is present with his tenderness and says to you, “Do not fear!” He has entered your prison. Trust this closeness; it is not a vacuum! Give in and you will find, give up and you will become rich.

So here is the question, the commitment that follows Jesus’ gift:

How am I and can I truly be a witness to Jesus and his Gospel in the family, at work, in various settings and situations, going, perhaps, against the grain, with a more sober lifestyle
and not according to today’s consumerism?

Then, without realizing it, with a generous and robust faith, we will be witnesses of Jesus’ hope in the world, with a humble, poor, simple, selfless, but effective and fruitful style.

Because, you see, Jesus to act, even here, from the manger to the cross, does not choose the big Story, that of Caesar Augustus or the temple in Jerusalem, but the small story of Mary and Joseph, the shepherds, the Bethlehem cave, a stable.
He acts “on the margins” almost hidden, in weakness, not with the peace of weapons, but with the weapons of peace and meekness. And there is his Kingdom, there is true life, there is his joy and happiness.

This must be the style of his Church and Christians.

Jesus, according to the Beatitudes, is definitely on the side of the poor, the meek, the peaceful, the pure in heart, the builders of justice, the persecuted. What about us? What about the Church?

I want to conclude with another beautiful expression by Karl Rahner, which is also meant to be my wish for this Christmas: This is the message of Christmas: God is truly close to you, where you are, as long as you are open to this infinity. For God’s remoteness is, at the same time, his elusive closeness, which pervades everything.”

Source and Image

• spazio + spadoni
• Carlo and Fabia Miglietta