Adorazione dei pastori, Lorenzo Lotto (1534 circa)
Dear friends,
we were thinking about our Christmas greeting and we could not help but share this little story that happened recently. One of our benefactors arranged to have an ancient Crucifix restored that was donated by a dear devoted family. The young restorer told us that once the work was completed, a small visitor entered his workshop to visit the Crucifix. It was a Robin Redbreast, who, hopping happily, seemed to be greeting an old friend.
Tradition has it that on Good Friday, while Jesus was dying on the Cross, a little Robin landed on his bloody head, and tried to extract a long thorn from his forehead with his beak. During this ‘saintly act’ a drop of Jesus' blood stained his chest, hence the Robin's name. It may at first seem strange to talk about Jesus on the Cross in a Christmas letter. However, it is not because the manger of the Child of Bethlehem, becomes the prelude to the pascal sacrifice of God’s Son at Easter.
The bitterness of these months of many wars, especially the massacres in the Holy Land, the bewilderment and confusion of people in the face of systems of sin erected as institutional law, the deception of consciences which go so far as to call evil good and good evil, induces so much anguish in our hearts. Yet, even today, Christmas has inexorably arrived. Every year the Lord comes. Only in the eyes of Mary and Joseph can we read the secret of that Child: He is Almighty God.
Adorazione dei pastori, Lorenzo Lotto (1534 circa)
To love us, He made himself in need of our love. As a Shepherd, He became the spotless Lamb to take man's sin upon himself. Yes! This Child is an undeserved gift, for which we always arrive unprepared, but no one can stop Love from continuing to love. Like the Robin, let us be marked by his love especially at Christmas.
Have a happy and holy Christmas and we pray that 2024 will be filled with every blessing for you and your families.
The Missionaries of Divine Revelation