Rome, Italy
November 27, 2016
“Do not be afraid. Look, I bring you news of great joy…
Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.” (Lc 2: 10-11)
Dear Priests, Brothers, and Seminarians,
With great joy and deep affection, I greet all of you in this month of December in which we prepare ourselves to celebrate the consoling mystery of Christmas: God has desired to dwell among us to bring us joy and peace. The Incarnate Word! Unfathomable mystery which at once transcends and envelops us, surpasses and penetrates us.
“Christmas: this is paradise!”[1] St. Anthony of Padua would say. When, over two thousand years ago, the Most Holy Virgin gave birth to her Son, happiness itself became flesh. That is, God fulfilled His promise and it was the “proof that God has heard our cry.”[2] This happiness came in the flesh so that He may be contemplated, embraced, and treasured in the depths of hearts, and in order to illuminate the entire reality of man. This happiness is Jesus, the Word made flesh.
For this reason, the birth of the Incarnate Word represents an invitation for all men to rediscover, to renew, and to strengthen more firmly in our souls the immeasurable joy of the truth about God and the truth about man, knowing that God, in His ineffable love, is the Emmanuel—God with us—who has desired to share our history so as to transform it and to make us participants of the divine life.
And the Word became flesh (Jn 1: 14). God became a child and in that very instant love united the eternal to history.[3] Celebrating Christmas means making present the mystery of our salvation, because “the Incarnation of the Son of God is an event which occurred within history, while at the same time transcending history,” [4] for all “that the Son of God did and taught for the world’s reconciliation, we not only know as a matter of past history, but appreciate in the power of their present effect.”[5] Namely, the words which were addressed to the shepherds that night are directed to each one of us and to our religious family—whatever the circumstances of our life may be: “Do not be afraid. Look, I bring you news of great joy… Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord” (Lk 2: 10-11).
Let us implore the grace to always see that Light which burns still today in the night of the world, and which can only be seen by the simple eyes of faith, by the meek and humble hearts of those who await the Savior. This light invites all of us to open our souls so as to “let ourselves be totally transformed by the One who took on our flesh.”[6]
It is my desire, by means of this circular letter, to encourage each of you to live this time with special dedication, singular intensity, and spiritual determination. We should not let any single occasion offered to us go to waste (be it in the liturgy, personal or community prayer, practices of piety, or works of mercy). May we, by the “experience” of these most holy mysteries, obtain the fulfillment of our end of “making each person ‘like a new Incarnation of the Word.’”[7]
In a special way, I would also like to ask the superiors of the various levels that they make every effort on their part so that the precious times of Advent and Christmas may be particularly emphasized in our communities, our apostolates, in our souls and in the souls that have been entrusted to us.
As it is with all the mysteries of the life of the Savior, but in a more tangible manner with that of Christmas, there are three elements that are linked: we can say that the one derives from the other, and that one is contained in the other. He who assumes the first element, necessarily obtains the second and arrives to the third. This is an evangelical law, or better yet “the evangelical law,” because it derives directly from the paschal mystery of Our Lord. He who lives the virtues of self-denial obtains the grace of the precious pearl (Mt 13: 46), the treasure of the Cross;[8] and the one who is granted the Cross obtains happiness and eternal life. This is the spirit of the Blessed! of the Beatitudes (Mt 5: 3-12), to which we want to testify, because the world can neither be transfigured nor offered to God without this Spirit.[9]
1. You will find a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.[10]
The Virtues of Self-Denial.
Bethlehem seemed like heaven on that first Christmas Eve. In the words of St. John Chrysostom: “This day He Who is, is Born; and He Who is, becomes what He was not. For when He was God, He became man; yet not departing from the Godhead that is His. Nor yet by any loss of divinity became He man, nor through increase became He God from man; but being the Word He became flesh, His nature, because of impassability, remaining unchanged.”[11]
Thus, Christmas becomes a “mystery of love”[12] which is revealed in the abysmal self-denial of the Son of God. How can one not tremble upon pondering the fact that God goes “from transcendent to immanent, from powerful to weak, from majestic to humble, from immortal to mortal, from infinite to finite, from most pure Spirit to material flesh, from eternal to temporal, from impassible to passible, from immense to small, from limitless to limited, from all-embracing to servant, from rich to poor, from Lord to slave, from King to subject, ‘from eternal life to death here in time’” (St. Ignatius of Loyola, Spiritual Exercises [53]).[13]
In one way, we can say then that Christmas hides the humility of God, and it calls us, religious of the Incarnate Word who long “to radically live the demands of the Incarnation, and the Cross,”[14] to live as the shepherds, with a great spirit of faith, and with a deep humility and simplicity. “Only those who are open to love are enveloped in the light of Christmas. So it was on that night in Bethlehem, and so it is today.”[15] The virtues of self-denial that we so strongly desire to live shine forth in the mystery of Christmas.[16]
The Evangelist continues saying that “the shepherds said to one another, ‘Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.’ So they went in haste” (Lk 2: 15-16). What did they see? They saw a Child who was in need of care, dependent in all things, and even weak. Contemplating this Child, they adored Him whom neither heaven nor earth can contain.
They never imagined that they would have seen “omnipotence wrapped in swaddling clothes, Salvation lying in a manger. No one would ever have suspected that God coming to this earth would ever be so helpless.”[17] Nevertheless, these faith-filled men were able to recognize in Him Wisdom, because they became foolish according to the world; Power, because they became weak; and the Infinite, Immense and Eternal God, because they became little […] Hence only humble men understand the meaning of the Incarnation and the reason of His coming.[18]
It is my prayer and my fervent desire that God grant us, by means of His Most Holy Mother, the grace to be genuinely and profoundly humble so as to contemplate in the tender heart of the Child Jesus, the Heart of this God who “wants to be our ‘joy’, our ‘salvation’, our ‘hope’, our ‘happiness’, and our ‘Sovereign one.’”[19]
In this way, witnessing this great humility, we may be moved to “practice the virtues of self-denial: humility, poverty, suffering, obedience, self-surrender, mercy and charity to all men.”[20] “More succinctly, we simply want to take up our cross,”[21] as our Savior did. Learning to “love like Him […] to serve like Him, unto death. To be just, patient, meek, humble, to sacrifice ourselves, to carry the cross: the cross of our daily life, the cross which is the fulfillment of the law of God, the cross which is the fulfillment of the duties of our state of life, the cross which is bearing my defects and the defects of those around me.”[22] In a word, to testify with our lives that we profess: “Never the Cross without Jesus, nor Jesus without the Cross.”[23]
2. There was no place for them in the inn.[24] The Cross.
The example of St. Joseph and the Blessed Virgin before the fact that there was no place for them in the inn (Lk 2: 7), should call us to have a providential outlook on life,[25] keeping in mind the truth that God in His wise Providence makes certain means work together for certain ends. In this way He obtained glory and fruitfulness bringing together the cross. And so, “if the cross is the condition for salvation, and tribulation is the way, then suffering some sort of tribulation is a proof that one has not lost the way, but rather that he is on the right path.”[26]
The Gospel texts point out very clearly that The Prince of Peace (Is 9: 5) was born in the miserable and cold grotto of Bethlehem so as to give His life on Golgotha so that love might reign on earth. “Every other person who ever came into this world came into it to live. He came into it to die.”[27] That is why it is true that “the Word became flesh to be able to go to the cross, and the cross is possible because Christ became Incarnate.”[28] “If there were no Cross, there would have been no crib; if there had been no nails, there would have been no straw.”[29] For this reason, the Cross was always there from the beginning and cast its shadow back towards His birth,[30] teaching us resoundingly and silently that all the graces that God wants to give to us must necessarily pass through the cross. It is as if He were not able to teach the lesson of the cross as a ransom for sins, if He himself had not first carried it from His very birth.
The newborn Incarnate Word laying in a manger “was already bearing His Cross—the only cross a Babe could bear, a cross of poverty, exile, and limitation,”[31] thus defying our ambition with His poverty, our pride with His humiliation, our eagerness for security with His needs. In this way He taught all with His Divine loving pedagogy that the power of God does not admit hindrances. Even if He is wrapped in swaddling clothes, weak and seated on the lap of His Mother, He upholds the universe with His hand.
This is one of the realities of Christmas that cannot be something distant to us as religious of the Incarnate Word, who desire to be “another humanity of Christ,”[32] living “radically…the demands of the Incarnation, the Cross, the Sermon on the Mount, and the Last Supper.”[33] He became flesh to die; He became flesh to suffer. The Cross was the precious means to show us His love and to grant us His salvation.
It is “upon the cross,” as ignominious as this may be, that we “should find the greatest motive for glory,” because the cross is nothing other than “the glory of the Love disposed to all,”[34] as is so clearly demonstrated in the mystery of Christmas.
All of the saints confirm this doctrine. Blessed Paolo Manna, for example, would say to his missionaries: “None of us should be surprised if there is suffering in the mission, even if in our days in some missions there is extraordinary suffering. This means that everything is going well. If there is suffering, there is redemption.”
Then, he went on to insist with words that are very enlightening to the situation which our religious family is living (as it has lived and will continue to live if we are faithful to God). He said to them, and I implore you to pay attention to these words: “Courage! If the Institute suffers, it means that it is strong and pleasing to the Lord, it means that it is useful for the glory of God and the good of the Church…and even more so, we have every right to await with all confidence that the final victory will one day be ours.”[35] The mystery of Christmas teaches us to have a wise gaze towards the vicissitudes of our history.
We must never fear in the face of sufferings, but rather know how to rejoice in them, whether they be sufferings on a personal level, or those of the Religious Family. In the face of calumnies, humiliations, contempt, and discrediting, even those coming from those from whom we least expect them, we must think about how Christ, the Incarnate Word, the Child of Bethlehem, has passed through them before we did. The Institute does not become ugly because of these trials, but rather becomes more beautiful in the midst of them. That is why today I want to repeat to you again the phrase of the Blessed, who was the Superior General of PIME: “Courage! If the Institute suffers, it means that it is strong and pleasing to the Lord, it means that it is useful for the glory of God and the good of the Church… and even more so, we have every right to await with all confidence that the final victory will one day be ours.” This truth is not only a conviction, but also a law, contained in the very heart of the mystery of Christmas.
Regarding this, our Founder wrote: “God is often where it seems like he cannot be, as he was in a stable, a place which humanly speaking seems as though it were the least fitting place for God to be born.” And so, we must ask the Mother of God “to teach us as well to discover God in the difficult circumstances.” This means knowing how to rejoice supernaturally and bear fruit in those places where the Divine Providence in His merciful design has brought us. Because “there, in that trial, in that difficulty, in that suffering, there is God; and if one knew how to have eyes of faith as the shepherds had, and as the Magi had, one would realize that many times God is in those places where it seems impossible for him to be.”
“How many times in our lives has God proposed ways for us that are unbelievable! We have had to walk by ways which are superior to those ways we had imagined, because the thoughts of God are much greater, much higher, much more transcendent than our thoughts, the thoughts of men.”[36] How can we not be grateful for the innumerable blessings and graces that we have received as a Religious Family by means of the trials and difficulties that we have needed to overcome; graces which maybe we would never have received by other means!
St. Paul, in his unrivaled hymn to the Philippians (1: 12-2: 4), in which he magnificently speaks of the Incarnation of the Word, invites us to know well these truths. The verses 27-30 are particularly enlightening for what we are speaking about, because it is there that he teaches us and encourages us to continue always onwards not frightened in anything by your opponents (v. 28) because the prize is great and God has granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake (v. 29). Acting always according to the fortitude of true religious of the Incarnate Word, who in the face of crosses manifest a manner of life…worthy of the gospel of Christ, standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel. (cf. v. 27).
3. Be not afraid, I bring you good news of a great joy.[37] Glory.
As always happens with suffering, the manger is also the precursor to happiness and glory. Our St. John Paul II said, “Christmas is a mystery of joy!”[38] Yes! Because the encounter of the humility of God and with His Cross, fills us with joy and from there springs forth feasting. This joy is born from “knowing that God is not distant but close, not indifferent but compassionate, not aloof but a merciful Father who follows us lovingly with respect for our freedom.”[39] This joy which is “spiritual and supernatural,”[40] should be “an essential element in our Religious Family,”[41] and should be lived “even in the midst of the difficulties along the way, whether they be human or spiritual, as well as amidst the daily sorrows.”[42] As Pope Benedict XVI so aptly put it: “God is good, and he is the supreme power above all powers… he is the most important thing, ultimately the one truly important thing.”[43]
The invitation to joy that the angel brought to the shepherds is also an invitation for us: I bring you good news of a great joy which will come to all the people, accompanied by an exhortation to overcome all fear: Be not afraid! (Lk 2:10). As they were moved by a holy joy to go in haste—even in the middle of the night—to go adore the God Child, so let us sacrifice ourselves to bring to all men “the salvation which comes from the fullness of the happiness of God,”[44] going even “to work in the most difficult places – those where no one else wants to go,”[45] with the indestructible peace of soul knowing that we are infinitely loved by God.
Contemplating the example of the shepherds after the decisive encounter with the Incarnate Word and His Most Holy Mother, the words of Blessed Paul VI come to mind: “Let us preserve the delightful and comforting joy of evangelizing, even when it is in tears that we must sow… [with] an interior enthusiasm that nobody and nothing can quench. May it be the great joy of our consecrated lives.”[46] I think now of our religious that are sick, of those who live in situations of war, of those who fight in the midst of great adversities and those who in all parts make great efforts to give witness that to you is born… a Savior (Lk 2: 11). May our lives also radiate with the fervor of those “who have first received the joy of Christ, and who are willing to risk their lives so that the kingdom may be proclaimed and the Church established in the midst of the world.”[47]
* * * * *
My dear brothers: It is my most sincere desire that the birth of Christ may be for all a consoling caress to our souls that livens our trust and instills joy, and that these may become strength for apostolic action. Then, as the shepherds who returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen (Lk 2: 20), we too may go out to the world grateful to God—especially for having become a Gift for us—as well as for the countless graces and blessings that with overflowing hands He pours out onto our dear Religious Family, in our souls, and in the souls entrusted to us, in this way bearing all things nobly.[48]
In this Christmas, may the Virgin dispose all things according to her wisdom and maternal tenderness so that the Incarnate Word may find in the purity of our souls and in the fraternity of our communities a crib where He may be born, to radiate the peace and joy which He came to bring to the world.
Be assured that I will have all of you very much present during the Christmas Eve Mass and during the Octave of Christmas.
Finally, wishing you a holy and happy Christmas, as well as abundant blessings for the New Year which will begin shortly, I greet you in the Incarnate Word and in His Most Holy Mother.
Fr. Gustavo Nieto, IVE
General Superior
[1] Don Giacomo Tantardini, The Humanity of Christ is our Happiness; Meditation on Christmas, supplemental book to the magazine 30 Days, n. 10 (2011), p. 9.
[2] Benedict XVI, Urbi et Orbi Message, 25 December 2011.
[3] Saint John Paul II, Homily, 24 December 1999.
[4] Benedict XVI, Urbi et Orbi Message¸ 25 December 2010.
[5] Saint Leo the Great, Sermon 52, 1.
[6] Benedict XVI, General Audience, 5 January 2011.
[7] Constitutions, 31; Saint Elisabeth of the Trinity, Elevation, 33.
[8] Saint Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort, Circular Letter to the Friends of the Cross, 45.
[9] Constitutions, 1. Lumen Gentium, 31.
[10] Lk 2: 12.
[11] St. John Chrysostom, Homily on Christmas Morning.
[12] Saint John Paul II, Urbi et Orbi Message, 25 December 2002.
[13] Fr. Carlos Buela, IVE, Ars Patris, Part II (editor’s translation).
[14] Constitutions, 20.
[15] Benedict XVI, Urbi et Orbi Message, 25 December 2010.
[16] Constitutions, 11.
[17] Ven. Fulton Sheen, Life of Christ, chapter 2.
[18] See Ven. Fulton Sheen, The Eternal Galilean, chapter 1.
[19] Fr. Carlos Buela, IVE, Ars Patris, Part III, chapter 21, pp. 673-674. Editor’s translation.
[20] Directory of Spirituality, 45.
[21] Constitutions, 11.
[22] Fr. Carlos Buela, IVE, Ars Patris, Part III, chapter 15, p. 530. Editor’s translation.
[23] Directory of Spirituality, 144.
[24] Lk 2: 7.
[25] Notes of V General Chapter, 5 about the non-negotiable elements of the charism of the Institute.
[26] Ven. Fulton Sheen, Those Mysterious Priests.
[27] Ven. Fulton Sheen, Life of Christ, chapter 1.
[28] Fr. Carlos Buela, IVE, Servidoras I, Part I, chapter 1, 2. Editor’s translation.
[29] Ven. Fulton Sheen, Life of Christ, chapter 2.
[30] Id., chapter 1.
[31] Ven. Fulton Sheen, Life of Christ, chapter 2.
[32] Constitutions, 257. Formula of Perpetual Profession of Vows.
[33] Constitutions, 20.
[34] Cf. Directory of Spirituality, 142.
[35] Cf. Blessed Paolo Manna, Apostolic Virtues, chapter 8. Editor’s translation.
[36] Fr. Carlos Buela, IVE, Servidoras III, Part III, chapter 1, 5.
[37] Lk 2: 10.
[38] Saint John Paul II, Urbi et Orbi Message, 25 December 2002.
[39] Saint John Paul II, Angelus, 14 December 2003.
[40] Directory of Consecrated Life, 393.
[41] Cf. Directory of Consecrated Life, 392.
[42] Directory of Fraternal Life in Community, 40.
[43] Cf. Homily, 24 December 2012.
[44] Cf. Don Giacomo Tantardini, op. cit., 30.
[45] Directory of Spirituality, 86.
[46] Cf. Evangelii Nuntiandi, 80.
[47] Ibid.
[48] Cf. Saint John Chrysostom, Homily 33 on Hebrews, 33, 4: PG 63, 230; BPa 75, 541.
