The Bishop of Gozo Anton Teuma has issued a Christmas Message – “God who becomes a man like us in a family”
“Christmas is nothing other than the feast of what is simple. Christmas is nothing but the capacity to see the extraordinary in the ordinary. Christmas is nothing but God himself entering the simple and normal history of man. Christmas is nothing but light on the darkness of man. Christmas is nothing but good news, hope where there is heartbreak and sadness.”
The Christmas Message is shown in full below:
“This Christmas season is special. We all know that it is a time that takes us out of the routine of daily life… meals, new clothes, gifts, meetings with friends… are all beautiful, and that is why this time is special.
But all this is linked to a simple event, to the story of a couple who have a baby. At the same time, although this event seems ordinary, it is very extraordinary, because this baby is the Son of God, the same God who becomes man.
The risk would be that in this particular time we do everything, we are very busy, and we forget the essential, what is the highlight of this time, namely the event of the Birth of this baby, of God who becomes a man like us in a family.
God becomes man simply to help man in his experiences of daily life, to help us survive difficulties, illnesses, problems, conflicts in relationships, the end of a relationship, the void left by the death of a loved one.
That is why God becomes man! Not to give us some kind of guarantee about our future or some kind of miracle or extraordinary things in our lives; but to help us live ordinary life, all the moments of our daily lives, as if they were God’s moments.
To do this we need to listen to him, we need to stop to have a time of silence and listen to God himself speaking to us, showing us and enlightening us on how we should live our daily lives.
Precisely for this reason, a Pastoral Visit is currently taking place in our Diocese: to give God a chance to love us, to make room for the love and care that God has for us. God wants nothing from man except one thing: that man be ready to receive his love.
Hence Christmas! Hence all the work that the Diocese does and all the work that we do in our pastoral care. That is also why we are launching in these times a special work in favour of the family: this family that is so dear, in which God himself is pleased to be born and become a member of this human reality.
In the coming time we are trying to reach every group and every type of family nucleus: both the family as we know it traditionally, but also the family as it is taking its form today, because everyone is important in the eyes of God.
Christmas is nothing other than the feast of what is simple. Christmas is nothing but the capacity to see the extraordinary in the ordinary. Christmas is nothing but God himself entering the simple and normal history of man. Christmas is nothing but light on the darkness of man. Christmas is nothing but good news, hope where there is heartbreak and sadness.
Merry Christmas to everyone, especially where there are difficulties and suffering.”
File photo