CHRISTMAS MESSAGE

Christmas is always our recalling of God’s love given expression for us is in Jesus Christ His Son and our Lord and Savior. But its celebration is influenced yearly by the prevailing spiritual, economic, social and political conditions in the country. Natural calamities, escalating poverty, personal and regional tragedies influence the mood of the celebration like what we experience today.

Indeed we find ourselves searching for pockets of joy in our lives or shifting our measure and kind of happiness in order to give meaning to our greeting of “Merry Christmas.”

We remember that the first promise came with the Birth of the Infant, named Emmanuel, Son of God who came as the love of God in our midst for love of us, to teach us how to be good to one another and to finally save us. Our search for peace will be in vain if we pin our hopes elsewhere.

Jesus came in the name of God’s love so that no one who receives Him may be lost. (John 3:16) “Men and Women who are made new by the love of God are able to change the rules and the quality of relationships, transforming even social structures.” These people who have been touched by God’s love is Jesus “are capable of bringing peace where there is conflict, of building and nurturing fraternal relationships where there is hatred, of seeking justice where there prevails the exploitation of man by man. Only love is capable of radically transforming the relationship that men maintain among themselves.” (CSDC, #4)

There is hope when humans seek Peace in the ways of Jesus. This is what Christmas is whispering to us even in the darkness and “after the tempest and the sorrow are gone.”

Christmas is always upon us. Hope is ours!

A Holy and Peaceful Christmas to all.

God bless!

+GAUDENCIO B. ROSALES, D.D.
Archbishop of Manila