• Short introduction by Luisa Alfarano and Michele Tridente
IFCA Youth Coordination Responsibles (Video IT)

• Meditation by H. E. Msgr. Eduardo Garcia
bishop of San Justo, Eccl. Assistant of CA  Argentina and IFCA

“You have heard, O Virgin that you will conceive and bear a son; you have heard that it will not be by man but by the Holy Spirit. The angel awaits an answer… We too, O Lady, are waiting for your word of compassion… In your brief response we are to be remade in order to be recalled to life… This is what the whole earth waits for, prostrate at your feet… Answer quickly, O Virgin (Saint Bernard, Sermon 4, 8-9; Opera Omnia)” (World Youth Day 2018, n. 4)

The Word becomes flesh and makes his dwelling among us. God creates by his Word, re-creates by his Word, becomes Word in Jesus. And Jesus reveals to us the intimate life of God, who is the light of men. God becomes man, as one of us.

Since that Christmas God has a face: Jesus. He is the face of God. Since that Christmas the question of the man of today and of all times for God is concretized and clarified definitively. The question for God will be the question for Jesus. The words of Jesus are words of God, the attitudes of Jesus are attitudes of God.

The Word becomes flesh and makes his dwelling among us. Jesus is born in Bethlehem and this cries out to us that God is on our side. God is not a distant God who stands before us to judge us, but the God-with-us and on our behalf: the Emmanuel who makes the cause of man his own and has pledged his word in the salvation of the world.

The Word becomes flesh and makes his dwelling among us. God has become incarnated in history to guide it and make it luminous. We are no longer in darkness. There is a meaning in life, a future, a hope.

The Word becomes flesh and makes his dwelling among us. Being God, he becomes a man, like anyone. He is born from a humble family, in solitude and poverty, without protocols, or palatial solemnities, only a child, helpless, impotent, accessible and claiming love. Salvation doesn’t come from wealth, nor from power, nor from violence. Love will be his preaching, his law, the reason for his death, and the foundation of the resurrection. Love is the message of Christmas, love is the task to renew every Christmas.

The Word becomes flesh and makes his dwelling among us. God places his tent in the camp of humanity, becoming united with the human endeavour to build universal brotherhood. God becomes our neighbour, and our neighbour becomes the point of view that guides us and leads us to God. Jesus unites indissolubly love of God and love of neighbour, so that they are no longer but two sides of the same coin. The birth of Jesus means the encounter of God with men, but it also means the encounter of man – of all men – with God.

•  Let us pray the Holy Rosary, for the Pope Francis’ intentions