Letter Superior General Christmas 2014

In sending you a Christmas message, I invite you to accompany me in making a journey with the shepherds, where we find ourselves among them, at the beginning of the story in Luke’s Gospel. The passage has special significance and comes alive for us as Christians, as Sisters of Providence during this year of two-fold dedication: of Vocation and of Consecrated life.

Christmas is a time of wonder and deep gratitude; it is a time to re-discover the joy of sharing our faith, and of entering into the awesomeness of the “Word becoming flesh and living among us.” The ‘Christmas Story’ told by Luke carries the profound truth that Jesus, the Son of God, our Saviour has come into the world,fulfilling the word spoken to Mary by the angel, “Rejoice, the Lord is with you … do not be afraid Mary … you will bear a Son …Jesus … the Son of God”. (Lk 1:28ff) “Jesus is the Good News of God and he is the very first and the greatest evangelizer.” (Paul VI, Evangelii Nuntiandi, 7)

This message brought by the angels is for us today.

The ‘news of great joy’ is first announced to simple, humble shepherds and although the Bible generally portrays shepherds in a positive way, the society of the time often looked down on them, as they do on homeless people today. These shepherds – these down to earth people, watching and tending their sheep are already wide awake: “In the countryside close by there were shepherds out in the fields keeping guard over their sheep during the watches of the night”. They are overwhelmed with fear and surprise at the angel’s appearance “but the angel said, ‘Do not be afraid. Listen, I bring you news of great joy, a joy to be shared by the whole people. Today in the town of David a Saviour has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. And here is a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.” ‘To you’ means all people: young and old, rich and poor, healthy and sick, strong and weak.

We ask ourselves: can we too open the hearts today to dwell on this marvel of the Son of God coming to earth to live among us, to share our humanity? “But there is no new humanity if there are not first of all new persons renewed by Baptism and by lives lived according to the Gospel”. (Evangelii Nuntiandi, 18)

When they are alone, after the divine intervention of the angel, the shepherds have a moment of discernment: “the shepherds said to one another, ‘Let us go to Bethlehem and see this event which the Lord has made known to us,’and they go! This is the first Christmas rush. They are in a hurry to see Jesus – certainly different from the Christmas rush with which we are familiar today. We can learn from these simple people: they hear the Word of God made known by the angel, and they immediately act upon it. They don’t wait around until morning nor do they ask for clearer directions.

^“So they hurried away and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in the manger,”because as Luke tells us earlier: “it happened that while they were there, the time came for her to have her child” but there is no room for this family in the normal place where travelers stay. At this most important moment in their lives they are ‘homeless’ but they find a place “where the Son of Man … of God can lay his head” – in an animal’s feeding trough – a manger. (an idea we will look at another time)

Can we too find Jesus today, can we leave the ‘nets’ we have re-created for ourselves?

Pope Francis puts it like this “again, we have to ask ourselves: Is Jesus really our first and only love, as we promised he would be when we professed our vows? Only if he is, will we be empowered to love, in truth and mercy, every person who crosses our path. For we will have learned from Jesus the meaning and practice of love. We will be able to love because we have his own heart, (Message for the Year of Consecrated Life)

We find the same sentiments in Rosmini, “…let us focus … solely on our Lord himself, the sure way    to guide our footsteps, the truth, the life of our life, our whole good, above all other goods. In short, let us LOVE, and seek nothing more – not even what the results of our love are for us; but be content to love Jesus alone in himself and in all his brothers and sisters, all the members of his mystical body, the Church”. (A.Lvol 5 Lett 166)

God uses the shepherds to tell the world about Mary and her newborn Son. The shepherds are the first Christian witnesses, the first evangelists to spread the good news of the Word made flesh. When they see Jesus Christ, they cannot remain silent about him, they broadcast it, telling everyone they meet. Not only do they obey God’s Word straightaway, but they also go beyond that and tell others about Jesus. “When they saw the child they repeated what they had been told about him, and everyone who heard it was astonished at what the shepherds had to say. … And the shepherds went back glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen just as they had been told.“

The shepherds believe and respond spontaneously with joy; they spread the news to others – and praise God for all he has done.

And what about us? Is finding Jesus a privilege, is it an honor? Are our hearts ‘burning within us’ as we discover him? (cf Lk 24:32) Is there a desire to tell others about the ‘Gift’ we have received and the inner joy we experience? We are encouraged by Bl Paul V1 who says: “Good News can only be proclaimed through two fundamental commands: ‘put on the new self’ and ‘be reconciled to God.’” (Evangelii Nuntiandi ,2) Once we have seen him, we cannot help but ‘live differently’ and ‘wake up the world’ with our joy and our joyful service:“The apostolic effectiveness of consecrated life does not depend on the efficiency of its methods.  It depends on the eloquence of your lives, lives which radiate the joy and beauty of living the Gospel and following Christ to the full. (Message for the Year of Consecrated Life)

The best wish I can have for you and for myself this Christmas is to reflect prayerfully and with thankfulness on the communication from Luke with renewed understanding, while listening with open hearts to what the Lord is saying to us. We have an opportunity to take to ourselves, like Mary, the wonder of “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us” (Jn1:14) and of treasuring all these things and pondering them in our hearts. We can also catch some of the joy of the shepherds and share it with those around us. 

We thank God for the many signs of new life in India and Africa with – First and Final Professions during the coming year and new novices and postulants. If we are truly captivated by the love of God and believe in the beauty of our vocation, others will want to share our joy in his vineyard. Let us also be courageous in asking him for this gift.

We pray with Mary, Mother of Jesus,

Asking her to give us some of her joy so we too can sing:

“My soul magnifies the Lord;

my spirit rejoices in God, my Saviour.

He looks on his servant in her nothingness.

The Almighty works marvels for me.

Holy is his name!” (Lk 1)

When the shepherds leave the stable, praising God, to go back to tending their sheep, then the message of Christmas really begins:may we too do what we can to fill the emptiness of those starving in body and spirit with good things.

Happy Christmas and a joy-filled New Year!