Thought for the Day – 25 December – Meditations with Antonio Cardinal Bacci (1881-1971)
The Feast of the Nativity
“The world ignores the Birth of Jesus.
There is no room for Him in the inns of Bethlehem and no room for Mary and Joseph, two poverty-stricken travellers, who are obliged, as a result, to take refuge in a miserable hovel.
In the world, it is always so, for men judge one another by external appearances and by financial standards.
How do we behave towards Jesus Christ?
How do we behave towards the needy and the afflicted, in whom we should discern the Person of Christ Himself?
If we are prepared to open our hearts to Jesus and to welcome Him as our King and absolute Master, we shall be so transformed, that we shall live His life and act in unison with Him.
In short, we shall become saints!
But if we are lacking in generosity and are reluctant to welcome Jesus unreservedly into our hearts, we shall never be more than half-Christian, tepid and ungrateful!
We should even be prepared to welcome the poor as the representatives of Christ.
“As long as you did it for one of these, the least of my brethren,” He has assured us, “you did it for me” (Mt 25-40).
Before the cave at Bethelehm then, we should learn two great lessons.
We should learn to love Jesus intensely, as our highest and only good and we should learn to love, in an effective and practical way, those who are poverty-stricken or suffering, in whom we should be able to see Jesus Christ Himself.”
Antonio Cardinal Bacci
PART ONE HERE:
https://anastpaul.com/2020/12/25/thought-for-the-day-25-december-the-feast-of-the-nativity/
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