date: 22.12.2022.
Dear friends!
May the Lord give you His peace!
Christmas tells us that man is the center of all creation. The central person and meaning of Francis' life was the incarnated Christ. He met Him and that meeting changed him. Since that meeting, Francis has only been interested in Him. Everything starts from Him, everything is given up for Him, everything is found in Him. He is fascinated by the knowledge of how God became a fragile, weak man, and therefore he understands that man is the most important thing to God. This must be for us too!
In the life of Christ, Francis was especially amazed by His birth, poverty of incarnation, he admires the Word that becomes fragile in man, he celebrates Christmas more than any other holiday. He calls Christmas the holiday of holidays, full of sweetness he pronounces the name of the child Jesus. He made the first crèche in Greccio, whose great anniversary we celebrate next year. The mystery of God becoming a man delighted Francis. He loved that mystery so much that he himself eventually became a living image of Christ. (1Ch 30, 84).
Francis came to love the person of Jesus, precisely in his embodiment and humility, identifying with the excluded and the little ones, whom Jesus calls "the least of these" (Mt 25:40).
Francis followed Christ, therefore Francis was followed by many. Those who follow Him are followed!
Francis visibly brought the first nativity scene back to life, today the whole world brings it back to life at Christmas.
No one's birthday is celebrated as globally as Christ's. Francis teaches us that we should also follow the poor Christ, so that with us, people would go towards the same Christ.
God is always given, embodied in every moment and present to those who know how to be present. St. Francis of Assisi understood that life has at its center a person who loves. This metaphysical and cosmic fact gives the entire universe meaning, direction and purpose! Love is precisely the meaning of creation! Because God loves, He wants His creation to also be a creature of love. St. Paul tells us that Christ is "the firstborn of all creation" (Col 1:15), and according to John Duns Scotus, Franciscan theology revolutionarily claims that the Incarnation is the purpose of creation. The reason for the incarnation is not sin, but love! Christ is the masterpiece of love in the midst of creation made for love. He resolves sin with love. Thus Francis returned "blood and body" to the mysteries of Christianity, often "bodiless" and reduced to concepts and syllogisms in theological schools and books, opening the door of love! Faith and life are thus connected by love.
Our choice must always be clear as the sun, pure as wisdom! It must be a choice that loves a man. This love for every person rids us of self-interest, self-love, envy, jealousy, rudeness, bad memories and the urge to be important, to be right and to be the first. Let this Christmas be the beginning of a new movement towards the humble Christ, so that we too can become part of the revolution for the better. Christ was reason enough for Francis, let it be for us too.
Peace and good to you all. Merry Christmas!
Fr. Jozo Grbeš, OFM
The Provincial
