When we share the Creed every Sunday, we say a very significant phrase, but sometimes it can escape us: “for us and our salvation, he came down from heaven.”
God becomes one of us, assumes and shares our condition, and completely transforms our lives, offering us the gift of fullness.
This mystery of God’s love begins in a manger and ends in a cross. At Christmas and Easter, we commemorate God’s infinite love for each and every one of his sons and daughters for each of us. That is why we feel true and deep joy at Christmas. We celebrate that God loves us.
Christmas is “abasement.” We, the Piarists, feel very called to live this dynamic, which Saint Joseph Calasanz proposes to us with his life and example. Calasanz tells us that the best way to understand and live God’s love is to “get down to give light to children.” The prophet’s announcement resounds in our souls: “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; to those who dwelt in the land of shadows, a light has shone unto them” (Is 9:1).
We will hear this text at Christmas Eve Mass. Christmas illuminates us in the middle of the night, even now, in a world like ours where we see so many difficulties, sufferings and a lack of sense of humanity. Christ becomes one of us to give us light, the light of the Father’s love.
Our best wishes this Christmas are to all the religious of the Order and to all the people who walk, seek and live in the Pious Schools. Merry Christmas!
The General Congregation of the Pious Schools
