For this reason, my wish for a happy Christmas is a wish for fraternity.
Fraternity among individuals of every nation and culture.
Fraternity among people with different ideas, yet capable of respecting and listening to one another.
Fraternity among persons of different religions. Jesus came to reveal the face of God to all those who seek him.
The face of God has been revealed in a human face. It did not appear in an angel, but in one man, born in a specific time and place. By his incarnation, the Son of God tells us that salvation comes through love, acceptance, respect for this poor humanity of ours, which we all share in a great variety of races, languages, and cultures. Yet all of us are brothers and sisters in humanity!
Our differences, then, are not a detriment or a danger; they are a source of richness. As when an artist is about to make a mosaic: it is better to have tiles of many colours available, rather than just a few!
The experience of families teaches us this: as brothers and sisters, we are all different from each other. We do not always agree, but there is an unbreakable bond uniting us, and the love of our parents helps us to love one another. The same is true for the larger human family, but here, God is our “parent”, the foundation and strength of our fraternity.
May this Christmas help us to rediscover the bonds of fraternity linking us together as individuals and joining all peoples.