Happy are those who dream dreams
and are ready to pay the price
to make them come true.
(Cardinal Suenens)
My Christmas message to all the Vincentian Family is based on the gospel for the Fourth Sunday of Advent in which we heard how Joseph’s dream for living a normal life together with his wife-to-be, Mary, was interrupted and he was invited to participate in an even bigger dream, the dream of God becoming man.
The dream of Christmas is the dream of a little child, born into the world, born as a poor person, who begins a process of transforming the world in and through, and above all, the gift of love. That dream gets spelled out, not only in the course of Jesus’ life, as recorded for us in the gospels, but at the same time it continues to be concretized throughout the world in the lives and commitments of many men and women who dream that another world is possible.
In this day and age we need to dream bigger dreams, dreams that include the well-being of the entire world, not only just our little piece of it. If it is true that we live in a global village, it is even truer that we have the responsibility of working toward a greater solidarity, where there is a recognition of the equality of all men and women in that village. That is the true message of Christmas and, if and when it becomes so, the consequence will be true peace to all men and women on earth. My brothers and sisters of the Vincentian Family, we are all invited to go beyond our own personal dreams and participate fully in the dream of Christmas, which is the dream of a better world for all God’s children. The challenge before each and everyone of us is to continue to make the dream come true as many others who have gone before us have done with the gift of their lives and the gift of their love, especially for those privileged ones of Jesus, the poor.
Part of my own dream for this new year 2005 is the hope that something new continue to be born: a Vincentian Family, dedicated, as Family, to pray with the Lord Jesus, whom we have come to know and love in a deeper way in the person of the poor, the poor to whom we reach out in a personal way with love and compassion, a compassion that gets translated into solidarity.
So to all the members of the Vincentian Family, we here at the General Curia say:
MERRY CHRISTMAS and HAPPY NEW YEAR!
