This Christmas, especially in this time of Advent, I’d like to focus on it being a time of bringing back the true meaning of Christmas and purifying our attitudes with regard to what we are really about in this most significant liturgical time of our Christian faith.  It is about the birth of God into our lives in and through the person of the Child God, Jesus, a theme so important in the spirituality of our own Saint Vincent de Paul,  God becoming flesh, becoming one with us in order that we might become like God in our relationships one with another, especially with the poor.

Advent 2009

To all the members of the Vincentian Family

Dear Sisters and Brothers,

May the grace and peace of Our Lord Jesus Christ fill your hearts now and forever!

In the period that I was director of the internal seminary in Panama, and at the same time pastor of the parish where the internal seminary was located, I and another confrere did a special program during Advent with the intention of purifying the meaning of Christmas.  It was a campaign against the figure of Santa Claus and in favor of El Niño Dios, the Child God.  We ran the campaign throughout the whole of Advent and then had a symbolic expression of purifying the meaning of Christmas during the penitential rite of the Christmas Eve celebration.

What provoked this pastoral action on the part of my confrere and myself was seeing the subtle change that was taking place in the area in which we were working pastorally.  When I first arrived in Panama the experience of Christmas was always focused on the birth of the Child Jesus, El Niño Dios.  The emphasis was clearly a religious focus on the birth of God into the life of humanity.  And yet, little by little, over the years, in and through tremendous marketing techniques, the concept of Christmas slowly began to be replaced with images of the commercial side of Christmas with the appearance of Santa Claus figures in all the stores and then even given away as gifts to the people to put in their homes and on their front doors, as decorations for the season.  It was sad to see how in a very subtle and cunning marketing way the true meaning of Christmas was being replaced by deepening people’s desires to participate in a consumer society.

This Christmas, especially in this time of Advent, I’d like to focus on it being a time of bringing back the true meaning of Christmas and purifying our attitudes with regard to what we are really about in this most significant liturgical time of our Christian faith.  It is about the birth of God into our lives in and through the person of the Child God, Jesus, a theme so important in the spirituality of our own Saint Vincent de Paul,  God becoming flesh, becoming one with us in order that we might become like God in our relationships one with another, especially with the poor.

This Advent season, I’d like us to think about and reflect on a particular aspect of the Christmas season which is so important; to understand the birth of the Lord Jesus as one who comes to bring to the world peace and harmony.  He is the Prince of Peace as we reflect on the scriptures throughout the Advent-Christmas season.  What has provoked me to want to speak more in depth and to have us reflect on the subject of peace is the actual world situation in which we live today.

We see all around us in every corner of the globe destructive situations, wars between nations, violence between peoples, even neighborhoods with gang violence, and in the very homes, domestic violence.  In such a violent atmosphere in which we live world-wide, there is a search, a struggle, an anxiety to live with greater security. Oftentimes “security” is attempted in and through having more weapons and greater power of destroying the enemy.  In such a light the security promoted only provokes more anxiety.  It is nothing that we can truly consider as security.

There are many that say that since the experience of 9/11 in the United States we have fallen into a world that looks for its own security to the point where we become unconscious or unaware or even indifferent towards securing true peace and security for others outside of our own circle.  We assume attitudes of wanting to be protective of our own, closing in on ourselves.  We seek to be close to what is known and even close to what we might consider home, giving us an illusion of security.

The consumer attitude which is creeping into all levels of our global village is highlighted in the Christmas season.  We are challenged to turn to the Prince of Peace who in and through the promotion of His Father’s kingdom, calls forth attitudes that produce true harmony and good relationships among all peoples.

I want to propose a concrete point for our reflection that has to do with the promotion of peace and harmony in the world in which we live,  first and foremost shown through open concern for the needs of others.

In view of the celebration of the 350^th Anniversary of the deaths of Saint Louise and Saint Vincent  in 2010, the international leaders of the Vincentian Family have named a Projects Committee to develop a specific initiative in favor of the poorest of the poor that would involve all the branches of the Family. From among the options suggested, the leaders selected a pilot project in micro-finance based in Haiti.  The micro-finance, combined with educational programs and social services, has proved to be an effective instrument of transforming the lives of many who are experiencing poverty.  It is anticipated that such a pilot project could serve as a model that could be followed in other places.

I encourage all of us this Christmas season, especially when we want to consider giving of ourselves to others through gifts to do it in breaking the consumer attitudes that oftentimes are deeply rooted within our lives,  attitudes that perhaps we are not quite aware of, which can lead many times to attitudes of those who have and those who have not, and therefore cause divisions instead of bringing about harmony between peoples.  It is such negative attitudes like these when pushed to the extreme that bring about the violence and destruction we experience in our world today.  Most times violence is provoked by the very fact that people don’t have their basic needs met.  They fall into the trap of violence in order to secure for themselves a better way of life.

Let us, as a Vincentian Family, this Advent season, reflect on wanting to change attitudes from a consumer society bent, to a giving of oneself or giving of alternative gifts to those in need  as a concrete way of promoting harmony and peace.

I suggest a second point for our reflection regarding the promotion of peace.  In these days prior to Advent, we had a request on the part of the international council of Pax Christi, to visit our Curia in Rome.  We cordially created that space and opportunity for the International Board of Pax Christ to speak to us.  Present at that meeting were one of my Assistants, one of the Daughters of Charity who works on our staff, and a confrere who is very supportive in the area of justice and peace actions that we want to be open to and promote as an international Vincentian Family.  I think it might be worth our while to investigate and reflect on the possibility of being connected to such international movement as Pax Christi.

Pax Christi began at the end of the Second World War when a group of French and German people came together to pray, to seek reconciliation and to work toward peaceful new beginnings after years of bitter conflict.  That same spirit continues to inspire the international Pax Christi movement today by bringing together ordinary people from many different backgrounds and cultures as they shape and act upon their sacred vision of peace, reconciliation and justice for all.  In a world shaken by violence, terrorism and deepening inequalities and global insecurity, that vision is needed more than ever.

Let me share a little bit more about Pax Christi for your own personal reflection.  Pax Christi is a world-wide Catholic group for peace.  Some member organizations in the Pax Christi network have grown from different roots and even use a different name. But all share the conviction that peace is possible and the vicious cycles of violence and injustice can be broken.  As a faith-based group, Pax Christi international seeks to have a transforming influence, making religion an unequivocal force for peace and justice.  It is Catholic in its origin and tradition, and firmly committed to cooperation with other religious traditions and with all who share its objectives.

Working for peace implies working against violence and Pax Christi International researches into the root causes of violence.  Pax Christi International gives priority to non-violent means of resolving conflict and this includes strengthening the basis of a  peaceful society:  human rights, democracy and the rule of law.  Pax Christi promotes peace education, youth work, training in peace-making skills, mediation and non-violent action.  Pax Christi works to create a culture of peace and helps people as they move toward reconciliation and more hopeful futures.

What can we do?  I suggest, my brothers and sisters, that as a Vincentian Family, we explore in our daily lives and in our personal commitment to serving those living in poverty ways to deepen our affirmation of justice and peace.  I know that we are already doing this, but the Christmas Season brings the special opportunity to renew our response.  This should be a bottom line commitment of anyone who lives the charism of Saint Vincent de Paul, who so often looked for harmony and peace especially for the poor who are often the victims of violence, destruction and war. We can support the work of Pax Christi through our own work and prayer, our publicities such as I am doing here in this Advent letter.  Pax Christi International welcomes financial help in its efforts to transfer violence and to foster a culture of peace so much needed in our world today.

My brothers and sisters, as we begin this Advent season reflecting on the true meaning of Christmas let us do so by being promoters of peace, especially in a society that is prone to violence – this society which is oftentimes provoked by a world that is selfish and materialistic and bent on consuming.  We know that this creates division rather than harmony. Let’s reflect on the true meaning of Christmas in and through the birth of the Lord Jesus, and put aside other images that our world has created that are only meant to satisfy our own personal and materialistic needs rather than being concerned about giving to others.

As Vincentian Family, we bring together people from many different backgrounds and cultures as we attempt to shape and act upon  our shared vision of peace, reconciliation and justice for all. This is very much at the heart of our  spirituality.

As Saint Vincent de Paul said:  “Ask His Divine Goodness to give the Company the spirit of union for we have been established to reconcile souls with God and people with one another” (Coste XI, p. 6).

Your brother in Saint Vincent,

G. Gregory Gay, C.M.

Superior General

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