He did not come as a king but as a small child. A woman gave him birth, thus sanctifying all women in the world and giving childhood a value and significance unknown in the Old Testament and in the culture of this time…” What you do in my name to one of these children, you do to me (Mt 19,14)”.
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But how do women and children live in the world of today?
December 2003
Dear friends and volunteers of AIC,
Christmas is close and we are looking forward to the holiday’s delight: light, gifts, visits to friends and relatives. But what do we really celebrate? Do we realize, in spite of the turbulence of these busy days, that these great religious holidays commemorate the advent of God’s humanity – God who came to us as a child? He did not come as a king but as a small child. A woman gave him birth, thus sanctifying all women in the world and giving childhood a value and significance unknown in the Old Testament and in the culture of this time. Thus, during His life on earth and in His teaching, Jesus always praised the value and the dignity of children:
” What you do in my name to one of these children, you do to me (Mt 19,14)”.
But how do women and children live in the world of today? Some benefit from an excess of goods while others live in misery and suffering. At the time of my recent visits in Russia, Cameroon and Madagascar, I observed that I did not need to fly for long to pass from one extreme to the other and how much our world can vary from one part to the other on our planet. Besides, even in “rich” countries, there are lonely and sad children; some are sick or victims of the most severe violation that is sexual abuse. There are children who must fight in wars, others wounded by war; some lost their parents there. Some children die of incurable illnesses while others could be cured if they received the proper treatment. We can say that children, like old people, are the most vulnerable groups of our society.
A young volunteer from Ukraine working in a house for handicapped children exclaimed one day: ” They are God’s children, just like me!” She had expressed a great truth of our faith: God has created us all, He is our Father, and it is certain that He holds in His hand all the sad and suffering children of the world. But here on earth we are responsible for all these children, our children, those of our neighborhood and all the others in the world.
In his message for Lent 2004, the Holy Father signals this task precisely: “Appreciation of the value of children and our esteem of them should not remain at the level of a vague romantic feeling. What is absolutely vital are political options as well as legislative instruments favorable to children. Pressure should be exerted on the development policies and orientations of the United Nations”. AIC participates in this great project thanks to its representatives at the international level and its volunteers at the grassroots, taking care of the schooling of deprived street children. The latter are more and more becoming aware that paying tuition fees for these children is certainly an important help, but that it is not enough: it is even more important to give society and governments the sense of responsibility as well as to fathers abandoning their families.
The Holy Father too says: ” Children are a sign of hope. If they are given sufficient space, joy also flourishes among adults. Children can reveal, especially in a society like the one we live in, centered on the individual, the beauty of relationship with others and with a new being who is growing up.”
Let’s celebrate Christmas, for and with the little ones, with joy, with our sense of responsibility, with love and care, keeping in mind that every child has been created according to God’s image and sanctified by Christ’s birth in Bethlehem.
I wish you and all dear to you the joy of the Child that is God. May you see yourself in the faces of the children and feel the hope given by these children at the dawn of 2004.
President of AIC
Rampe des Ardennais 23
B-1348 Louvain-la-Neuve (Belgium)
Tél. : +32 (0) 10 45 63 53
Fax : + 32 (0) 10 45 80 63
ING : banc account n° 310-0397190-61
E-mail : aic@euronet.be
