When you give presents to the people you love, remember that the giving of gifts is not a human invention. God started it all when he gave us the priceless gift of His Son in order to save humanity.
Jesus did not come to earth as an explorer or a tourist, nor as an educator or an itinerant preacher. Jesus came as a Savior seeking to save ‘the lost’, those who were estranged from God. And we are all lost without God – lost without hope, lost without a future.
It is therefore fitting that we celebrate and rejoice during Christmas Season because God’s gift means that death no longer has any real power over us, and that our lives have been redeemed.
Merry Christmas by fr. Mario Conte, Executive Editor of the «Messenger of Saint Anthony» magazine, and all the franciscan friars of Saint Anthony Basilica in Padua, Italy.