News Reviews

07/06/2024

Roberto Benigni Receives Honorary Doctorate Degree in Laws from the University of Toronto (2015)

The University of Toronto, a globally top-ranked public research university in Canada, bestowed honorary degrees to internationally renowned filmmakers Nicoletta Braschi and Roberto Benigni. The married couple received the honours at the convocation ceremonies on June 3rd 2015.

Video of acceptance speech, description, and accompanied links from the official YouTube channel of the University of Toronto.

Read more here:
https://www.utoronto.ca/news/convocation-2015-roberto-benigni-and-nicoletta-braschi-receive-honorary-degrees-u-t

A transcript of the acceptance speech:
https://www.utoronto.ca/sites/default/files/2023-05/Roberto-Benigni-convocation-speech.txt

Roberto Remigio Benigni is an Italian actor, comedian, screenwriter, and director. Benigni born on October 27th 1952 in Manciano La Misericordia, a frazione of the small walled city of Castiglion Fiorentino in eastern Tuscany, Italy. The son of Isolina Papini (1919–2004), a fabric maker, and Luigi Benigni (1919–2004), a bricklayer, carpenter, and farmer. Roberto was raised Catholic and served as an altar boy; later in his life he became an atheist, but then resumed his interest in religious topics, such as the Ten Commandments and the Song of Songs, and finally returned to practicing Catholicism.

His first experiences as a theatre actor took place in 1971, in Prato. During that autumn, he moved to Rome, where he took part in some
experimental theatre shows, some of which he also directed. In 1975, Benigni had his first theatrical success with Cioni Mario di Gaspare fu Giulia, written by Giuseppe Bertolucci.

Roberto Benigni made his acting debut on film in the 1977 Berlinguer, I Love You (Berlinguer ti voglio bene), he also wrote, and was directed by Giuseppe Bertolucci.

His popularity increased in Italy with L'altra domenica (1976–1979), a TV show created and hosted by Renzo Arbore. Benigni portrayed a lazy film critic who never watches the films he's asked to review. Bernardo Bertolucci then cast him in a small speechless role as a window upholsterer in the film La Luna which had limited American distribution.

In 1980, he met Cesenate actress Nicoletta Braschi, who became his wife on December 26th 1991 and who has starred in most of the films he has directed.

Benigni's directorial debut was the 1983 anthology film Tu mi turbi (You Upset Me), that was also the acting debut of his later wife, Nicoletta Braschi. This film was also his first collaboration with Braschi.

He continued directing and also starring in the comedic films Nothing Left to Do but Cry (1984), The Little Devil (1988), Johnny Stecchino (1991), The Monster (1994), Pinocchio (2002), and The Tiger and the Snow (2005). Benigni had a rare serious role in Federico Fellini's last film, La voce della luna (The Voice of the Moon) in 1989.

In earlier years Benigni had started a long-lasting collaboration with screenwriter Vincenzo Cerami, for a series of films which scored great success in Italy.

Benigni also acted in three Jim Jarmusch films Down by Law (1986), Night on Earth (1991) and Coffee and Ci******es (2003). He also acted in Blake Edwards' Son of the Pink Panther (1993), Woody Allen's To Rome with Love (2012), and Matteo Garrone's Pinocchio in 2019.

He gained international recognition for writing, directing, and starring in the tragicomedy Life Is Beautiful (La vita è bella) of 1997, filmed in Arezzo Italy, and also co-written by Cerami. Benigni's father had spent three years in a N**i concentration camp in Bergen-Belsen, and La vita è bella is based in part on his father's experiences. Benigni was also inspired by the story of Holocaust survivor Rubino Romeo Salmonì. In 1998, the film was nominated for seven Academy Awards. At the 1999 ceremony, the film was awarded the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film that Benigni accepted as the film's director; Best Original Dramatic Score, scored by Nicola Piovani; and Benigni received the award for Best Actor, the first for a male actor in a non-English language performance, and only the third overall acting Academy Award for non-English-speaking roles.

With joy overflowing after Life Is Beautiful was announced as the Best Foreign Language Film at the Oscars, Benigni climbed over and then stood on the backs of the seats in front of him and applauded the audience before proceeding to the stage. After winning his Best Actor Oscar later in the evening, he said in his acceptance speech, "This is a terrible mistake because I used up all my English!" To close his speech, Benigni quoted the closing lines of Dante's Divine Comedy, referencing "the love that moves the sun and all the stars."

At the following year's Academy Awards ceremony, when he read the nominees for Best Actress, host Billy Crystal playfully appeared behind him with a large net in case he got too exuberant again.

Benigni played one of the main characters in Asterix and Obelix vs Caesar in 1999. As a director, his 2002 film Pinocchio was the most expensive film in Italian cinema. The film performed well in Italy, but did not in North America, with a 0% critics' score at Rotten
Tomatoes. He was also named as the Worst Actor for his role as Pinocchio at the 23rd Golden Raspberry Awards. The original Italian version of the film received six nominations at the David di Donatello Awards by the Accademia del Cinema Italiano (The Academy of Italian Cinema), winning two, as well as winning one of the two awards it was nominated for at the Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists.

That same year, he gave a typically energetic and revealing interview to Canadian filmmaker
Damian Pettigrew for Fellini: I'm a Born Liar
(2002), a cinematic portrait of the maestro that was nominated for Best Documentary at the
European Film Awards, Europe's equivalent of the Oscars. The film went on to win the prestigious Rockie Award for Best Arts Documentary at the Banff World Television Festival (2002) and the Coup de Coeur at the International Sunnyside of the Doc Marseille (2002).

In 2003, Benigni was honored by the National Italian American Foundation (NIAF), receiving the Foundation's NIAF Special Achievement Award in Entertainment.

Other Honours

In 1999, a Golden Palm Star on the Palm Springs, California, Walk of Stars was dedicated to him.

On June 16th 2009, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, he was awarded Honorary Citizenship of the City of Buenos Aires in a ceremony held at the Legislative Palace in homage to the notable
Italian diaspora and culture in Argentina.

Roberto Benigni is an improvisatory poet (poesia estemporanea), a form of art popular in Tuscany, and appreciated for his explanation & recitations of Dante's Divina Commedia (Divine Comedy) from memory.

Benigni is also a singer-songwriter. Among his recorded performances are versions of Paolo Conte's songs.

During 2006 and 2007, Benigni had a lot of success touring Italy with his 90-minute "one-man show" TuttoDante (Everything About Dante). Combining current events and memories of his past narrated with an ironic tone, Benigni then begins a journey of poetry and passion through the world of the Divine Comedy. TuttoDante has been performed in numerous Italian piazzas, arenas, and stadiums for a total of 130 shows, with an estimated audience of about one million spectators. Over 10 million more spectators watched the TV show, Il V canto dell’Inferno (The 5th Song of Hell), broadcast by Rai Uno on the 29th of November in 2007, with re-runs on Rai International.

Benigni began North American presentations of TuttoDante with an announcement that he learned English to bring the gift of Dante's work to English speakers. The English performance incorporates dialectic discussion of language and verse and is a celebration of modernity and the concept of human consciousness as created by language. Benigni brought "TuttoDante" to the United States, Canada and Argentina in the TuttoDante Tour between 2008 and 2009 with performances in San Francisco, Boston and Chicago. Benigni was feted in San Francisco at a special reception held by the National Italian American Foundation in his honour on May 24th 2009. Following his U.S. premiere Benigni performed his last presentation on June 16th 2009, in Buenos Aires, Argentina where he was awarded Honorary Citizenship of the City of Buenos Aires in a ceremony held at the Legislative Palace in homage to the notable Italian diaspora and culture in Argentina.

Honorary degrees:

In addition to numerous film awards, Benigni has also garnered honorary degrees from universities worldwide:

1999 – Honorary Doctorate in Philosophy from the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev,
Beersheba, Israel.

2002 – Honorary Doctorate in Letters from the University of Bologna, Italy.

2003 – Honorary Degree in Psychology from the Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, Milan, Italy.

2007 – Honorary Doctorate in Letters from the Katholieke Universiteit, Leuven, Belgium.

2007 – Honorary Degree in Modern Philology from the University of Florence, Italy.

2008 – Honorary Doctorate in Letters from the University of Malta.

2008 – Honorary Degree in Communication Arts from the Touro University Rome, Zagarolo, Italy.

2012 – Honorary Degree in Modern Philology from the University of Calabria, Italy.

2012 – Honorary Doctorate in Letters from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece.

2015 – Honorary Doctorate in Laws from the University of Toronto, Canada.

2024 – Honorary Doctorate in Fine Arts from the University of Notre Dame, USA.

The Europe List, the largest survey on European culture, established that the top three films in European culture are:

1. Benigni's Life Is Beautiful

2. Donnersmarck's The Lives of Others

3. Jean-Pierre Jeunet's Amélie

Additional information extracted and redacted from various sources, including from his bibliography on Wikipedia.

31/05/2024

Jim Caviezel talks about his out-of-body experiences on the last day of filming The Passion of the Christ and after

31/05/2024

Pope Francis and children signal for peace at World Children's Day gathering at Olympic Stadium in Rome on May 25, 2024

28/05/2024

J. Brahms - Souvenir de la Russie;
Nightingale - Romance by A. Alyabyev
Й. Брамс - Воспоминания о России;
Соловей - Романс А. Алябьев
Performed by: https://stduo.ru/
https://www.facebook.com/share/ZwJUMp6BorjY284p/?mibextid=qi2Omg
www.youtube.com/-duo

13/05/2024

Feast of Our Lady of Fatima (May 13, 2024)

Our blessed heavenly mother asked that the following prayer be inserted after each decade while praying the Holy Rosary: O my Jesus, forgive us our sins; save us from the fires of hell; lead all souls into Heaven, especially those who are in most need of thy mercy🙏

For a full recording of this year's rosary and candlelight procession from the Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima in Portugal:
https://youtu.be/qc58PHc8p1A?feature=shared

For a full recording of this year's Holy Mass in honor of Our Lady of Fatima on the anniversary of her first apparition there:
https://www.youtube.com/live/BFxB0ER7zhw?feature=shared

12/05/2024

A Tribute to Our Mother by Jim Caviezel

12/05/2024

Happy Mother's Day To The Most Amazing Mother, Our Blessed Heavenly Mother Mary.

About the accompanied image:

The image of Our Lady of Perpetual Help is an icon that is painted in tempera on hard nut wood and that appears to have originated around the thirteenth century. The original picture of Our Lady of Perpetual Help is one of many copies of the famed Hodeguitria reputedly painted by the Apostle Saint Luke, venerated for centuries in Constantinople as a miraculous icon, destroyed by the Turks in the year 1453. It is, however, The One Copy singled out, by Our Lady Herself, for special heavenly favors. You may see it today enshrined above the high altar in the Redemptorist Church of San Alphonsus, at Rome.

Traditionally, the image is also known as “Our Lady of Perpetual Succour.” The icon of about 54 x 41.5 centimeters depicts our Blessed Mother Mary, under the title “Mother of God,” holding the Child Jesus. The Archangels Michael and Gabriel, hovering in the upper corners, hold the instruments of the Passion– Saint Michael (in the left corner) holds the spear, the wine-soaked sponge, and the crown of thorns, and Saint Gabriel (in the right corner) holds the cross and the nails. The intent of the artist was to portray the Child Jesus contemplating the vision of His future Passion. The anguish He feels is shown by the loss of one of His sandals. Nevertheless, the icon also conveys the triumph of Christ over sin and death, symbolized by the golden background (a sign of the glory of the resurrection) and the manner in which the angels hold the instruments, i.e. like trophies gathered up from Calvary on Easter morning.

In a very beautiful way, the Child Jesus grasps the hand of the Blessed Mother. He seeks comfort from His mother as He sees the instruments of His passion. The position of Mary’s hands– both holding the Child Jesus (who seems like a small adult) and presenting Him to us– convey the reality of our Lord’s incarnation, that He is true God who became also true man. In iconography, Mary here is represented as the Hodighitria, the one who guides us to the Redeemer. She also is our Help, who intercedes on our behalf with her Son. The star painted on Mary’s veil, centered on her forehead, highlights her role in the plan of salvation as both the Mother of God and our Mother.

According to popular tradition, a merchant acquired the icon of Our Lady of Perpetual Help from the island of Crete and had it shipped to Rome towards the end of the fifteenth century. During the voyage, a terrible storm arose, threatening the lives of all on ship. The passengers and crew prayed to our Blessed Mother, and were saved.

Once in Rome, the merchant, dying, ordered that the image should be displayed for public veneration. His friend, who retained the image, received further instructions: in a dream to his little daughter, the Blessed Mother appeared and expressed the desire for the image to be venerated in a church between the Basilicas of Saint Mary Major and Saint John Lateran in Rome. The image, consequently, was housed at the Church of Saint Matthew, and, became known as “The Madonna of Saint Matthew.” Pilgrims flocked to the church for the next three hundred years, and great graces were bestowed upon the faithful.

Napoleon’s troops destroyed the Church of Saint Matthew in 1798, yet the image survived, and was transferred to the Church of Saint Mary in Posterula and remained there for nearly forty years. There, the image was neglected and forgotten.

By divine providence, the forgotten image was rediscovered. In 1866, Blessed Pope Pius IX entrusted the image to the Redemptorists, who had just built the Church of Saint Alphonsus down the street from Saint Mary Major. As a boy, the Holy Father had prayed before the image in the Church of Saint Matthew. He ordered the public display and veneration of the image and fixed the feast of Our Lady of Perpetual Help as the Sunday before the Feast of the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist. In 1867, when the image was being carried in a solemn procession through the streets, a young child was cured, the first of many recorded miracles attributed to Our Lady of Perpetual Help.

To this day, the Church of Saint Alphonsus in Rome displays the icon of Our Lady of Perpetual Help and welcomes pilgrims for prayer. May each of us never hesitate to invoke the prayers and intercession of Our Blessed Mother in time of need.

O Mother of Perpetual Help, grant that I may ever invoke your most powerful name, which is the safeguard of the living and the salvation of the dying.

O Purest Mary, O Sweetest Mary, let thy name henceforth be ever on my lips.

Delay not, O Blessed Lady, to help me whenever I call on you, for, in all my needs, in all my temptations I shall never cease to call on you, ever repeating thy sacred name, Mary, Mary.

O what consolation, what sweetness, what confidence, what emotion fill my soul when I pronounce your sacred name, or even only think of you.

I thank God for having given you, for my good, so sweet, so powerful, so lovely a name.

But I will not be content with merely pronouncing your name: let my love for you prompt me ever to hail you, Mother of Perpetual Help. Amen.

The feast day of Our Mother of Perpetual Help is June 27.

04/05/2024

Christ is Risen! Hallelujah!
The Holy Light has descended in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, May 4, 2024.

03/05/2024

An interview with actor Jim Caviezel from a decade earlier, who portrayed Jesus of Nazareth in the 2004 film The Passion of the Christ.

Miraculous events happened before, and while making the film, including conversions, and three lightning strikes during its filming, one crew member got hit twice, and Caviezel got hit once.

Jim Caviezel has said that God came to him in a movie theater when he was 19 and told him to become an actor. "God loves us I understand, but we need to start loving God back. He needs to be loved. Jesus deserves to be loved. "I want to love Him, and I'll give him whatever I've got. It's not my career. It's God's career,"

Mel Gibson, for many years, felt compelled to make the film and was inspired by the visionary stigmatist Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich when he wrote and directed the film. The visions of the mystic compiled in a book titled The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ. In addition to the Holy Gospels, Gibson was so moved by 'The Dolorous Passion' that he based much of the script of the film on the book. Gibson also spent around 30 million of his own money to make the film.

Two decades later, The Passion of the Christ: Resurrection - Chapter I is scheduled to be released on Holy Friday, April 18, 2025. The film will focus on the events that occurred three days between the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and His resurrection.

31/03/2024

31/03/2024

30/03/2024

30/03/2024

29/03/2024

Chaplet of Divine Mercy

29/03/2024

Rosary for the World - Luminous Mysteries

28/03/2024

Jerusalem - Palm Sunday 2024
Guided by the Holy Spirit on the passage to Jerusalem of Jesus the Messiah Son of God.

Shortened video from a longer video dated March 24, 2024 on YouTube by CoolKenyan InIsrael entitled Happy Palm Sunday From Jerusalem. This is how Palm Sunday is celebrated in Jerusalem.
https://youtu.be/WJSF9cBSqas?feature=shared

24/03/2024

With compassion and sympathy,
Crocus
22.03.2024

Photo: Blooming Crocus flowers in the spring

08/03/2024

March 8 - In recognition of the lovely creation called woman

13/01/2024

07/01/2024

Like the Magi greeted little baby Jesus, in unity of the glorious spirit of the season, a joyful Christmas to observers from the Julian calendar from an observer from the Gregorian calendar of the Epiphany of our Lord to the whole world.

God of Light, Prince of Peace, just as the wise visitors from the East followed the light of Your star, may we also follow Your light. Let us bring Your peace, and find joy in You on this blessed day and forever. Amen

31/12/2023

Coming soon ... 2024

25/12/2023

The Rich Meaning of Immanuel

The word Immanuel gets banded around a lot at this time of year due to one of the most startling Messianic prophecies there is:

Therefore Adonai Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin will conceive. When she is giving birth to a son, she will call his name Immanuel. (Isaiah 7:14)

Immanuel, Emmanuel, Emanuel – like Hanukkah, there are several ways to spell it in English, but in Hebrew it is two words: עִמָּנוּ אֵל – with-us God, or God with us.

This promise to come and be with us does not just suddenly appear in Isaiah 7 – God’s intention to come and live among us is transcribed all throughout Scripture. He’s thought this through and planned His visit very well.

The Temporary Tent of Meeting

Back in the Garden of Eden, God and Adam walked together in the cool of the day. The close fellowship God once had with humanity is something His heart longs for and grieved for when it was lost. God’s love for us and desire to be with us is seen in action as He creates an environment in which sin can be dealt with and fellowship restored:

"I will set My Tabernacle among you, and My soul will not abhor you. I will walk among you and will be your God, and you will be My people."
(Leviticus 26:11-12)

We see God literally pitching up His tent right in the middle of the camps of Israel, with a fully functioning sin-disposal system in order that He can be among them. He walks with them, accompanying them with a pillar of cloud and fire, and makes His desire for closeness and connection abundantly clear.

But even more than a temporary tent, God had a greater plan:

"Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion! For behold, I am coming and I will live among you’—it is a declaration of Adonai. In that day many nations will join themselves to Adonai and they will be My people and I will dwell among you.’ Then you will know that the LORD of Hosts has sent me to you. (Zechariah 2:10-11)

This remarkable prophecy is spoken by the LORD, but read it again carefully… He says that the LORD sent Him. God will come and live among us, and yet He is sent by the LORD! Hey?

It happens again in Isaiah:

"Draw near to Me, hear this: Since the beginning, I have not spoken in secret. From the time it existed, I was there. So now Adonai Elohim has sent Me, and His Spirit." (Isaiah 48:16)

This plan that God would send God to live among us has been in place since the dawn of time. The Eternal One who was there since the beginning has been sent by the LORD, and His Spirit. How about that.

This time, it was personal. No longer mere meaningful symbols and prophetic accoutrements in a purpose-built temple – God Himself was coming for a visit. And he was sent by God.

A Royal Visitor in Disguise

I heard a story while I was in Jordan that the King received reports of welfare officials mistreating their clients. The king, so the story goes, disguised himself as an elderly man in need, and approached clerks at different offices asking for help and services. Whenever he came across an official who was rude, disrespectful or unkind, he took them aside and revealed his true identity. He explained what they had done wrong and fired them on the spot. Needless to say, the services improved considerably after they understood that they might be serving the king!

At first they were not expecting the king to show up in such a humble manner. Neither did Israel, by and large, recognise the time of their visitation.

The King of kings was right there, among them in their midst, but in disguise. He looked like an ordinary Jewish carpenter from Nazareth. I heard a young child say that Jesus was "God with skin on", and that’s a pretty good summary of the incarnation.

The idea of a virgin giving birth is so shocking that Jewish people understandably balk at the idea that it could mean what it says (as do far too many of those who call themselves Christians, to their shame). But then, God is not known for avoiding the outrageous. He dares people to believe. It stands to reason that He can do the impossible – He can do anything He likes. It also stands to reason that the God who created the universe would not arrive in amongst His creation in an entirely ordinary way. Even the Jewish Sages had a saying, "The redeemer whom I shall raise up from among you, will have no father"
(Genesis Rabbah of Rabbi Moshe haDarshan).

God was made manifest, which is what glory is all about. God’s glory came to us in the Messiah, in the person of Jesus, full of grace and truth because he is God himself.

The Word became flesh and tabernacled among us. We looked upon His glory, the glory of the one and only from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:14)

Immanuel: Together Again At Last

God’s great plan to visit was in order to pave the way for unending togetherness. He dealt with sin once and for all, so that anyone who wanted could be cleansed of the sin that separates and restored in relationship with Him.

It’s hard to imagine what it will be like when we are truly WITH GOD forever. I know that God is looking forward to it with great joy.

"Behold, the dwelling of God is among men, and He shall tabernacle among them. They shall be His people, and God Himself shall be among them and be their God. He shall wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more. Nor shall there be mourning or crying or pain any longer, for the former things have passed away."
(Revelation 21:3-4)

Commentary obtained from oneforisrael.org

Photo: Grotto of the Nativity in Bethlehem. A 14-point silver star on the marble floor of the Grotto of the Nativity bears the words “Hic de Virgine Maria Jesus Christus natus est” (Here Jesus Christ was born to the Virgin Mary).

The Catholic Encyclopedia states, "The word Jesus is the Latin form of the Greek Iesous, which in turn is the transliteration of the Hebrew Jeshua, or Joshua, or again Jehoshua, meaning '[God] is salvation.' The Catechism of the Catholic Church adds, 'Jesus means in Hebrew: 'God saves'."

Merry Christmas!

24/12/2023

Solemnity of the Nativity of the Lord

Homily by Pope Francis delivered on December 24, 2023, in Saint Peter's Basilica during Holy Mass.

“A census of the whole earth” (cf. Lk 2:1). This was the context in which Jesus was born, and the Gospel makes a point of it. The census might have been mentioned in passing, but instead is carefully noted. And in this way, a great contrast emerges. While the emperor numbers the world’s inhabitants, God enters it almost surreptitiously. While those who exercise power seek to take their place with the great ones of history, the King of history chooses the way of littleness. None of the powerful take notice of him: only a few shepherds, relegated to the margins of social life.

The census speaks of something else. In the Scriptures, the taking of a census has negative associations. King David, tempted by large numbers and an unhealthy sense of self-sufficiency, sinned gravely by ordering a census of the people. He wanted to know how powerful he was. After some nine months, he knew how many men could wield a sword (cf. 2 Sam 24:1-9). The Lord was angered and the people suffered. On this night, however, Jesus, the “Son of David”, after nine months in Mary’s womb, is born in Bethlehem, the city of David. He does not impose punishment for the census, but humbly allows himself to be registered as one among many. Here we see, not a god of wrath and chastisement, but the God of mercy, who takes flesh and enters the world in weakness, heralded by the announcement: “on earth peace among those whom he favors” (Lk 2:14). Tonight, our hearts are in Bethlehem, where the Prince of Peace is once more rejected by the futile logic of war, by the clash of arms that even today prevents him from finding room in the world (cf. Lk 2:7).

The census of the whole earth, in a word, manifests the all-too-human thread that runs through history: the quest for worldly power and might, fame and glory, which measures everything in terms of success, results, numbers and figures, a world obsessed with achievement. Yet the census also manifests the way of Jesus, who comes to seek us through enfleshment. He is not the god of accomplishment, but the God of Incarnation. He does not eliminate injustice from above by a show of power, but from below, by a show of love. He does not burst on the scene with limitless power, but descends to the narrow confines of our lives. He does not shun our frailties, but makes them his own.

Brothers and sisters, tonight we might ask ourselves: Which God do we believe in? In the God of incarnation or the god of achievement? Because there is always a risk that we can celebrate Christmas while thinking of God in pagan terms, as a powerful potentate in the sky; a god linked to power, worldly success, and the idolatry of consumerism. With the false image of a distant and petulant deity who treats the good well and the bad poorly; a deity made in our own image and likeness, handy for resolving our problems and removing our ills. God, on the other hand, waves no magic wand; he is no god of commerce who promises “everything all at once”. He does not save us by pushing a button, but draws near us, in order to change our world from within. Yet how deeply ingrained is the worldly notion of a distant, domineering, unbending, and powerful deity who helps his own to prevail against others! So many times this image is ingrained in us. But that is not the case: our God was born for all, during a census of the whole earth.

Let us look, then, to the “living and true God” (1 Thess 1:9). The God who is beyond all human reckoning and yet allows himself to be numbered by our accounting. The God, who revolutionizes history by becoming a part of history. The God who so respects us as to allow us to reject him; who takes away sin by taking it upon himself; who does not eliminate pain but transforms it; who does not remove problems from our lives but grants us a hope that is greater than all our problems. God so greatly desires to embrace our lives that, infinite though he is, he becomes finite for our sake. In his greatness, he chooses to become small; in his righteousness, he submits to our injustice. Brothers and sisters, this is the wonder of Christmas: not a mixture of sappy emotions and worldly contentment, but the unprecedented tenderness of a God who saves the world by becoming incarnate. Let us contemplate the Child, let us contemplate the manger, his crib, which the angels call “a sign” for us (cf. Lk 2:12). For it truly is the sign that reveals God’s face, a face of compassion and mercy, whose might is shown always and only in love. He makes himself close, tender, and compassionate. This is God's way: closeness, compassion, tenderness.

Sisters and brothers, let us marvel at the fact that he “became flesh” (Jn 1:14). Flesh: the very word evokes our human frailty. The Gospel uses this word to show us that God completely assumed our human condition. Why did he go to such lengths? Because he cares for us, because he loves us to the point that he considers us more precious than all else. Dear brother, dear sister, to God, who changed history in the course of a census, you are not a number, but a face. Your name is written on his heart. But if you look to your own heart, and think of your own inadequacies and this world that is so judgmental and unforgiving, you may feel it difficult to celebrate this Christmas. You may think things are going badly, or feel dissatisfied with your limitations, your failings, your problems, and your sins. Today, though, please, let Jesus take the initiative. He says to you, “For your sake, I became flesh; for your sake, I became just like you”. So why remain caught up in your troubles? Like the shepherds, who left their flocks, leave behind the prison of your sorrows and embrace the tender love of the God who became a child. Put aside your masks and your armor; cast your cares on him and he will care for you (cf. Ps 55:22). He became flesh; he is looking not for your achievements but for your open and trusting heart. In him, you will rediscover who you truly are: a beloved son or daughter of God. Now you can believe it, for tonight the Lord was born to light up your life; his eyes are alight with love for you. We have difficulty believing in this, that God's eyes shine with love for us.

Christ does not look at numbers, but at faces. However, who looks at him amid the many distractions and mad rush of a bustling and indifferent world? Who is watching? In Bethlehem, as crowds of people were caught up in the excitement of the census, coming and going, filling the inns, and engaged in petty conversation, a few were close to Jesus: Mary and Joseph, the shepherds, and then the Magi.

Let us learn from them. They stood gazing upon Jesus, with their hearts set on him. They did not speak, they worshiped. Tonight, brothers and sisters, is a time of adoration, of worship.

Worship is the way to embrace the Incarnation. For it is in silence that Jesus, the Word of the Father, becomes flesh in our lives. Let us do as they did, in Bethlehem, a town whose name means “House of Bread”. Let us stand before him who is the Bread of Life. Let us rediscover worship, for to worship is not to waste time, but to make our time a dwelling place for God. It is to let the seed of the Incarnation bloom within us; it is to cooperate in the work of the Lord, who, like leaven, changes the world. To worship is to intercede, to make reparation, to allow God to realign history. As a great teller of epic tales once wrote to his son, “I put before you the one great thing to love on earth: the Blessed Sacrament… There you will find romance, glory, honor, fidelity, and the true way of all your loves on earth” (J.R.R. TOLKIEN, Letter 43, March 1941).

Brothers and sisters, tonight love changes history. Make us believe, Lord, in the power of your love, so different from the power of the world. Lord, make us, like Mary, Joseph, the shepherds, and the Magi, gather around you and worship you. As you conform us ever more to yourself, we shall bear witness before the world to the beauty of your countenance.