Talk of Prof. Martín Carbajo Núñez with lay people and religious at the Franciscan Parish in Tijuana (Mexico), 16.11.2023 at 7:45 pm
Pope Francis invites us to «encourage» in our society the tradition «of the beautiful sign of the manger and recognizes that it had its origin in the living nativity scene of Saint Francis in Greccio. Benedict XVI confirms that «the particular and intense spiritual climate surrounding Christmas developed in the Middle Ages, thanks to Saint Francis of Assisi»
The celebration of Greccio expresses the profound convictions of the saint of Assisi. With her, Francis wanted to help everyone live that mystery in the first person, without merely representing that story in a merely formal way. His biographers tell us that he celebrated the feast of Christmas «with greater reverence than any other feast of the Lord» (2Cel 199), because «we began to be saved from the day when the Lord was born» (LP 14). That was for him the feast of the festivals and he wanted it to be celebrated with immense joy, united to all creation.
