OAPCE
Christmas 2023 message from the Liaison Bishop
✠ Yvan Mathieu, SM
Dear members of the Ontario Association of Parents in Catholic Education (OAPCE),
In a few days, Christians from all over the world will celebrate the Nativity of Christ. The Bible does not mention Jesus’s exact birthday. We celebrate Jesus’s birth on December 25th because on that date, in the northern hemisphere, the days are getting longer. Daylight increases, and the night’s darkness decreases. Christmas is a celebration of light. Jesus declared: “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.” (John 8:12). To celebrate Christmas on December 25th is a way to declare publicly our faith in Jesus, light of the world. “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.” (John 1:5)
This year’s Christmas celebration also marks a special anniversary. Eight hundred years ago, St. Francis of Assisi created in Greccio (Italy) the first-ever Nativity Scene. Pope Francis writes: “Francis had earlier visited the Holy Land, and the caves in Greccio reminded him of the countryside of Bethlehem. […] Fifteen days before Christmas, Francis asked a local man named John to help him realize his desire ‘to bring to life the memory of that babe born in Bethlehem, to see as much as possible with my own bodily eyes the discomfort of his infant needs, how he lay in a manger, and how, with an ox and an ass standing by, he was laid upon a bed of hay’.” (Admirabile signum, § 2)
“On 25 December, friars came to Greccio from various parts, together with people from the farmsteads in the area, who brought flowers and torches to light up that holy night. When Francis arrived, he found a manger full of hay, an ox and a donkey. All those present experienced a new and indescribable joy in the presence of the Christmas scene. The priest then solemnly celebrated the Eucharist over the manger, showing the bond between the Incarnation of the Son of God and the Eucharist. At Greccio there were no statues; the nativity scene was enacted and experienced by all who were present.” (Admirabile signum, § 2)
My prayer is that all of us might experience on this Christmas Eve the closeness of Christ, the Word made flesh. May we be the holy families that welcome in their house the Son of Mary, whom God the Fathers send among us for our salvation. The more we will allow Christ to dwell in our hearts, in our home and in our schools, the more faithful we will be to our mission of Catholic parents, and the more we will be committed to transform our Catholic schools into instruments of evangelization of our children.