Medical Director
Anthony Lazzara, M.D.,
SFO
Home
|
|
Yet there, right before us stands, against the mist of centuries, the first Christmas! 5mall was the cave. Small and graceful the young mother. Small, against the cave, people, and animals, was the Baby. Yet immensity, eternity, and a11 power and glory were contained in His smallness!
Catherine De Hueck Doherty
Once again a year is ending and a new one is beginning. Once again we have before us and contemplate the mystery of the Incarnation, that God was wont to take on human trappings and share our doubts, weaknesses, sufferings. The example He gave us was to choose what is small, insignificant, unimportant for that is how He presented Himself to the world. His message was one of total service and unconditional love for all of us that we in turn are to share with one another. It is a hard concept to grasp and one that is even more difficult to put into practice, for it means dying to oneself, putting the interests of others before our own, denying ourselves for the sake of others.
| My being thirsts for God, the living God. When can I go and see the face of God? |
|
Psalm 42:3 |
|
|
|
The psalmist's lament is one that we all share. We constantly seek the face of God, perfect happiness, but we seek it in the inconsequential, in the ephemeral, in material things of no lasting value, for nothing that we can grasp, buy, possess can bring us lasting happiness and what we thought would bring us true happiness if only we could have it quickly becomes trite. We lose interest in it and seek something else in the elusive quest for contentment. The face of God is not found in the grand, in the important, in the ostentatious. The face of God is found where we would least expect it: in a gentle breeze, the whispering of the ocean, a wild flower, the eyes of a child and in many other humble disguises. The face of God is sent on these pages, in these children who have suffered more in their brief existence than most of us have suffered in a lifetime, children with physical limitations but indomitable spirits. If God came to us helpless and dependent. He is seen in Cesar, a 13 year old with inflammation of the kidneys, so weak he cannot stand and has to be carried. He is seen in Juan Jose, a 2 month old with severe clefting of the lip and palate. He is seen in Julio, a severely malnourished 2 month old. I think the essential message of Christmas is to see the face of God in one another as the humble folk of Bethlehem saw the face of God in the Infant lying in the manger. Once that searing insight is ours, the world will be a different place, one in which the I becomes we, one in which mine becomes ours, one in which us holds sway. Will it ever be possible? Only with hope and faith will it be possible.
|
|
|
| Let this Christmas be for us a turning point. Let us kill “self”. Let us become small enough to kneel at the crib, and big enough just to reach the level of the Baby’s eyes. Let Us then look into them and catch sight of Love Incarnate! Then we shall be made whole again, and our hunger will be filled |
|
Catherine De Hueck Doherty |
|
|
|
Mercedes Congenital heart disease Severe malnutrition |
|
May you and yours see the face of God this Christmas. We thank you for so generously sharing your gifts with our children and making this work possible. We love you and wish you God' s peace.
Click here to see some recent photographs
©2004 villalapaz.org
villalapaz@villalapaz.org