PANJIM: Archbishop Filipe Neri Ferrao has asked the people to be generous to the poor and the underprivileged as the Archdiocese of Goa and Daman has dedicated the year to the weaker sections of society.
“The Church in Goa has dedicated this year to the poor and the underprivileged. When Jesus Christ began his mission on earth at the age of thirty, he proclaimed: “God has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.” This being so, we cannot celebrate Christ or Christmas without including the poor into our celebration. If there is one season when we need to intensify our sensitivity (samvedana) and compassion (karuna) to the poor around us, it is this holy season of Christmas, when we contemplate the Divine Child being born in total poverty and being laid in a manger, thus identifying himself with the poorest of the poor and the homeless, and beckoning us to do the same,” Archbishop Ferrao said in his address at the annual civic reception on the occasion of Christmas at the Archbishop’s House on Friday.
He opined that Christmas is the realisation of God’s dream for humanity adding, “For Christmas celebrates that intense moment, that explosion of God’s love for humankind, focused tenderly on the frailty and littleness of a babe in a manger. At Christmas we come to a profound realisation that the God of the universe embraces us in our human vulnerability and littleness.”
The Archbishop also cited a verse from Goan poet Manohar Rai Sardessai’s poetry collection ‘Vishveachem vhoddponn gottheaedem lhan zalem.’ “It points out to the reality when he says Vishveachem vhoddponn gottheaedem lhan zalem. The greatness of the universe became as little as a stable. The holy stable of Bethlehem is therefore the embodiment of a perfect embrace between Divinity and Humanity. We can take the image of Sangam, a point of confluence of two rivers, which is regarded as sacred by our Hindu brethren since ancient times. Humanity reaches a Sangam with the divine in Jesus Christ and Christmas is a celebration of this profound Sangam of the human and divine quest for each other,” he added.
Rev Ferrao further said that Christmas is a feast that transcends religious affiliations and that one needs an open mind and a large heart in today’s times. “Such openness will facilitate God’s taking flesh in our lives and thus enable us to become living, walking witnesses of the divine, so that our society, especially in our country, becomes a manifestation of God’s welcome to each and every fellow Indian, particularly the less privileged and those despised by society. May the Babe of Bethlehem bless us all and draw us to a collective action that can transform our State and our country into a civilization of love,” he said in the presence of Goa Governor Mridula Sinha, ministers, MLAs and others present at the function.
