Christmas as a subversive feast
As Pope Francis said in his Christmas address to the workers of the Roman Curia, the message of Christmas overturns the logic of power.
Yesterday while presenting his Christmas wishes to the Roman Curia, Pope Francis gave each participant a copy of the Italian translation of a work by Claudio Acquaviva (1543-1615), fifth superior-general of the Jesuits, entitled The art of healing illnesses of the soul.
These illnesses included: “To be spread too thinly,” “aulicism, or frequenting the great,” “seeking distinctions, honors and praise”…
With this gift, the pope evidently intended to highlight that the battle is never over against the fifteen “illnesses” that may affect workers at the Holy See, which he listed at the equivalent event two years ago.
In his update on the state of progress of Curia reform, Pope Francis therefore emphasized that the latter was not going ahead without meeting “open,” “hidden” or “malevolent resistance.” But these difficulties in no way discouraged him. Totally to the contrary.
Explaining the criteria that oriented his implementation of changes in the Church’s leadership, he also repeated his determination to complete the task he was given at the time of his election.
The first criterion was that of “personal conversion” on the part of all his collaborators, the lack of which would make the Curia an administration like any other rather than the “community of service” that it needs to be.
Moreover, the Curia needs to become a community that enables the heart of the Christmas message to shine through in its way of working. It will achieve this by choosing “to be born small.” In this way, God oveturns “the logic of the world, the logic of power, the logic of command,” the pope explained.
Consumerism can easily cause us to forget it but Christmas is a radically subversive feast.
May it also be a beautiful feast for each one of you.