D. Manuel Neto Quintas, Bishop of the Algarve, challenges, in his Christmas message, all Algarve residents to let themselves be “infected” by the nativity scene.
In the year that marks the 800th anniversary of the creation of the nativity scene, by St. Francis of Assisi, the world is experiencing “relentless” wars, which cause “thousands of innocent deaths and indescribable suffering to defenseless populations”, and we witness the “ increase in the number of poor and homeless people", the prelate focused his message on the nativity scene.
Classifying it as a “living Gospel”, which is made annually to “inspire humanity” and which transmits “a timeless message”, D. Manuel Quintas considers that, like Pope Francis, we can see the nativity scene as “a domestic gospel , open in our homes and workplaces, in homes, hospitals, prisons, in the squares, streets and squares of our cities... to remind us of an essential truth: our God is not a distant, invisible and inaccessible God».
“He came to live among us, assuming our humanity, in the body of a child,” he said.
In this sense, the Bishop of Algarve highlights that «each nativity scene, represented in the most diverse ways, always constitutes testimony to the closeness of God. A real, living, concrete closeness that can be seen and touched, just like the love that the birth of that child, simple and defenseless, came to manifest,” he added.
D. Manuel Quintas considers that, each nativity scene, «always constitutes a call to involve ourselves in this decided personal commitment», inspired by the «lessons of love» of Mary and Joseph and an «invitation to inner silence», highlighting the «importance of stopping , with the certainty that only when we decide to withdraw into ourselves do we have access to what is essential and priority in our personal and family life».
«If Jesus is part of our life, Christmas will truly happen in it», he concluded.
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