Many ask me: “how could 'it be so special'?”. And at that time I begin to remember the Christmases of my childhood and adolescence, the day when we also celebrated the birthday of someone very special: my mother, Natalina Genny. The family is always together, lots of joy and lots of food. A family of artist mothers and aunts who so often made the gifts, applying not only the embroidery and paintings to them, but all the love and affection they felt for us. All this talent was taught to the daughters, thus continuing the tradition of manual work that today adorns doors, trees and homes of so many people.
One thing, however, impressed me more than anything. The day December 25 it wasn't just my mother's birthday, but the birthday of someone who represented the greatest example of love and morals on Earth. The 25th also celebrates the birth of Jesus. His birthday was always remembered in our family and we offered as a gift what he taught us: “Do to others what you would like to be done for you”. So, with the same love that we prepared our things, we also prepared for those who didn't have a family, who didn't have food and, along with the material, we took our hug and our love.
Today, I see many people bothered at that time because they spend a lot or because they don't have anything to spend. I see a lot of people worried about the present they need to please. I see a lot of people angry that they have to stay with this or that family and I also see people very sad that they don't have a family to stay with. And that's why I think the party could be so beautiful. For some, it is, but others are still looking for the meaning of Christmas.
At that moment, I reflect on what the true spirit of Christmas would be and I remember the poem written by my father, Wanderley Racy, called “Old Christmases”. The poem goes like this:
“Today I decided to throw open all the doors, curtains and windows of my heart's memory.
I bathed in the sunlight of my dusty memories.
I hit with the wind of memories each of the cold corners of the past, where the days lived are piled up.
I swept the trampled floor of the disappointments and made the clear water flow from my songs.
From the depths, from the depths of memory, the purest of memories grew.
That of Christmases that came and went without gifts, but that were left with the sublime warmth of Christian fraternity between men who loved each other in mutual respect for their differences, for the greater glory of the example of God-child.
And my old house was suddenly filled with light….”
With him, I close this article wishing you all a merry Christmas, in its purest sense. May we look to the side and see in the next a brother, exercising in us the true Christmas spirit!
Christmas is, above all, communion with the divine!
A fraternal hug to everyone who accompanied me this year.
