This letter was written a year ago by Fr. Gratian Rossato, from Freetown in Sierra Leone. It should have been sent by some friends on the occasion of Christmas 2006. It was a draft copy laying on his desk, not finished in its editing. Unfortunately, death came too soon for our beloved Xaverian missionary Fr. Gratian on Dec. 2, and this letter never arrived to his friends. 

 

We are very fortunate in Africa

Freetown, Sierra Leone

ear friends, I cannot believe that time passes so quickly! Another Christmas is at our doors, inviting me to write once again, as I normally do, a couple of paragraphs to family, friends and benefactors. I just hope that someone will soon return to Europe, so that he can mail these letters there; here, as you know, the mail system is what it is, and if I would send them from here, these letters might show up at your doorstep… by Easter!

We are celebrating the Advent Season, a time of preparation and waiting for everyone, each in his own way. Here in Africa, I believe we are more fortunate than all of you, because of our poverty. We are luckily exempt from the commercial and consumerist aspect of the Christmas Season, which often turns out to be a break from our daily routine, with all-out shopping of gifts and some sumptuous dinners (our presents after so many battles with cholesterol, diabetes, etc.).

Here in Sierra Leone, we ask the people to choose as priority for their lives the daily participation at the Eucharistic celebration, for it is in the Word of God that we find the true wisdom to understand the spiritual dimension of this important Feast, the Birth of Christ.

From Remembrance to Waiting

The danger for all of us is to consider Christmas like a recurring event of the calendar, and when it’s over, we leave everything behind until next year. There is the temptation to understand Christmas like a “Feast of Remembrance,” an anniversary of a historical event of the past, just like our birthdays and other anniversaries… And at the end, you forget both feasts and saints.

We ask the people of Sierra Leone to choose as priority for their lives the daily participation at the Eucharistic celebration, for it is in the Word of God that we find true wisdom

It could be helpful to think of Christmas like the “Feast of Waiting,” though it might not be that exciting; we must think of the “final coming” of Jesus so that we can think of the future, though this future will never appeal to our generations like the present moment. The celebration of the “historical Jesus,” who was born in this world 2000 years ago, and of the “Coming Lord,” will generate within us an attitude of celebration of the “Jesus who comes today”, each moment of our lives, Emmanuel, the God with Us.

Jesus of Today

We meet him in the celebration of the sacraments, and most of all we’ll see his face in our needy brothers and sisters, near and far, who are called the “blessed of his coming Kingdom.” “I was hungry and thirsty… Whatever you did to one of these little children, you did it to me.” 

This is my wish for this Christmas, for myself first of all, and for all of you. I wish to commit myself to this purpose, to meet Jesus and follow Christ, not only on Christmas Day, Dec. 25th, but everyday of this coming year. The Christmas that counts is the one that is celebrated during weekdays, from 9 to 5, in the present moment. We celebrate Christmas through daily events, with people we meet, and with everything that gives meaning to our Christian life which points to the historical birth of Jesus. It will invite us to treasure his daily birth for us, and within our lives…”

Fr. Gratian Rossato, s.x.
(from Missionari Saveriani)