Oh, yes, is it Christmas again? We probably all know this feeling: even though it is always the same length of time, adults feel that the Advent season passes by particularly quickly because there are so many things happening.
This year, however, the feeling is perhaps even stronger and the anxious question arises: Will this Christmas be like last year’s? Well, this is what more or less seems to be the case, maybe with some minor differences.
What is most likely the greatest burden on us is the fact that social distancing measures are used again and again as the means of choice to fight the pandemic.
However, in the stable in Bethlehem there was no glamorous celebration, but rather the birth of a child in the poorest of circumstances, under the most adverse political, social and economic conditions. Yet someone managed to break the greatest barrier of all: the barrier between God and humanity: God himself in Jesus, his Son. And he entrusted him to the miserable world. Mary and Joseph, the shepherds, accepted this gift and it became a part of their lives and hearts. And that is where Christmas happened, in the midst of a life marked by poverty and suffering.
Adolph Kolping himself followed this faith and experienced God’s presence in the miserable life of the journeymen. He paid heed to what we would perhaps today be saying: Do as God did, become human.
With this in mind, have a Merry and Blessed Christmas. Treu Kolping
Msgr. Christoph Huber, General Praeses
Dr. Markus Demele, General Secretary
Karin Wollgarten, Managing Director
