There is a happy Christmas. It is the one that is born from the heart and from friendship with Jesus and is expressed in fraternal works of solidarity with the most needy, such as, for example, the elderly who live alone, the disabled and the sick. He who gives is happier than he who receives.

But we cannot ignore that the essence or spirit of Christmas risks being obscured in today's consumerist society. The idolatry of things can distance man from his Creator, even at the moment when we commemorate that He came to our meeting. Aristotle said that happiness is not in the ephemeral, but in an honest life, in conformity with virtue.

Without going to the extreme of idolatry, it can happen that we reduce Christmas to its "wrapping", without penetrating into its "core" or mystery; that we remain in the typical Christmas customs: decorating the house, putting up the crib and the Christmas tree, singing Christmas carols, etc. All that is fine, because they are Christian signs that serve to create a propitious atmosphere in the family, but it is not the most important thing. All this is all very well, because they are Christian signs that serve to create a propitious atmosphere in the family, but it is not the most important thing. Why? Because it is living Christmas outwardly. The essential thing is to live it inwardly.

This means that many people see Christmas as source potential for happiness linked to its profound message: with the birth of Christ begins the Redemption, the fullness of time. It was the moment chosen by God to manifest his love to men, giving us his own Son.

This fact should fill our lives; every Christmas should be for us a new meeting staff with Jesus, a birth of God in the soul of each one, which makes possible a renewal of spiritual life.

Some people confess that Christmas is the time of the year when they feel the saddest, because they see an empty chair. It should be made clear that, for a Christian, pain is not incompatible with happiness and that true joy has its roots in the form of the cross. A mother who remains for a long time at the bedside of a sick child suffers, but she is not unhappy; she feels the joy of loving and being loved unconditionally, so characteristic of the family. For Josef Pieper, "happy is he who contemplates the good that he loves".

The example of St. John Paul II during his Polish Christmas confirms this. Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, who was his secretary, has recounted that for him Christmas was always a joyous family holiday, even though he lost his family early in life. His mother died when he was a child, his sister shortly after he was born, his brother after he qualified as a doctor, and his father during World War II. But he always celebrated Christmas with friends.

Contemplating God incarnated in a helpless Child, reclining in a manger in a stable, with no more warmth than the breath of two animals, must stir us from within. God reveals himself by becoming a child, and he expects the same from each one of us, to make us children by living the life of childhood, spiritual childhood.

In the portal of Bethlehem lessons of humility, poverty and patience are taught. God comes to the world without ostentation, seeks company in the simple and humble people, for example, the shepherds, and takes the form of a servant. He was the light of the world and his own did not receive him, but he does not complain and knows how to wait.

We have to learn to live Christmas not in a glass bell, but in the consumerist society in which we live, and not as victims, but assuming with a sporting spirit and apostolic zeal, the challenge of re-Christianizing it. We can begin, for example, by abolishing the interested exchange of expensive gifts that are in fashion, with which, in a naive way, it is pretended to express love and buy happiness.

The true meaning of a gift is a free donation, not a commitment. There are gifts that are neither bought nor sold, but have an incalculable spiritual value: the gift of time, closeness, companionship, understanding, committee, comfort, financial aid invisible, etc. These gifts can change the lives of those who receive them.

A happy Christmas requires preparation. The liturgy of the Church proposes to us the time of Advent, to be lived both in the temple and in the family. It is an interior preparation: to prepare for Jesus a worthy dwelling in our soul. It is to go to the Lord's meeting demanding more in our plan of Christian life, for example in prayer and charity. It supposes to rectify the interior life, to begin again with humility. Merry Christmas!