Toward the Light: Cardinal Carlo Martini on Advent and Christmas

As bishop, Cardinal Martini was also able to cross the paths of many other men and women through his preaching the Word of God, a task he was very fond of. Among his many sermons and lectures, the ones that particularly stand out are those he prepared for the feasts dedicated to the manifestation of Christ, especially Christmas and the Epiphany. Going through the numerous sermons that Cardinal Martini, as Archbishop of Milan, dedicated to Christmas, one is struck by the great timeliness of certain words, no doubt because of their profound truth and for the considerable prophetic quality of the preacher himself. But even more so, it has to do with the recurrence of human history and the fact that humanity is always the same and, therefore, always in need of the same thing: that God may come to each one of us, in tenderness.