Dear Jesus,
Now that you are going to be born again at Christmas allow me to give you some advice:
Please do not be born in Europe because:
They will put you before a TV screen and fill you up with popcorn and junk food, they will teach you to be competitive, a “person of power and success”; to disregard other children from Africa, Latin America and Asia.
And we call you the Lamb of Service…
Please do not be born in North America…
They will teach you that you are superior to other children, that time is money, that time is money, that everything hinges on business – even nature, that every person has a price, that everyone can be brought or corrupted; they will teach you how to use missiles and how to set up embargos thus keeping medicine and food away from other children in poor countries.
And yet we call you the Prince of Peace…
Avoid Africa…
You could be born with AIDS and die of diarrhea as a baby, or you could end up a refugee in a foreign country as you escape from conflict in your own country.
Yes we continue to call you the Lord of Life…
Also it may be better to avoid Central and South America…
You could end up a street child, you could be forced to cut cane sugar, to collect coffee and cocoa for children in First World countries without ever tasting a spoon of sugar or a bar of chocolate.
We claim that you are the Lord of Creation…
Avoid Asia also…
They will set you to work in a factory 14 hours a day at making carpets, shoes, footballs and toys for rich children in the developed countries while you will have to go around barefoot and use a sockball to play football.
We call you Master of the World…
Above all avoid Palestine for the second time…
Some will put a gun into your hands others a stone teaching you to hate your brothers (after all Jews, Christians and Muslims) have the same Father.
We know that you come each year to give us mercy and love…
Actually Lord – you should be born again in all these places but not in the hearts of children or of poor and weak people. You are present there already. How about choosing to be born in the hearts of the strong, the rich and the powerful so that as you who are Almighty and Powerful became a simple, weak and powerless child – they too can be reborn – small innocent and at last WEAK…
Don Ivan Manzoni
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