MEDITATION : 

Understanding is a distinctive element of any true love. We can say that the incarnation of a God, who becomes man, makes it possible to understand this great value called understanding.

It is a God who puts himself in our shoes, who eliminates distances and shares our worries and joys. It is thanks to this understanding love of a God the Father that we are children of God and brothers of one another.

God shows us the greatness of His love and calls us to live like His children, as St. John says; we can read it in His first letter (3:1-10):

"See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure. Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness.But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin.No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him.

Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. The one who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous.The one who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work.No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God's seed remains in them; they cannot go on sinning, because they have been born of God.This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not God's child, nor is anyone who does not love their brother and sister".

If we really act as children of God, we do not imitate Cain but "give our lives for our brothers" (1 John 3:12-14). 

With an understanding love we are able to see the reasons of others and be tolerant of their shortcomings. If Christmas makes us understanding, it's a great Christmas. A merry Christmas is about learning to put ourselves in the shoes of others.