Fr. David Convertino, OFM
Executive Director of Development
May the Lord give you peace,
As we begin a New Year, I am returning to a question that has always been in my heart and mind— Why did God become human? Why did Jesus become one of us?
Most of us learned this answer early in life:Jesus became human because Adam & Eve sinned. God stepped into the world to fix what we had broken.
But the Franciscan tradition proclaims an even deeper truth:
God became human not simply because humanity fell… but because God loved us so much that God deeply desired to be one of us, to be part us, intertwined with us.
Before sin. Before failure. Before fear. Love came first.
The Incarnation was not a rescue mission alone. It was a love story written into the very core of creation.
Franciscans believe that God did not look at the world and say, “Something went wrong—I must intervene.”
Francis believed God looked at the world and said, “I love this Creation so deeply that I want to enter into it.”
God did not remain distant.
God did not remain above.
God chose to be with us… in fragile flesh, in ordinary days, in human joy and human sorrow.
This means something very important for the way we begin this New Year:
You are not loved because you are perfect.
You are not loved because you “got it right.”
You are not loved because you earned it.
You are loved because God chose you before you ever chose God.
The manger was not God’s emergency solution.
It was God’s deepest desire.
This Franciscan belief may change some of our basic thoughts about ourselves:
It tells us that:
- Our humanity is not a problem to be solved
- Our bodies are not obstacles to holiness
- Our ordinary lives are not beneath God
Our ordinary lives are exactly where God wants to live.
As we enter this New Year, so many people are focused on fixing what is wrong with them.
But the Gospel—through Franciscan eyes—invites us to begin with a different question:
What if God is already loves you and your gifts?
What if God is already happy to be with you?
Where do you go from there?
The New Year does not begin with God waiting for us to improve. Let’s start with the good and the positive and then go from there. Believe how good and holy you are, since each of us is made in the image and likeness of God.
The New Year begins with God already present in your life and asking God to continue to grow what is good in you and transform your life to more closely mirror God’s message of love.
And that is the heart of the Franciscan Way:
To live as people who believe that God is not far away, not disappointed, not withholding love—but already here. Already among us. Already choosing us again and again, sometimes even when we don’t want God in our lives, He never gives up on us.
May this New Year open for you not as a season of pressure, but as a season of presence.
Not as a demand to become someone else, but as an invitation to discover how deeply you are already loved unconditionally by our God.
May the God who chose to become human continue to walk with you—
in your ordinary days,
in your pain and struggles,
in your quiet prayers and joyful noises,
and in all the places where love still longs to be born.
Many Blessings,
Fr. David, OFM