Give me back my Christmas, you have "taken it away".Bishop Enrique Benavent: "In many localities of Valencia there is still a long task of reconstruction ahead".Who does Christmas bother?The video of the Catholic University of Valencia has surpassed 250,000 views across all platforms, becoming one of the best Christmas greetings. In a year marked by the natural disaster in Valencia, this greeting has managed to capture the deepest essence of Christmas: the incarnation of the Word in the heart of the world, even in the midst of mud.
The idea for the video came from a commission from Carola Minguet, director of communications at the university, to Lucía Garijo, who directs the Visible Thought Laboratory, dedicated to exploring audiovisual formulas for communicating Christian anthropology: "I never imagined it would get this far," says Lucía, thrilled by the public's response. "I think the video touches on something universal: we all have moments of mud in our lives, and seeing how God enters that mud gives hope."
The DANA and Christmas
The video combines images of flooded streets and people covered in mud cleaning up the ravages of the storm. The narration, in a slow voice, recalls the mystery of the Incarnation, for "the Word became flesh and dwelt among us". In a poetic twist, it shows how God became mud, to be with those who walk in the mud of life.
Through everyday scenes of solidarity, the ad shows how the simplest and most fragile thing can become a sign of redemption. The music accompanies the transformation of the clay: from a symbol of disaster to the raw material of a handcrafted manger. God is not afraid of clay, because in it he sees the possibility of creating something new. This Christmas, the Word continues to become incarnate in our lives.
The gestation of the video
The making of the video was not only a professional matter for Lucia, but a deeply personal one, as she lost her grandmother in the flood. "It was very hard. At first, I got sick from the emotional impact, but then I decided to go out and help with the cleanup. I needed to do something for others.
A key moment in the creative process occurred when he returned home after a muddy day helping those affected by the DANA: his mother, a ceramist, was working on a clay nativity scene. "That image marked me. In the midst of the chaos, I saw how mud could be transformed into something full of life and hope." Prompted by this experience, Lucia began researching the symbolism of clay in the Bible and theology.
Shortly after, he received the assignment for the Christmas video. In his search for inspiration, he came across the article "A God who gets muddy," by Professor Leopoldo Quílez, from the Faculty of Theology at his university. "Reading it was a revelation. It helped me connect the fragility of mud with the scandal of Christ's birth in a stable." She is also grateful for the transfer of the images of the video "Young people parade into the mud", produced by the production company Ongaku for Opus Dei.
We all have an inner DANA
Reflecting on the result, Lucia explains that this year she has understood Christmas in a new way: "Our faith is a scandal. It is accepting defenselessness, fragility, the fact that God chose to be born in a muddy stable in order to become incarnate and save us." In his opinion, the mud becomes a universal symbol of human suffering: "We all have a DANA in our lives, a pain close to us. But when you find the face of God, you can cope with it. This is the main learning I have had since the tragic flood occurred".
In a time when hope seems scarce, this work is a reminder that true light shines even in the muddiest of places. Christmas, after all, is nothing more than that: the certainty that God draws near, not to the perfect world, but to our lives as they are, with their mud and their beauty. This video is a good framework to introduce us to the Jubilee which begins next week and has the theme of Hope.
