What is a fortune-teller doing in the Nativity scene? Certainly, she is an uncomfortable presence: not so much because of her ethnic background, but because of the apparent distance between Christianity and what might instead be an almost superstitious or, in any case, clairvoyant kind of religiosity.
In reality, we carry within us all the characters present in the Nativity scene; there is a bit of each of us in every one of these characters, and there is something of us in the fortune-teller too.
Over time, people have woven a very interesting story around this character. It is said that her name is Stefania, that she is a young woman who lives by her wits and reads palms. When she learns of Jesus’ birth, she too wants to go there. There is something very true in this invented story: the mystery of Christ is a fascinating mystery; no one can remain indifferent to his birth.
However, she has a problem: she cannot enter that cave because, as a rule, only married women and mothers may enter. She takes a stone, covers it with a blanket, holds it to her chest, and with this deception manages to enter the cave and contemplate Jesus. At that point, however, a miracle occurs: in reality, she is no longer simply holding a stone wrapped in blankets, but that stone has become a child, whom she will name Stephen and who will be, as tradition teaches, the first martyr.
The presence of this woman, therefore, represents precisely the desire to manage life, foresee it, and control it: it is an illness that we all carry within us.
In reality, she too is on a journey; she too must meet Jesus and understand that, ultimately, it does not matter if we are afflicted by this need for control: we do it because we are afraid, not because we are bad; we do it because we have suffered, because we are weak.
Perhaps, faced with all this, we should think that for us Christmas happens when we can afford to lose control, to place ourselves at the mercy of events even when those events are full of unexpected turns and when we do not actually know what they hold in store for our lives. And we can afford to do all this because even if we do not know what will happen tomorrow, we already know the name of our destiny: the name of our destiny is Jesus Christ.
You can read the entire meditation, together with those about the other Nativity scene characters, and prepare for Holy Christmas with them in the book: Novena for Christmas.
