“Do not be afraid: for behold, I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all the people: today, in the city of David, a Savior has been born for you, who is Christ the Lord” (Lk 2:10-11).
Today is a feast day, it is great joy, because Jesus is born: let us allow him to be born in our lives, in our families, among our friends and in our workplaces… Let us allow him to be born, and it will truly be great joy.
Let us meditate on this mystery of great joy with Father Andrea Vena.
From the Gospel according to Luke 2:1, 4a, 6-7
In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that the whole world should be enrolled. Joseph too went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David that is called Bethlehem. While they were there, the time came for her to have her child, and she gave birth to her firstborn son. She wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.
Making room for the coming Jesus
“There was no room for them in the inn.” With these words, the Gospel text concludes […]. Words that echo the text of John: “He came to what was his own, but his own people did not accept him” (Jn 1:11). For the One who created everything (Col 1:16), there is no room […].
From his birth, therefore, Jesus finds no room, is rejected and cast out. And if we want to meet him, we must necessarily enter through the back door! It is starting with the least and the rejected that we encounter God, because he acts according to the only logic he knows: love.
Learning to accept the “here and now”
Joseph and Mary are in Nazareth, but Caesar Augustus has ordered a census: it is an operation intended to assess the population and calculate taxes. Joseph and Mary are forced to travel, since Joseph is originally from Bethlehem, the city of David (Mi 5:1). Yet within this “obligation” there is a plan; in this forced journey dictated by human calculations, God is nevertheless guiding history, because while the powerful of the world are devising their schemes and regarding people as “numbers,” God is revolutionizing human history through two ordinary people. Joseph and Mary thus arrive at the right place, where Jesus was to be born. We can therefore ask God […] to learn to accept the “here and now” of where we find ourselves, certain that, beyond human schemes and the obedience that life demands of us, history is nevertheless guided by the providential hand of God.
Jesus continues to become part of history
It is up to us to let ourselves be continually amazed by the great things God accomplishes: it is not because there are clouds that the sun is absent; it is simply hidden. Likewise, it is not because we do not feel God's presence in our lives that God is absent or that the fruits he promised are not there: we need only open our eyes and hearts wide!
[…] Just as God became man in Jesus, so he continues to become part of history, to become an event in every moment of my life; not according to my expectations, however, but according to his plans. Am I able to contemplate the Child of Bethlehem so that I can then recognize his presence in the little things of everyday life? Am I able to leave the “palaces of the world” as the Magi did? They first undertake an outward journey and then, upon reaching Jerusalem, are forced to change their point of view and begin an inward journey that changes their lives, because the king they had imagined was very different (Mt 2:11). Do I therefore know how to leave behind my positions and roles, accepting in obedience to set out again in the style of the Child of Bethlehem? Do I know how to cultivate this inner freedom?
This text is taken from the book by Father Andrea Vena, Looking at Jesus through Mary's Eyes, one of our latest publications.
A peaceful and holy Christmas to everyone and to each one of you,
Shalom Publishing House
