The Christian holidays
by ENZO BIANCHI
The beginning of a man’s life on earth: perhaps just for this extreme simplicity the message of Christmas is so universal

  

Christmas 

The event that Christians celebrate at Christmas is not an “apparition” of God among men, but the birth of a child that only God could give to humanity, one “born of a woman” who, however, came from God and was to be narration and explanation of God. The birth of him who is Lord and God must not be taken metaphorically, but in all its real, historic sense, which the Gospel emphasizes as “sign”. In fact, three times in the account of Jesus’ birth the evangelist Luke repeats in the same words the image that should be looked at without distraction: “a child wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger” (Lk 2:7.12.16)! yes, there is also the light that shines and wraps the shepherds around, there is the divine glory that strikes fear, there is the choir of angels that sings peace for men beloved of God, but all this is only the frame that places in relief the picture and seeks to uncover for us the meaning of what it contains.

The sign that the pastors receive from the announcement of angels is of an extreme simplicity, a poor sign, a sign belonging to poor humanity: a child is born, but in the poverty of a stable, a child is born, the child of a poor couple, child is born, to whom hospitality has been denied. This is all the sign of Christmas! And yet, the child is proclaimed Messiah: The Savior and Lord is a poor child, the son of the poor, born in poverty.

If Christians in their faith were not to maintain alive the link between the child and the Lord, between poverty and glory, they would not understand the truth of Christmas. Unfortunately, Christians are always tempted to hide the child’s naked poverty and would like his glory to be in power and in success, but the authentic image of Christmas disavows these desires of theirs.