The baby cries in a weak voice, like the human newborn puppies. Half-closed eyes, the tiny hands clenched in a fist, his face wrinkled all'acerbo supports the mother's womb. For a moment, opens his eyes, like to be reassured, then falls back asleep. The mother, inexperienced, draws on his little finger in a cup of clay and gave it rests on the small lips that open up and get wet goat's milk. Maria adjusts the blanket that protects the baby's naked body from the cold of the desert that borders the homes of Bethlehem. Smiles, Mary, Joseph and watch, sitting on straw Exhausted from the long journey and the emotions of the last hours. Here God, here is the man helpless huge, mighty fragile, weak choice. Arouses tenderness, you want to pick it up, to pet it. hills around Bethlehem, the shepherds, the bastards of God, the losers, the men without dignity, without future, without hope, trying to warm up the chilly night of Judea. In their hearts, anger, resignation, disillusionment, as are the feelings of those who have spent all our energy to survive. End of a day like as the previous, same as the future, no escape, no respite, no light.
But then an angel appears to them. "Go and see - he says - you will see a sign a manger. For you, not for others, the Saviour is born. Just for you who do not even know what that is, salvation. "
God is great: a manger! The sign gives the angel to the shepherds is what they know best. Not things unattainable, impractical and elitist: they can meet God with exactly what they are, with what they know. It is God who became their meeting, without preconditions. And they go, and see, and understand. They explain experienced by birth to the girl and her boyfriend the announcement of the angels.
Maria smiles weakly, Joseph does not know what to think. What a wonderful story!.
God is born in a foreign country, in desperate conditions and only ones who realize it are the poorest, those who eat only once a day, a little bread and many hardships.
returned with joy to their alienating work, pastors, and no good end: the smell of sheep and goats is always the same, the cold is always sharp as before.
Only their hearts are changed.
God became man.
Here is God, that you expect it. Here God, you who do not feel the need. Here God, practitioners of the sacred. Here it is, unexpected, unsettling, stun, crazy. Here
God, brothers, is a baby with his fists closed and the skin is red, sore eyes that bear the light and the little mouth that looks for the immature breast.
is God brothers: a child is helpless, fragile, which is heated and washed, changed and bathed, and is held in contact with the rough skin of his father, Joseph, who is leaving the emotion moisten the eyes and then go back to the reality of a difficult situation. Here
God, brethren: do not give, ask, do not have delusions of omnipotence, he stripped the clothes of royalty, has placed them at the foot of our restless humanity, not the angels, but a generous and inexperienced girl takes care of him. Here
God, brothers: a birth unknown among the tens of thousands of parts intended for children abandoned to misery and death. God is this: give or take, accept or reject, or worse, mystified, as too often we are able to do ourselves, distorting the harsh reality of Christmas, the disarming fragility of God and his madness of love with our worldly without frenzy of emotions gooders (the same old and increasingly consumed), forgetting completely the faith.
's God: a God who promises to those who deserve it, those who do not pray, who curses his life three times a day. A God who makes himself known by the signs daily, which is nestled in the little things. A God who changes your life even if that remains the same, it assumes a different light. Here
God, disciples of the Nazarene, who still do not tire of being a Christian and to follow him and ask him. Here is God, not as we would like.
a God child, that does not solve problems but creates, demanding acceptance.
A God who does not punish the wicked but that the evil sought to be killed.
A God who speaks to us poor, we lose, we worried, He was the first poor loser, restless for love.
If God is so mean that he loves humanity to the point of becoming a man.
If God is so mean that God is accessible and reasonable, kind and merciful, it means that the idea of \u200b\u200ba God powerful enough to hold off, that becomes his own business, the supreme selfish enough in itself, is false and pagan because God loves to be loved before.
If God is so mean that he needs us, as needed of a mother and a father.
means that I can know God and serve him in every beat in every poor person in any abandoned, that the fragility of men is the place God wants to live, that, if I live this Christmas with a heavy heart, then it is exactly the my party, because God dwells too stable in my life.
I would hug you one by one, fellow travelers. Hundreds of faces, stories, messages, smiles and tears and received as a precious gift of hope during my pilgrimage this year. I would hug you one by one, telling you the hope that still fills my heart fearful and my weak faith. I want to show how gracefully, how much joy, what peace God continue to create. A special greeting to one and all. Merry Christmas. Amen.
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