The people were waiting. Poor people, it is truly child’s play to delude them into thinking that something or someone is capable of filling the void that every person carries inside. For by waiting, you become satisfied, you convince yourself that even the Baptist could be enough, just to stop this torture that wears us… Read more »
The Magi realized that two lives needed, or perhaps a hundred or a thousand, and that they will never be enough. Because if we look for a king when we have the entire Universe at our disposal, it is only out of fear of being disillusioned, of being nothing more than a transitory form of… Read more »
Christmas is walking in the night but wrapped in light, a light that does not come from the sanctity of perfection but from the profound humanity of the shepherds. They are outside the realm of power, they live outside the lights of Jerusalem, they are nocturnal beings, often haunted by mistakes or due to feelings… Read more »
What the Messiah wants to do, what the Son of God wants to accomplish, is to immerse himself in humanity. People’s judgments are very forceful against a God who does this without fear of being “contaminated.” The Son of God immerses himself in the homes of sinners, in the exploited days of prostitutes. He is… Read more »
Simeon, this child is just like any other child. Why do you hasten to him? Why are tears of astonishment streaming from your faded eyes? What do you see in him? How are you able to recognize him when he hasn’t done anything yet? Holding the child in his arms, Simeon addresses the Most High… Read more »
Christmas speaks to us about a God who chooses the hard way by calling a person to be a person. That’s what Christmas is: an invitation to be born again, to be wrapped in swaddling clothes. But it will be a rebirth for each of us only if we learn to take upon ourselves the… Read more »
Jesus does not need the baptism John is administering, but he goes to the banks of the Jordan anyway, where people’s sins are being removed like clots dissolved in running water; where sinners overcome their fear of revealing themselves for what they are: persons who need to rediscover their humanity. So Jesus joins the line …
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God is born in Bethlehem–even the stars indicate this. The Gospel seems to suggest that simply doing one’s job with commitment is enough to begin the journey of drawing closer to Jesus. Even though the Magi take a wrong road as they travel, it turns out to be the right road because through this…
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The shepherds set out for Bethlehem without delay. We admire and envy them because their haste is behavior typical of young people or idealists. It is typical of free people–those who have nothing to lose and everything to gain. To set forth without delay has nostalgic overtones: it harks back to a time when…
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While the authority figure of the time manifests his obsession with power by attempting to count the earth’s population, God is born. While people are forced to migrate because of an absurd census, God simply is born. He is only an infant, but he is there, at the heart of every story. He is at…
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