With the Apostolic Letter Admirabile Signum, Pope Francis encourages us to realize, in every possible form, ”the beautiful family tradition of preparing the nativity scene in the days before Christmas, but also the custom of setting it up in the workplace, in schools, hospitals, prisons, and town squares”. The Pope also affirms that the nativity scene”shows God’s tender love”, which in Jesus”lowered himself to take up our littleness”.
Undoubtedly, the nativity scene can help to reflect and actualize, in daily reality, the event of the birth of the Child, in order to be able to meet him in “our brothers and sisters in greatest need”. But for this to be possible, it is important to know the meaning of the Gospel episode that the nativity scene is meant to represent, otherwise, there is the risk of reducing everything to just tradition or pure folklore. In fact, when sentiment prevails over meaning, there is the risk of considering Christmas as a legend or a beautiful fairy tale, such as that of Santa Claus, which certainly makes emotions vibrate for a few days, but little or nothing afflives in the life of men, and then, after Christmas, it goes away, like Christmas lights and decorations.
What truth do the evangelists intend to convey with the birth of Jesus which is celebrated with Christmas? The good news that they announce is that the plan, which God always had for humanity, even before the creation of the world, that every man could become his son, and thus have his own divine life (Eph 1:4-6), an indestructible, eternal life was historically realized in Jesus of Nazareth (“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us”, Jn 1:14) and, through him, unceasingly proposed to all: ”To those who did accept him he gave the power to become children of God” (Jn 1:12).
The Christmas presented by the evangelists is a reading or theological interpretation of the birth of Jesus in the light of his death and resurrection. For this reason, the tales of nativity and early childhood of Jesus are highly significant pages, rich in theological truths. To discover them, it is necessary to carry out a cleaning operation by removing those superstructures, even those beautiful ones, which have ended up suffocating and hiding the profound meaning of the Gospel narrative, drawing attention to non-existent or secondary details to the detriment of the truths transmitted. The most ancient evangelist, Mark, makes no mention of the birth of Jesus, and presents the already adult Christ, at the moment of the baptism in the Jordan River by John the Baptist (Mk 1,9-11), determined to begin his mission to present to men the true face of God, a Father who loves every creature. The most recent evangelist, John, offers a rich theological interpretation of the coming of the Son of God, without however giving any indication of its origins (Jn 1:14). Only Matthew and Luke narrate the birth of Christ, but their intention is not to describe in detail the chronicle of the,e day, month and year, completely unknown, in which a boy was born in Bethlehem, from Joseph and Mary to whom they name Jeshu’a, “The Lord saves” (the equivalent of “Savior”). In the evangelists, there is nothing of the rhetoric of the date, the twenty-fifth of December, of the cold and frost, of the very mystical hour (midnight), of Joseph’s distressing and desperate search for a place to give birth to his wife, now close to giving birth to Jesus, of the birth of the child in a cave or stable, of the presence of the donkey and the ox, of the comet, of three kings who came to adore the Child…
Neither Matthew nor Luke reveal when Jesus was born. If Luke’s indication of the shepherds who”keeping the night watch over their flock” (Lk 2:8), has some possible true historical reference. But around Bethlehem, on the edge of the desert, almost eight hundred meters above sea level, this is only possible in the summer months, as in winter it is too cold to spend the night in the open. And according to Matthew, the child was born in a house, without the presence of any animal (Mt 2:11).
What the evangelists intend to instill is that, with Jesus, ”the true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world” (Jn 1,9), but just those who lived in darkness realized it. The Savior’s birth was received only by those who felt the need for salvation. In Luke they are the shepherds (“A savior has been born for you”, Lk 2:11) considered to belong to the most despised and marginalized categories, and in Matthew, they are the magi (Mt 2:1-12), abominable people not only because they are pagan, but also because they were engaged in an activity strictly forbidden by the Bible (Lv 19:26; Acts 8:9-24) and forbidden to the Jews: ”Whoever learns something from a magician deserves death” (Shab. b. 75a). The good news of Christmas is for them. God, in Jesus manifests himself as a Lord who is not good, but exclusively good, a Father who loves his children not because they deserve it, but because he is good. The love of the Father is not granted as a reward for the deserving, but as a gift for the needy. The God who manifests himself in Jesus is like the doctor who did not come for the healthy but for the sick, not for the righteous but sinners (Mt 9:13). He is a God who, in Jesus, ”will not break a bruised reed”, who does not quench ”a smoldering flame” (Mt 12:20), who does not cut down and throw into the fire the tree that does not bear good fruit (Mt 3:10), but he tries to revive it, hoeing around the roots and fertilizing to give it life (Lk 13:8).
The good news of Christmas is that God is not on the side of the powerful: he has come to overthrow them from their thrones. He is not on the side of the rich: he sends them back empty-handed. He has come to lift the humiliated and fill the hungry with good things (Lk 1:52-53), because”God chose the weak of the world to shame the strong and God chose the lowly and despised of the world, those who count for nothing … (1 Cor 1:28), and like a stone, that men reject because they evaluate that it does not fit into the building, whereas God uses that one as the most important one (Mt 21:42). For this reason, in the Gospel of John, the Samaritans, the people despised by the Jews, and considered a bastard race (2 Kings 17.6.24): they were treated worse than the pagans, and were considered enemies of God, those who will recognize and welcome Jesus, as ”the savior of the world” (Jn 4:42).