Happy New Year to all.

People have always sought an answer to their questions about the mysteries of the universe and have tried to give an identity, a face, to the only being who can give meaning to all that exists. By observing creation, they have discovered something of the mystery of God because creation speaks of him; one only has to know how to listen. As every work of art tells us something about its author, thus, astonished by the extraordinary grandeur and beauty of the universe, people have captured some trait of the beauty of the Creator’s power. Creation can tell us only this about God; it cannot tell us of his heart, his freedom, or the immensity of his love because nature has no heart; indeed, it does evil, not out of wickedness, but because it follows its laws.

There is, however, one creature who can reveal something of God’s heart; it is man, the only one among the beings we know who also cultivate thoughts and feelings of love. However, man is not only made of love but also hatred; he is made of goodness, misery, and violence; only when he loves does he reveal something of God, who is love, only infinite love. Love is the gold of which God is made; pure gold, there is no trace but love in God.

There is another step that humanity has taken in this search for God. In Israel, God also revealed himself through the prophets. Thus, progressively, a more transparent and more precise image of the face of the one true God emerged. Israel came to discover his love and presented it to humanity with images of God, who loves as a husband, father, and mother. Israel, too, however, let us remember, slowly emerged from the darkness of polytheistic paganism. It is not surprising, then, that for a long time, it continued to believe, like all other peoples, that God also ordered wars to take revenge on enemies, ordered to kill.

Thus, creation tells us something about God; man’s goodness can tell us something about God’s goodness. Something more we have come to know about Him through the prophets, but all this is not enough for us. People have always longed to see the face of God. The discovery of the name and the face are indispensable for establishing a loving relationship between two people. As long as one does not see the other face to face, love cannot flourish. Then, the sincere supplication that the prophets raise to heaven is here. We find these supplications in the Psalms. Psalm 27: “I seek your face, O Lord; do not hide your face.” Psalm 42: “When will I ever see the face of God.” Psalm 31: “Let your face shine upon your servant,

O Lord.” In Psalm 24, Israel is presented as “the generation that seeks your face, O God.”
This is the reason for our joy at Christmas. In Jesus of Nazareth, God came to show us how beautiful his face is. We believe in no other God than the God we see shining with love in Jesus of Nazareth. And this God began to reveal himself in a child; he did not present himself as an adult; he wanted us to contemplate him as a child because certain features of God’s identity can only be grasped by considering a child. A child needs affection; it cries if not caressed and kissed. This is our God: Take it or leave it. If you prefer the strong God who defeats enemies, that is another God, not the one we contemplated in Bethlehem. A child is only tenderness and love; there is no threat of violence in a child’s face. That is our God. Our God begins to reveal himself in this way, in a child.
Naturally, he does not tell us everything as a child, but when he grows up, he will never deny what he revealed as a child. Let us now listen to those who first beheld that face and how they experienced immense joy:

“As soon as the angels departed from them toward heaven, the shepherds said to one another, ‘Let us go, then, as far as Bethlehem; let us see this event which the Lord has made known to us.’ The shepherds went in haste to Bethlehem and found Mary and Joseph, and the infant lying in the manger.”

It is beautiful that the shepherds, consulting among themselves, said to each other what they had heard from the angel, the most unexpected announcement: ‘For you who are the outcasts of the religious institution, which keeps you impure, sinful, unclean, which told you that if you entered the temple, you would profane it’ and therefore expected to be incinerated by the encounter with the Lord. Instead, they hear from the angel that the Savior was born precisely for them. The shepherds seem incredulous; they ask themselves, ‘But how can God love us? We have always been told that he rejects us and that he wants nothing to do with us. Have we understood correctly? This is too good to be true.’

Even today, some experience this emotion that the shepherds experienced when surprised by the discovery of the true God. It happens, for example, when in the homily, one hears of God’s unconditional love for sinners; he hears that God will never punish his children, even those who have done everything wrong in life. One who hears these things wonders, but did I understand correctly? Is not the priest who speaks of God in this way heretical? Even to the shepherds, it must have seemed impossible that God had fallen in love with them. This is our God. This is why the shepherds encouraged one another and decided to set out for Bethlehem to verify it, to understand better this surprising newness of the God of love that had been announced to them; they set out in haste.

Let us note that their journey is not reduced to a material displacement from one place to another; no, this journey is the image of their spiritual journey. They are moving away from the image of God taught in them by the catechesis of the Pharisees, who had taught them that God is a lawgiver and strict judge and that he is the friend of the good and the executioner of the wicked. Now, they are walking towards the true God they will contemplate when arriving in Bethlehem.

We, too, are called to make a spiritual journey, especially today’s Christians, who are still anchored in archaic images of God, invented by people who have projected their miseries and desires for revenge on him and turned him into an executioner. This is not the God of Bethlehem. When the shepherds arrive at the cave, they realize what they had been told is true. They find Mary, the child, and Joseph, about whom the angel had not spoken in his announcement.

Joseph, as always, remains silent; in the Gospels, he never says a word; he is the guardian of the child who came into the world to reveal God’s beauty. What does Joseph’s silence teach us? Joseph, before the shepherds, was confronted with this new revelation of God; it was different from what he had learned in catechesis. This is the reason why he remains silent; he is in contemplation. Silence, reflection, and sincerity of heart are necessary to interiorize the manifestation of the true face of God.

And they see the child in the manger; they see nothing extraordinary. We would have expected something more, heavenly songs and flights of angels, but nothing marvelous. Everything was straightforward and very ordinary. If some prodigy had happened in front of that crib, we would have poorly started because Jesus, the Son of God, came to show us that he is one of us. This is our God. He is not the omnipotent God we might have imagined, but he needs everything. If you like the God who is always ready to demonstrate his power by performing miracles, you must look for this god among the pagan idols; this is not the God who reveals himself in Jesus of Nazareth. In Bethlehem, you do not see the rich, powerful, strong God; you see the poor, weak God; he does not instill fear, threaten anyone, or take revenge on his enemies. If you are looking for the touchy god who is angry with those who dare to transgress his commands, you are looking for an idol; it is the pagan god who does these things, not the God who begins to reveal himself in the child of Bethlehem.

Let us now listen to what the shepherds do when they come to the cave:

“When they saw this, they made known the message that had been told them about this child. All who heard it were amazed by what had been told them by the shepherds.”

Paintings usually depict the shepherds kneeling before the manger, but the Gospel does not say that they prostrated themselves in adoration, as the Magi did. Instead, they watched, gazing in rapt attention, contemplating the word of love revealed in that child.

Their first concern was not, ‘Now, what shall we do?’ They were well aware that they had led a less than exemplary life, were thieves, and notoriously violent, and yet they did not immediately think of doing penance for their sins. They were left contemplating the surprise of God’s unconditional and gratuitous love for people like them. Later, they will think about how to change their lives. Now, they stop to rejoice in what they have heard and seen of the true God. Only after feeling loved will they be able to listen to the proposal of new life that the true God makes.

You, too, should rejoice, even if you have made a mistake in life. Stop and rejoice if an angel has announced this unconditional love of God. If your heart is pure, you may hear a voice within you that says, ‘It is true; God is like this; it cannot be otherwise.’ That voice is the voice of the Spirit.

Then, the shepherds tell of their revelation, and the Gospel says that all those present were astonished and bewildered by this message from the shepherds. Everyone, including Mary and Joseph, were stunned. This leaves us a little perplexed. However, this is so because Mary and Joseph were a couple who were observant of the religious practices of their people.

They had assimilated from childhood the traditional catechesis that was offered to everyone. Mary and Joseph were pure people, not like the shepherds. They went to Jerusalem for the Passover every year. They could not help but be amazed at what the shepherds told them; they were surprised because if it is true what the shepherds told them, namely that God does not demand anything from the impure but loves them, the whole catechesis that Mary and Joseph also heard from the spiritual guides of their people collapses.

Mary and Joseph will also be astonished when Simeon, taking the child in his arms, proclaims that he is the light that will enlighten all peoples, the glory of Israel. Jesus’ father and mother were astonished at the things said about him, and later, Jesus remained in the temple without their knowledge upon seeing him. They will be surprised, and Jesus said, “Did you not know that I must be about my Father’s business?” And again, the evangelist points out, “They did not understand his words.”

Mary and Joseph embarked on a spiritual journey that all of us are called to. They started from a particular image of God that had been instilled in them. When they heard the new revelation of God’s face, they were ready to contemplate and welcome it because they were people of pure heart. If we, too, are not amazed, we have not understood this word of God’s love. Only the Gospel presents such a God, a God who surprises everyone.

We are well made; we are made to accept this truth. Humanity has always longed to hear this message of gratuitous love. The child of Bethlehem is the answer to our deepest longing to meet a God who loves us in this way. Let us now listen to Mary’s reaction:

“And Mary kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart. Then the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, just as it had been told to them.”

Everyone was astonished, including Mary, but she did not close herself to the revelation of God’s new face; she tried to understand it; she had a pure heart, open to the newness that the Lord revealed to her. What did she do? Luke tells us with a Greek expression that is full of meaning. I try to paraphrase it: Mary kept in her heart all the facts that involved her and all the words she heard and put them together, in order, in her heart: “συμβάλλουσα ἐν τῇ καρδίᾳ αὐτῆς – dumbalousa en te kardía autés.” It is as if, in his heart, he was composing a picture or putting together the tesserae to compose a mosaic; he was putting everything together, trying to grasp the common thread of God’s project that was being realized.

It also happens to us to see ourselves involved in events, in circumstances of which we do not immediately understand the meaning they may have, and we can then live distracted, interested in something else, or each event, we can try to grasp what may be the plan that the Lord wants us to participate in. Mary observed every event, meditated on it, reflected on it, and did not allow herself to be influenced by her convictions or traditions. Her heart was open to the light of God.

In her reflection, which I would call prayer, she always made herself available to accept the Lord’s will. Luke presents her in the right light as the first believer. Indeed, the first beatitude found in the Gospels is for her: “Blessed are you who believed,” Elizabeth says to her. Mary is our sister who, like us, has completed a journey of faith no different from ours. That is why we feel her close to us.

And the shepherds returned glorifying and praising God for all they had seen and heard. The shepherds return to where they were before, but they are not the same; they have changed. First, they consider themselves the outcasts, rejected now, and feel loved and

welcomed by God just as they are, and their joy is manifested in song. We have heard that when the angels departed to heaven, they sang “Glory to the Lord,” Now the shepherds go away singing the same hymn of thanksgiving to God. It is a love song because the shepherds have understood that the God they have encountered is loving. Let us now listen to the account of the rite by which Jesus is introduced to his people:

“When eight days were completed for his circumcision, he was named Jesus, the name given him by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.”

If we go down the street and need information, we go to the first person we meet. Still, we do not introduce ourselves by name or ask what his name is because ours is a fleeting, momentary, superficial encounter. Still, when we want to establish a relationship of love, when we are interested in a person, the first thing we want to know is his name: ‘What is your name? When can we meet again?’ The last part of today’s Gospel passage tells us about the circumcision of Jesus, but the focus is not on the rite of circumcision but precisely on the name given to the child on that occasion.

For the peoples of the Ancient Middle East, the name was not only a means to indicate people, distinguish the various animal species, and identify objects. The name was much more; it expressed the very nature of things and formed a unity with the person who bore it. And so, to know the name was to know one’s identity. Considering this cultural context, we can understand the importance that Luke gives to the name given to that child. Name that was not chosen by Joseph but was indicated by the angel; that name comes from heaven; it is the name with which God demonstrates that child’s identity to the son of Mary.

He will be called Jesus, Yeshua in Hebrew (ישע). It means the one who saves. That is the identity of God, the one who delivers from sin, as Matthew explains. Yeshua comes from the Hebrew root ‘Yasha,’ which appears 354 times in the Old Testament, and the subject is virtually always God or his mediator of salvation. Jesus is referred to as the one who came to save us, not to take us to heaven; he does that for sure, but he wants to save us here and now from what dehumanizes us. That is sin; he saves us from the attachment to money, from the will to impose ourselves, to dominate others, from moral corruption, from the violence that leads us to wars, and from lies; he wants to save us from all these behaviors that dehumanize us, that make us unrecognizable as persons.

It is interesting to note who Jesus is called by name in the Gospels. In Luke’s Gospel, it is not the saints, the righteous, the perfect, but those who have experienced what dehumanizes them and ask Jesus to be their Savior; it is those who are at the mercy of the forces of evil, the possessed… “What have we to do with you, Jesus the Nazarene? Jesus, you have come to ruin us”. Indeed. Demons are not the little devils with horns; they are those impulses that come from our biological nature, the earth, and the flesh, as Paul calls it. If we follow them, they dehumanize us. They are the ones that drive us to violence, to domination, to the accumulation of goods.

These are the demons from which the word of Jesus saves us. Jesus saves us with his Gospel. The lepers also turn to Jesus, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” The lepers are alive but unrecognizable as persons; they have lost their human semblance. This is the image of what sin does: it dehumanizes you and makes you unrecognizable as a person. The blind man of Jericho addresses Jesus, “Jesus, son of David.” He is someone who cannot see. Therefore, he does not know how to move through life; he seeks salvation. That is the reason he calls him by name, Jesus. Then, the last one who calls him by name is the criminal who dies next to him on the cross, “Jesus, remember me when you enter your kingdom.”

The Gospels repeat this name at least 566 times to remind us that images of God incompatible with this name—which means salvation and only salvation—must be erased. These images must be incompatible with the face of Jesus.

I wish you all a Happy New Year in the joy of the Lord.