BUON NATALE E LIETO 2011 A TUTTI VOI
In those days a decree from Caesar Augustus that a census should be of the whole earth. This was the first enrollment made when Quirinius was governor of Syria. All went to be census, each in their own city. Even Joseph, from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth, he went up to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he belonged to the house and family of David. Census was to be with Mary, his betrothed, who was pregnant. While they were there, the time came for her to childbirth. She gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the apartment.
There were some shepherds in that region stay open, watched all night keeping guard over their flock. An angel of the Lord appeared to them and the glory of the Lord shone around them. They were terrified, but the angel said unto them, Fear not: behold, I announce with great joy, which shall be to all people: in the city of David, is born for you a Savior, who is Christ Lord. This sign for you: you will find an infant wrapped in swaddling clothes lying in a manger. "And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying
" Glory to God in the highest, and on
earth peace to men, whom he loves. "
When the angels went away from them towards heaven, the shepherds said to one another:" So let us go to Bethlehem and see this event which the Lord has given us. "They went, without delay, and found Mary and Joseph and the Babe lying in the manger. When they saw, told what the child was been told. All those who heard it wondered at those things from their pastors. Maria, meanwhile, kept all these things and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as they were told.
The census aims to count the subjects of the empire (for military and tax), is opposed to God's people, the people of the saints known only to God and that no size historical, religious or secular, may be mistress. The people of the redeemed in Revelation is described as a "multitude that no man could number" (Rev. 7.9) and the census of the people of God ordained by David in the Old Testament is condemned by God (cf. 2 Sam 24; 1Chr 21). The strength of the church is not in the number of his followers, who say the numbers exhibited strength and prestige, nor the church is called to take sides between the active and powerful forces in public space by putting in the balance "numbers" that can boast of. And not just because the standardization implicit in the reduction of the person number is always dangerous, but also because only God knows the human heart and searches the man's faith, which inhabits a dimension of mystery which can not be violated.
Upon Jesus is born among the marginalized, including the "lives of waste," including those that are of interest and do not count. And it occurs to him the light of divine glory, but the shepherds (cf. Lk 2:9): They need it to recognize the presence of God in poverty and weakness of human flesh. And with them, but we need it.
Luciano Manicardi
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