You wanted to choose simple people: they were shepherds (Lk 2:8-20). You, Beloved Child, love simplicity. You can enter more easily into a simple heart.
And You also make us simple. It is not necessary to know everything at once. It is more important to let Your love burn in us and to hasten like shepherds to pass on the Good News.
“Glory sing the cherubs in the fields of Bethlehem…”
You are not only the joy of Israel and of all mankind; you are also the joy of the angels, our friends in heaven.
How you must have rejoiced, beloved angels, when you recognised in God’s light His immense Wisdom in choosing this way of salvation!
Now you are here, Divine Child!
What moved You to come to us, to such a hostile world?
The reason can only lie in Your immeasurable love for our Heavenly Father, and in Your infinite love for us men.
Who can understand it?
“A child will be born to us; they will call him ‘Mighty God’” (cf. Is 9:5).
“In him all the nations of the earth will be blessed” (cf. Gen 22:18).
In reality, even without knowing it, all men await Him,
because we have been created for Him.
In reality, even without knowing it, all men seek Him,
“Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.” (Jas 4:8)
In all true love, we seek to be close to the person we love. God, for His part, constantly fills us with His presence and nearness; He seeks man and wants to be with him. But it is also necessary for man to seek God’s nearness, to open his heart to Him, and to long to be with Him. Then he will increasingly perceive the closeness of his beloved Father, who can reveal Himself to an open heart.
“I always guide you along the best path, the one that benefits you most” (Inner Word).
If we have consciously surrendered our lives to our heavenly Father, if we strive daily to follow His Son and pursue holiness, we need not worry about the next stage of the journey. We must simply walk it attentively each day, with the certainty that God will always choose the most suitable path for us in every area of our lives—the one that benefits us most.
With the Child of Bethlehem, a new era begins: the hour of grace.
Everyone is called, everyone is invited to welcome it.
God makes it easy for us to come to Him.
The tenderness of the Child proclaims: “Do not be afraid! I am here!”
So, why should I continue to be afraid?
The Heavenly Father sends His Son and tells us:
“I am so close to you…”
“Be like a well that first collects water within itself and then pours it out in abundance” (St. Bernard).
In today’s quote, St. Bernard emphasizes that we must walk the path of holiness ourselves, which produces abundant fruit when His grace can act powerfully in us. All teachers of the spiritual life will affirm this. In fact, it is entirely logical, “for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks” (Lk 6:45).
What is the Lord trying to tell us by choosing not to be born in a royal palace, surrounded by material riches, but in a poor grotto in Bethlehem?
The words of Jesus come to mind: “My kingdom is not of this world” (Jn 18:36).
The first to receive the Good News proclaimed by the angels were simple shepherds (cf. Lk 2:8–14).
It is a different kingdom from the kingdoms of this world that Satan offered Jesus (cf. Mt 4:8–9).
No one is excluded from this Kingdom; all that is required is to accept the message of faith.
It is not the Kingdom of the rich or the learned; it is not the Kingdom of the rulers of this world; it is not a Kingdom of vanities and human honors.
