The mystery of the Incarnation, "the
truth that we express with Christmas", indicates that God, in order to
open the road to full communion with him "does not limit himself to
words", but freely "gave himself : "is the mystery to ponder" to let the
Lord enlighten us and transform us more and more to the image of his
Son made man for us. "
Once again the "great mystery" of the
"eternal and infinite God who is immersed in the finite human to bring
man to him" was the focus of in catechesis Benedict XVI's general
audience in catechesis, with the emphasis on the "generosity" and love
expressed in self-giving.
Sometimes, the Pope observed, faced with magnitude of the event we
are more attentive to the external aspects of the festivity, the
"colours" of the feast, than "what is at the heart of the great novelty
that Christians celebrate, something absolutely unthinkable, that only
God could operate and we can only enter with faith. The Logos which is with God, the Logos
who is God (cf. Jn 1:1), through which they were created all things
were created (cf. 1.3), which accompanied mankind with his light
throughout history (cf. 1 0.4 to 5, 1.9), became flesh and made his
dwelling place among us, became one of us". " The Son of God ... worked
with human hands, He thought with a human mind, acted by human choice
and loved with a human heart".
"It is important therefore, that we recover our wonder before this
mystery, allow ourselves to be enveloped by the magnitude of this event:
God walked our streets as man, he entered into the time of man, to
communicate His life to us. And He did this not with the splendour of a
sovereign, who subjugates the world with his power, but with the
humility of a child ".
At Christmas, the Pope noted, we usually
exchange gifts with the people closest to us. "Sometimes it may be an
act done out of convention, but it generally expresses affection; it is a
sign of love and esteem. In the prayer over the gifts at Christmas Mass
we prayed: "Accept, O Lord, our offering in this night of light, and
for this mysterious exchange of gifts transform us in Christ, your Son,
who raised man next to you in glory". The idea of giving is at the heart
of the liturgy and brings to our consciousness the original gift of
Christmas: on that Holy night God, becoming flesh, wanted to become a
gift for men, He gave a little of himself to us, took on our humanity to
gift us His divinity. This is the great gift. Even in our giving is not
important whether a gift is expensive or not; those who cannot afford
to give a little of themselves, always give too little, indeed,
sometimes they try to replace the heart and the meaning of giving with
money or material things. The mystery of the Incarnation shows us that
God did not do this: He did not give something; He gave himself in His
only-begotten Son. Here we find the model for our giving, so that our
relationships, especially the most important ones, are driven by
generosity and love".
"The fact of the Incarnation, of God becoming a man like us, shows us
the unprecedented realism of Divine love. The action of God, in fact,
is not limited to words, indeed we might say that he is not content to
speak, but is immersed in our history and takes on fatigue and weight of
human life ".
"This mode of action of God is a powerful stimulus to question the
realism of our faith, which should not be limited to the sphere of
feelings and emotions, but must enter into concrete existence, that is
to touch our lives every day and direct them in a practical way. God did
not stop at words, but He showed us how to live, sharing our own
experience, except sin".