2_A gradual revelation
Let us resume our journey towards Christmas. We have listened to the dialogue within the Trinity: God has always wanted to be with us, but his revelation takes place gradually, little by little, like the advancing morning light, like the pathway towards a goal, like a door that opens; the revelation is prepared over the centuries.
All of Sacred Scripture, in that part that we call the Old Testament, but also the non-sacred stories, which are the human events of every place and time, recount a gradual but living manifestation of God.
In the context of the approach of God's revelation to humanity, Abraham is the one who perceives the profound mystery of God; of a God who is close to him and to his family, whom he educates in faith. With Abraham, God establishes a Covenant and makes a Promise. The Prophets would keep faith in the divine Revelation, especially in the most difficult moments and in those of great temptation: the Covenant and the Promise, which appeared at times as distant, vague, uncertain - and the initial protagonists themselves, distant, are always reawakened with encouraging words and signs.
God thus spoke in many and varied ways, to the people of Israel and to the multitudes, and they had some experience of the presence of God, they perceived its beauty in the depths of their hearts, but also in nature and in many concrete events; the relationship between God and the chosen people was unique, challenging, demanding; at times the feelings resembled jealousy.
Years, centuries of the gradual revelation of God, made up of words, of worship, of events refined in the heart of the Chosen People.
Then, as we sing in the "Kalenda" from the ancient liturgy of the Churches on Christmas Eve, after the time of Abraham, father in faith, of Moses, liberator of the chosen people from slavery of Egypt, of David the king leader of Israel, in the one hundred and ninety-fourth Olympiad; in the forty-second year of the reign of Caesar Octavian Augustus, the whole world being at peace, Jesus Christ, eternal God and Son of the eternal Father, desiring to consecrate the world by his most loving presence, was conceived by the Holy Spirit, and when nine months had passed since his conception, was born of the Virgin Mary in Bethlehem of Judah, and was made man.
It is the Christmas of our Lord Jesus Christ according to human nature, which we are about to celebrate.
Fernando Cardinal Filoni
(December 2021)