Are you the one who is to come?

Fr. Livio Tonello, director

The evangelist Luke, like a film director, zooms in: from the overview of “the whole earth”, he narrows the lens on the Middle East (Syria), then on Palestine (Galilee and Judea), finally on Bethlehem, gathering among thousands of faces the features of a man and a woman, Joseph and Mary, as if to condense the Universal History in their small family history. One can sense the uneasiness of these young married couples because of their journey and the lack of intimacy in which they find themselves. The birth of the child takes place in precariousness: there were so many of those people in that “room” that Mary had to put the baby in the animal feeder. The static vigil of the shepherds contrasts with the hectic movement of the crowd; the imperial edict that resounds throughout the earth is answered by the song of the angels in heaven; the confusion of tongues present in Bethlehem is contrasted by the silent night of the countryside. We are perhaps only a few miles away from the small village of Judea, many miles instead from the great Rome... we are in another world, that of those who do not count for anything. The…