God has become
man. He has become a child. Thus he fulfills the great and mysterious promise to
be Emmanuel: God-with-us. Now he is no longer unreachable for anybody. God is
Emmanuel. By becoming a child, he offers us the possibility of being on
familiar terms with him.
I am reminded
here of a rabbinical tale recorded by Elie Wiesel. He tells of Jehel, a little
boy, who comes running into the room of his grandfather, the famous Rabbi
Baruch. Big tears are rolling down his cheeks. And he cries, “My friend has
totally given up on me. He is very unfair and very mean to me.” “Well, could
you explain this a little more?” asks the Master. “Okay”, responds the little
boy. “We were playing hide and seek. I was hiding so well that he could not find
me. But then he simply gave up and went home. Isn’t that mean?” The most
exciting hiding place has lost its excitement because the other stops playing.
The Master caresses the boy’s face. He himself now has tears in his eyes. And
he says, “Yes, this is not nice. But look, it is the same way with God. He is
in hiding, and we do not seek him. Just imagine! God is hiding, and we people
do not even look for him.” In this little story a Christian is able to find the
key to the ancient mystery of Christmas. God is in hiding. He waits for his
creation to set out toward him, he waits for a new and willing Yes to come
about, for love to arise as a new reality out of his creation. He waits for
man.
Joseph
Ratzinger/Benedict XVI: Unpublished homily, December 24,1980
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