It is Christmas Eve. The figurines of the Magi come to life as they are taken out of their dusty box and placed on the way to Portal where Joseph, the Virgin and the Child are, in the warmth of the mule and the ox. In the distance, the shepherds guard the flocks at night, when the angel announces the good news: "Today in the city of David is born to you the Savior, who is Christ, the Lord".

The children are happy to put up the Nativity Scene because the vacations are here, but can we grown-ups just join their party? We are in a deep crisis. There is no work. It seems that it is difficult to look to the future with hope.

The portal, the houses and the figures of the Nativity invite us to look at the past, but also to reflect on the present.

What was the real Bethlehem like, the one where Jesus was born? At the beginning of the first century, Bethlehem was little more than four houses. Its inhabitants lived on agriculture and livestock. It had good grain fields. In addition, in the regions bordering the desert, flocks of sheep grazed. The unmistakable silhouette of the Herodium, a palace-fortress that Herod had built not far from there, can still be seen on the horizon.

The life of ordinary people was not easier, more comfortable or safer in those years than it is today. Herod was a sinister and unscrupulous character who found himself in power without having the merits to rule. He was not Jewish but Idumean, but with his intrigues in Rome he achieved enough support to get the Romans to recognize him as king and make effective his command from the year 37 BC. He has gone down in history as the cruel king who did not hesitate to set himself up as lord of the life and death of his subjects, whether they were children or the elderly.

The common people of Bethlehem were able to experience the extent to which the lust for power can blind: in order to eliminate Christ - a defenseless, newborn child - whom they saw as a possible competitor to their kingship, they ordered the extermination of the most innocent, the children born in that town during the last few years.

After two millennia there are things that have changed little. There is no lack of those who, like Herod, regardless of their political options, rightly or wrongly, despise the value of human life, especially in its weakest moments: when it has just been conceived or when it declines; or are determined to remove from the scene those whom they see as ideological competitors.

On the other hand, Jesus, that weak and defenseless child, is God. He is alive. He was not born to seek conflict with Roman power or with the tyranny of those who believed themselves to be infallible interpreters of the Law, but he did not shrink from error, the power of evil or injustice. He brought the truth, the good, the light and the peace that the world needs. He came to free all men and women from all tyrannies. He offered his life also for his persecutors and for those who hated him, so that they too could attain salvation. So that they could have a happy and lasting life.

That is why this Christmas Eve is a good time to speak joyfully of so many good things: what a great thing the family is, how beautiful the smile of a child, how tender the affectionate gaze of a sick grandparent who is barely babbling. The Child of Bethlehem invites us to look to the future with realism and hope, even in times of crisis.