And behold, when the fullness of time has come, the meeting between God and man takes place. With the mystery of the incarnation, God is no longer only with us through his word, his interventions to save us, to support us, to show us the path in times of danger, but he comes among us to remain with us, to be the «God-with-us».  

«Rejoice, full of grace: the Lord is with you» (Lk 1,28). In the angel's greeting to Mary everything is already said, because those words mean: «The Lord has chosen you, the Lord entrusts you with a great mission. Do not fear, because He is with you and fills you with his grace." 

And in Mary the Lord makes himself present to the point of being physically conceived, to enter history and become part of human generations. A medieval abbot, Elredo of Riévaulx, filled with amazement at this event, wrote: «Happy day, happy hour, happy time... Until now God was above us, but today he is Emmanuel. O Emmanuel! O God-with-us! What are you doing, children of Adam?  You could not ascend into heaven to be with God, and then God descended from heaven to be Emmanuel, to be God with us."

This is the infinite goodness and humility of the Lord our God: he deigned to descend to us, because we could not ascend to him; He humbled Himself so that we could rejoice in being with Him. 

What the prophet Isaiah had announced (see Is 7,14:1,18) becomes reality in the mystery of the Incarnation. In the Gospel according to Matthew the prophetic announcement is taken up again in the passage of the so-called "Annunciation to Joseph"; while he was considering in his heart the event that had happened to his betrothed, an angel appeared to him in a dream and said to him: «Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary, your bride, with you. In fact the child that is generated in her comes from the Holy Spirit; she will give birth to a son and you will call him Jesus... All this happened so that what was said through the prophet might be fulfilled: Behold, the virgin will conceive and give birth to a son: he will be called Immanuel, which means God with us" (Mt 23-XNUMX).

Joseph, as the father of the family, is given the task of giving the Child the name of Jesus, which means Savior; however the evangelist reiterates that he is also Emmanuel, God-with-us. The vocation of the new-born Child is well indicated; consequently the gift of grace that is offered to us through him is also clearly manifested: we receive the gift  of a new life, a life-with-Jesus. 

Very significantly, Saint Matthew will close his Gospel by repeating this Name, indeed, by having Jesus himself repeat it before his ascension into heaven: «And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the world» (Mt 28,20) .

Until the work of salvation is fully accomplished, Jesus is Emmanuel, God-with-us, a pilgrim with us on the paths of history towards the heavenly homeland, as he joined the disciples of Emmaus, sad and without hope after his Passion and death. 

Thanks to this presence of Emmanuel, we can live the time of our life as a mystery of communion with God, as we read in the Apocalypse:  

«Here: I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door for me, I will come to him and will sup with him, and he with me" (Rev 3,20:XNUMX).

But which door is it? It is the door to every human heart. The Word enters as a Guest into every heart open to welcome him. Then he is born in us, the Word becomes incarnate in us and a reciprocity is established which will have its fulfillment in the wedding of eternal life. The present life is all an eve. «God – said Pope Francis – always knocks at the door of our hearts. He likes doing this... But do you know what he likes most? Knocking on families' doors and finding families who are united, who love each other, who raise their children, educate them, bring them forward, and create a society based on truth, goodness and beauty." In this sense, earthly life is a journey of communion, a journey with God-with-us and with God-among-us.

In the mystery of Christmas, Jesus is born among us again; God descends, lowers himself, comes to become one of us. And this is because he loves us from eternity and for eternity. 

He is a humble God and loves to hide: with greater certainty we will be able to find him where no one spontaneously looks for him: in poor children like he was poor; in the many persecuted, as he was persecuted, in the exiles and refugees, as he was an exile and refugee, in the condemned, as he was condemned... And it will be joy to meet him, just as it is joy to discover him in our own hearts, when we listen to his Word or we feed on the Eucharist. To Him who asks us for consent to return to incarnate in our time, in these days, we answer without hesitation our yes in total and unconditional obedience of love.

Let us pray, then, to our Lord and Savior, giving voice to all our brothers, especially those who are most tried, who feel most alone and sad and are even tempted to take their own lives, because they no longer see that it is a precious gift; they no longer feel that they have the Lord close to them, who, indeed, is in their hearts.