But in the midst of this indifferent majority, the scrutinizing eye of sociologists is always identifying the smaller but growing group of those who are called "different believers". Since consciously thinking about Nothingness can be disturbing, it seems that the number of those who "believe in an impersonal god who dominates people's daily existence" is increasing. They are the ones who form their own image of God, to respond in some way to the "instance of interiority".
Reading about this “sociological discovery” in the newspapers, a beautiful speech by Saint Bernard spontaneously came to mind (From the water supply, Opera omnia, edit. Cisterc. 5) from which we draw some quotations and some ideas.
The holy abbot first of all warns against rejoicing in the results of such religiosity or interiority. He recalls in fact that God dwells in an inaccessible light and therefore, as St. Paul warns (cf. Rm 11, 24), one cannot "know his mind". The path of religiosity could instead lead to erroneous and perhaps even dangerous destinations: "What idea could man have had of God, if not that of an idol, a figment of the imagination?".
This being the case, God intervened to offer his solution: "God would have remained incomprehensible and inaccessible, invisible and completely unimaginable. Instead, he wanted to be understood, he wanted to be seen, he wanted to be imagined." Not only did he offer an idea or a doctrine of himself, but since the senses operate in man before the intellect, God wanted to offer himself to the senses themselves, to sight and hearing: "Where and when does he make himself visible to us? Precisely in the manger, in the lap of the Virgin..."
Ultimately, Saint Bernard does nothing other than recall the angel's announcement to the shepherds on the first Christmas: "Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people. For to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign to you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger."
And this is the conclusion he proposes: "Is it not perhaps right, pious and holy to meditate on this mystery? When my mind thinks of it, it finds God there." Ultimately, it is the simple invention of Francis of Assisi in Greccio; it is the Church's perennial proposal, which calls us to see God, looking at the Word incarnate in Mary's arms and made bread on the altars.
