"If Mary and Joseph were to knock at my door" "If God’s light is
extinguished, man’s divine dignity is also extinguished. Then
the human creature would cease to be God’s image, to which we
must pay honour in every person, in the weak, in the stranger,
in the poor." The pope's homily for Christmas Eve by Benedict
XVI Dear Brothers and Sisters! Again and again the beauty of
this Gospel touches our hearts: a beauty that is the splendour
of truth. Again and again it astonishes us that God makes
himself a child so that we may love him, so that we may dare to
love him, and as a child trustingly lets himself be taken into
our arms. It is as if God were saying: I know that my glory
frightens you, and that you are trying to assert yourself in the
face of my grandeur. So now I am coming to you as a child, so
that you can accept me and love me. I am also repeatedly struck
by the Gospel writer’s almost casual remark that there was no
room for them at the inn. Inevitably the question arises, what
would happen if Mary and