Simon asks: «Where are we going now, Master?»
«Come with Me, I know a place.»
«But if You have never been here after You left, how can You know?» asks Judas, still angry.
«I know. It is not a beautiful place. But I have been there before. It is not in Bethlehem… it is a little outside… Let us turn this way.»
Jesus is in front, followed by Simon, then Judas and John is last…
(...) «Judas, come here. I want to speak to you.» Judas goes near Him. «Take this purse. You will do the shopping for tomorrow.»
«And for the time being, where are we going to lodge?»
Jesus smiles, but does not reply.
73.10 It is dark. Everything is white in the moonlight. The nightingales sing amongst the olives-trees. A brook is a silvery resounding ribbon. One can smell the scent of hay of the mown fields: a warm, I would say, carnal smell. Bellows and bleats can be heard. And stars, stars and stars… stars strewn on the heavenly curtain, a canopy of living gems, spread over the hills of Bethlehem.
«But here!… There is nothing but ruins here! Where are You taking us? The town is over there.»
«I know. Come. Follow the rivulet, behind Me. A few more steps and then… then I will offer you the abode of the King of Israel.»
Judas shrugs his shoulders and becomes quiet.
A few more steps, then a heap of ruined houses: the remains of houses… A cave between the clefts of a big wall.
Jesus asks: «Have You any tinder? Light it.»
Simon lights a small lamp which he has taken out of his knapsack and he gives it to Jesus.
«Come in» says the Master lifting the lamp. «Come in. This is the nativity room of the King of Israel.»
«You must be joking, Master! This is a filthy den. Ah! I am not going to stay here! I loathe it: it is damp, cold, stinking, full of scorpions and perhaps also snakes…»
«And yet… My friends, here the night of the twenty-fifth of Chislev, Feast of the Lights, Jesus Christ, was born of the Virgin, the Emmanuel, the Word of God made flesh, for the love of man: I Who am speaking to you . Also then, as now, the world was deaf to the voices of Heaven speaking to the hearts of men… and it rejected the Mother… and here… No, Judas, do not avert your eyes in disgust from those fluttering noctules, from those green lizards, from those cobwebs, do not lift with disgust your beautiful embroidered mantle, lest it may trail on the ground covered with animal excrement. Those noctules are the daughters’ daughters of the ones that were the first toys to be tossed before the eyes of the Child, for Whom the angels sang the “Gloria” heard by the shepherds, intoxicated only by an ecstatic joy, a true joy. The emerald green of those lizards was the first colour to strike My eyes, the first, after My Mother’s white face and dress. Those cobwebs were the canopy of My royal cradle. This ground… oh! you may tread on it without disdain… It is littered with excrement… but it is sanctified by Her foot, the foot of the Holy, the Most Holy, Pure, Immaculate Mother of God, Who gave birth, because She was to give birth, because God, not man, told Her and covered Her with His shadow. She, the Faultless One, trod on it. You can tread on it, too. And may the purity diffused by Her, by the will of God, rise from the soles of your feet to your heart…»
73.11
Simon is on his knees. John goes straight to the manger and cries, leaning his head against it. Judas is terrified… he is overcome by emotion, and no longer worried about his beautiful mantle, he kneels on the ground, takes the edge of Jesus’ tunic and kisses it and beats his breast saying: «Oh! My good Master, have mercy on the blindness of Your servant! My pride vanishes… I see You as You are. Not the king I was thinking of. But the Eternal Prince, the Father of future centuries, the King of peace. Have mercy, my Lord and my God, have mercy on me!»
«Yes, you have all My mercy! Now we will sleep where the Infant and the Virgin slept, over there where John has taken the place of the adoring Mother, here where Simon looks like My putative father. Or, if you prefer so, I will speak to you of that night…»
«Oh! yes, Master, tell us of Your birth.»
«That it may be a bright pearl shining in our hearts. And we may tell the whole world.»
«And we may venerate Your Virgin Mother, not only as Your Mother, but also as… as the Virgin!»
Judas was the first to speak, then Simon and then John, whose face smiles and cries, near the manger.
«Come and sit on the hay. Listen,…» and Jesus tells them of the night of His birth. «…as the Mother was near Her time to have Her Child, a decree was issued by the imperial delegate Publius Sulpicius Quirinus on instructions from Caesar Augustus, when Sentius Saturninus was governor of Palestine. The decree stated that a census had to be taken of all the people of the empire. Those who were not slaves were to go to their places of origin and register in the official rolls of the empire. Joseph, the spouse of the Mother, was of the line of David and the Mother was also of David’s line. In compliance with the decree, they left Nazareth and came to Bethlehem, the cradle of the royal family. The weather was severe…».
Jesus continues the story and it all ends in this way.