Editorial The Gamble of God’s Power in Time We offer the text of Fr Giussani’s reflection on Christmas, written for the 8:30 pm edition of Channel 2 Television News on the Italian national television network, at the request of the editor, Mauro Mazza. December 24, 2004 Why does Jesus come? How can man today stand before this news? And what is Christmas? Christmas, the Nativity, is Christ’s love for man. The new Being is coming into the world. The new Being, not as He was before, because now He is communicating Himself to men. A new Being is coming into the world, the world of the true God. In the whole profile of the world, a new Being blossomed, in that place. Everything comes from Him, but here the novelty of a life predominates. A new creature defeats the old. The old creation opposes the new but, with the Nativity, warmth returns to the world, and everything resounds to the divine appeal, to the Mystery that is there. The impossible, the Mystery, is unmerited by man. Yet here a fire is kindled, an affection that embraces, a warmth that predominates in the world’s huge entrance, in eternal space. Here is the inkling of something new that warms the heart, and tends to make everything concrete. And this is why it arouses great devotion. As divine grace, at the appointed time, the Son of God became a child in human history; He took upon Himself the rules and the formulas of an existence. In the recollection and in memory of that Fact, the witness of the Son of God emerges more and more powerful, and the impotence of evil becomes the figure dominating the whole of history. And the people of Yahweh rises to invest the world. Thus, for every day in life, the Christian People will have in its hands the gamble of God’s power in time, and Our Lady’s prayer that it be realized in every situation.