The miracle came to pass. From Nazareth appeared the Nazarene. From an ungrateful nation, at odds with itself, sunk in the mire of humiliation and sin, appeared the purest human being in existence. And in his deeds and his words, in his life and after his death, the strange contradictions went on.

"You have heard that it was said: love your neighbor and hate your enemy.

"But I say to you: love your enemies. Bless those who curse you. For if you love those who love you, what merit is that to you?

"You have heard that it was said: you shall not kill, and whoever kills shall be liable to judgment.

"But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother without cause shall be liable to judgment.

"You have heard that it was said to the men of old: perform your oaths to the Lord. But I say to you: swear not at all! Rather let your speech be Yes, yes, and No, no."

And they brought him a woman taken in adultery, that he might sentence her to be stoned, and he said: "Let him among you who is without sin cast the first stone at her!" Then he began to trace their sins upon the ground, and they went away ashamed.

He used to sit with the outcast, men and women alike, and eat with publicans and sinners. As for the lead-ers, he addressed them saying: "You blind guides, who strain out the gnat and swallow the camel — woe to you! For you cleanse the outside of the cup and the dish, while within they are full of extortion and vice!"

And they asked him: "Who is the greatest among us?" So he brought a little child and set him in their midst and said: "Unless you turn back and become like children, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven."

And they asked him to become king over them and to work for the restoration of Israel's glory, and he refused, saying: "My kingdom is not of this world!"

He lived his short life alone, a stranger, with no place to lay his head. He endured the cross for the sake of his message. And despite the spread of that message through the world, the Nazarene still finds himself alone, for among the millions who bear his name he finds no one who deserves that name.

Everything they relate of him is strange and invites reflection. But strangest of all is the story of his birth in a cattle manger, and the picture of the child laid on the straw between two beasts bending tenderly over him, beside his mother.

This picture — the longer I contemplate it, the fonder of it I grow, because it shows me how greatness is born in the midst of lowliness, and because it symbolizes the sanctity of the earth and the plow, and the purity of naked nature, which stamped upon Christ his first impressions and formed his austere spirituality.