“Let not your heart be troubled,” Jesus says to the disciples, and “Fear not” – that is one of his last words. He says just that by coming to earth – more clearly than with words. Who can be troubled by a sucking babe? The half-crazed Idumean ruler in the castle in Jerusalem – but he has been a prisoner in the kingdom of his wild dreams for so long that he has lost his senses and his taste for the simple and sweet everyday things of life. The gang of wild hunters who rage in the storm clouds on Christmas Eve – they are afraid. But for people of good will, the Prince of Peace has come as a newborn babe in a crib, and he wanted to come, wanted to be poor, so that we could do something for him.

Is not this the final and most secret cause of the joy of Christmas?