Pope’s book - The Infancy Narratives - released

November 20, 2012: The book ‘The Infancy Narratives’, the third and final volume in Pope Benedict’s international bestselling series, Jesus of Nazareth, was presented to the Press in the Vatican on Tuesday. The book comes out at the same time in 9 languages ​​(Italian, Brazilian, Croatian, English, French, Portuguese, Spanish, Polish and German) and in 50 countries, the global edition of the first edition of more than one million copies. In the coming months, the volume will be translated into 20 languages ​​for publication in 72 countries, according to a press release.
The first two volumes of Jesus of Nazareth by Joseph Ratzinger-Benedict XVI, dedicated to the public life of Christ - from baptism to the Transfiguration (Rizzoli) and the Entrance into Jerusalem to the Resurrection (Vatican Publishing House) - were published in 2007 and in 2011.

It is true what was written? Who is Jesus? Where does he comes from? Or, as Jesus himself asks to his disciples in the Gospel of Mark: "But who do you say that I am?" These are the basic questions answered by the book.. The Infancy narratives is a volume of 176 pages and is divided into four chapters, an Epilogue, and a brief Introduction.

The first chapter is dedicated to the genealogy of the Savior in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, each very different, but both with the same theological meaning -symbolic: the place of Jesus in history and his true origin as a principle, a new beginning in history of the world.

The theme of the second chapter is the announcement of the birth of John the Baptist and that of Jesus. Rereading the dialogue between Mary and the Archangel Gabriel in the Gospel of Luke, Joseph Ratzinger explains that, through a woman, God is looking for a "new entry into the world."
To liberate mankind from sin, he writes quoting Bernard of Clairvaux, God needs the "free obedience" to his will. "In creating freedom, God, in a certain way, has become dependent on man. Thus, only with the assent of Mary, he begins the history of salvation.

We find in the middle of the third chapter, the event of Bethlehem and the historical context of the birth of Jesus "a bearer of universal salvation', in fact, "the fullness of time.'
The fourth chapter is devoted to the individual elements of the story of the birth of Jesus are full of meaning: the poverty in which "the true firstborn of the universe" choose to be, and therefore the special love of God for poor, the visit of the Magi, that they had seen the star "of the King of the Jews", and the flight into Egypt.
Finally, the Epilogue, with the story - according to the Gospel of Luke - the last episode of Jesus' childhood, the latest news that we have before the beginning of his public ministry with baptism in the Jordan River. It is the story of the three days during the pilgrimage to Easter, where 12 year old Jesus moves away from Mary and Joseph, and remains in the Temple in Jerusalem to discuss with the "doctors". He, who "increased in wisdom, age and grace" is manifested here in the mystery of his nature as true God and true man, who "thought and learned in a humane manner."