In this more lengthy reading, Pope Benedict explains part of the Christmas icon shown below:

The Christmas icon of the Eastern Orthodox Church developed its essential form as early as the fourth century and in it has captured the complete mystery of Christmas.  It represents the intimate connection between Christmas and Easter, between crib and Cross, the harmony between the Old and the New Testaments, the unity of heaven and earth in the song of the angels and the devotion of the shepherds.  Each figure in it has a profound underlying significance.  Remarkable in all this is the function reserved for St. Joseph.  He is sitting to the side, lost in deep reflection.  In front of him stands the Tempter, disguised as a shepherd, who addresses him, according to the text of the liturgy, in this way: “Just as your root cannot produce leaves, just as an old man cannot become a father anymore, so also the virgin cannot give birth.”  The liturgy then adds: In his heart there raged a storm of contradictory thoughts; he was confused; but enlightened by the Holy Spirit he sings Alleluia.  Through the figure of Saint Joseph the icon presents a drama that recurs time and again–the drama of ourselves.  It is always the same.  Time and again the Tempter tells us: There is nothing but the visible world, there is no Incarnation of God, and there is no birth of the Virgin.  This is the denial that God knows us, that he loves us, that he has the power to be active in the world.  And thus it is, in its core, the refusal to give God the honor.  It is the temptation of our time, which presents itself with so many clever and seemingly brand-new reasons as to appear utterly convincing.  Yet it is still the same old temptation.  We ought to pray to Almighty God that he may send into our hearts also the light of the Holy Spirit.  We ought to pray that he may grant to us also the grace to leave the stubbornness of our own reasoning behind, to gaze at his light with joy and to sing out, “Alleluia”–Christ is truly born, God has become man.  We ought to pray that in us also the words of the Easter liturgy may become reality: “We present to you a Virgin and Mother.  We present to you ourselves as well, more valuable than any gift of money: the wealth of true faith–to you, our God, and Savior of our souls.” Amen.  (Pope Benedict XVI, Lob der Weihnacht, p. 45)