What kind of a year has it been? Now is a better time for resolutions than the beginning of the new calendar year. But we also look back to that birth 2,000 years ago, when Jesus of Nazareth was born. What can we say about that?

We know the story well. Asked to tell it, the narrative would normally go something like this.

It begins in Nazareth when a virginal young girl called Mary is invited by an angel to become the mother of a child who would save his people. And she says yes. The angel then appears in a dream to Joseph, the man to whom Mary is betrothed, to assure him that the child Mary is carrying she has conceived by the power of God's Spirit. A census of the people is taking place and so the couple must later travel to David's city, which is Bethlehem, as Joseph belongs to the House of David. They can find nowhere to stay in that crowded town except a stable, where Mary gives birth to her child.

Soon afterwards shepherds, prompted by angels, come to find the child and spread the news of his birth. The child is taken to the temple in Jerusalem to be circumcised, and there Simeon and Anna rejoice over him. Later, three wise men arrive from the East, who, following a star, have come to pay him homage. Earlier, thinking to find the child in the King's palace, they had called on Herod. Herod knows nothing, but fears a rival. Disguising his suspicions he asks them, should they find the child, to inform him. Warned in a dream of Herod's duplicity, however, the wise men return home by a different route and Herod, when he realises what has happened, orders the slaughter of all the male children under 2 in the surrounding countryside.

Joseph, too, is warned in a dream of Herod's ill-intent and escapes with his wife and child into Egypt, returning only after hearing news of Herod's death. Then he goes to Nazareth and settles there.

Such is the familiar story, told in just two accounts, one in Matthew's Gospel and the other in Luke's. But in which of the Gospels do these episodes take place? The answer takes some people by surprise. The child, of course, is born in both Gospels and both accounts conclude in Nazareth, but they have nothing else in common.

The annunciation to Mary takes place in Luke, to Joseph in Matthew. The census and so the journey to Bethlehem and the need to find shelter in a stable are part of Luke's account; in Matthew the family belongs in Bethlehem. The shepherds appear in Luke, the wise men in Matthew. In Luke the child is presented in the Temple, while in Matthew he is taken into Egypt to escape Herod's wrath.

Some people find these differences alarming and try to reconcile them. There is no need. These nativity narratives are less concerned with answering “what happened?”; they are concerned rather with significance — “what does it mean?”

They are Gospels in miniature, anticipating the text that follows, Matthew's version already peppered with reminders of prophecies being fulfilled, Luke's centred even here on a road that leads to Jerusalem and the proclamation there of Good News.

These variations are a gift. During Advent amid the bustle we can ponder them and pray over them. Who knows what depths they may disclose?

Monsignor Roderick Strange is the Rector of the Pontifical Beda College, Rome