How Does the Nativity Reveal the Eucharist?

At Christmas time, nativity scenes based on the infancy narratives of Matthew and Luke fill spaces in and around altars, churchyards, and homes to remind us of the true meaning of Christmas -- that the eternal, only-begotten Son of God humbled Himself to enter the human family, so that we, united to Him, could share, via the grace of the Holy Spirit, in His Divine Sonship, and be restored in His holy image and likeness as children reclaimed by His Eternal Father. 

The crib of Christ, depicted in art since ancient times, also points to many saving mysteries of the Lord’s life which would unfold later in His public mission.  In particular, the setting where Christ is born, a manger in a cave-stable in the town of Bethlehem points directly to the gift of the Eucharist (the word “Christmas” in Old English actually means the “Mass of Christ”, referring to the sacred act of worship where the faithful gather to encounter the Word of God manifest not only in the proclamation of Scripture but also physically and supernaturally in the Blessed Sacrament).   

Pope Francis, in his apostolic letter on the significance of the Nativity, highlights the connection between the Sacrifice of the Mass (especially the real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist) and the first Nativity scene arranged by St. Francis of Assisi in 1223 at a Christmas liturgy in Greccio, Italy: 

All those present experienced a new and indescribable joy in the presence of the Christmas scene. The priest then solemnly celebrated the Eucharist over the manger, showing the bond between the Incarnation of the Son of God and the Eucharist. At Greccio there were no statues; the nativity scene was enacted and experienced by all who were present. ADMIRABILE SIGNUM [2]

Bethlehem: The Harvest Town

Bethlehem was the ancestral capital of the tribe of Judah and the birthplace of Jesse's youngest son, the shepherd boy David, who would be anointed there as God’s chosen ruler of all Israel. The Old Testament foretold that the promised Messiah, Jesus, the branch of Jesse and David's descendant, would be the chief Shepherd and King of Kings born in the same small city (Micah 5:2). 

Christ’s ancestor Ruth, David's great-grandmother, had first come to Bethlehem to escape famine and glean the abundant fields of wheat and vineyards. The entire region was called a Ephrathah (Hebrew: אֶפְרָת \ אֶפְרָתָה‎‎) meaning “fruitful”.  In old Hebrew, Bethlehem means “House of Bread”, in reference to its abundant grain production, and in Arabic “House of Flesh”, probably in reference to its rearing of sheep and lambs.

Shepherds there also tended sheep for wool production and provided Passover lambs for sacrifice in Jerusalem.  It is in this city that Christ is born of the Virgin Mary in a cave functioning as a stable for sheep and other animals gathered around a manger, a feeding trough (the word "manger", from Old French and Late Latin, means "to chew" and traces back to the Biblical Greek "phatne" or "stall for feeding" - see Luke 2:7,12,16. If you're familiar with the Italian command "Mangia!" or "Eat up!" you'll notice the same root).  Mary places her newborn son Jesus in this manger.  

A New House of Bread  

Why was Jesus born in a stable with animals in the first place? Because there was no room for him at the inn (Luke 2:7). Crowds descending on the city in response to Caesar Augustus' imperial decree for tribes to register (whether for a census or an act of allegiance) in their ancestral cities was the matter-of-fact reason, but the early Fathers understood that the Christ Child's rejection at the inn also signaled Israel's later rejection of the adult Messiah at Passover. It's also interesting to note that the Greek root (katalymati καταλύματι) commonly translated as “inn”  in the Christmas story is also the same word that refers to the Upper Room where Jesus celebrated his Last Passover with his apostles [the first Mass] (Luke 2:7; 22:12). His own tribe in his ancestral town prevented him from taking sanctuary, but he recreates a new holy house, beginning at the stable and finding fulfillment at the Lord's table in the guest room, where everyone is called to take shelter and find sustenance in the Lord's home. For thousands of years, Christians have gathered at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem to offer the Divine Liturgy and adore the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist which is laid upon Greek and Latin altars standing over the very place where Jesus was first laid and adored in the feeding trough. But every Catholic church is a House of Bread where one may stop now to welcome and adore Christ in His sacramental presence, just as the Holy Family, shepherds, and others had done so very long ago. 

                             

A New Manna

Right after their stay in Bethlehem, the Holy Family flees to Egypt to escape King Herod's plan to eliminate the Messiah.  Some time later, Mary and Joseph come out of Egypt with the Christ Child alive and safe for the moment and return to Nazareth where their home becomes a temporary Holy of Holies, a domestic tabernacle where they commune with Jesus day to day. In this part of the Holy Family's life, the Church sees Jesus' sharing in the first exodus of his Hebrew people, who had entered Egypt in duress, been taken captive, yet exited victorious on pilgrimage back toward freedom in the Promised Land, feeding upon the first "bread from heaven", Manna, as they journeyed.  Likewise, this points to Christ our Passover, who grants us a participation in his humiliating death, so that we may escape its enslavement through in his victorious resurrection.  On the way towards heaven, the true Promised Land, the faithful are nourished by the new Manna, Christ in the Eucharist.  Jesus draws this parallel in John chapter 6, after he multiplied the loves of bread and fish for the crowds: 

“I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that a man may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if any one eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh...he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats me will live because of me. This is the bread which came down from heaven, not such as the fathers ate [manna] and died; he who eats this bread will live forever.” (John 6:48-51, 54-58 RSVCE). 

The swaddled Christ was laid on both the wood of the manger & the wood of the cross (altars in a sense), and nestled in the cave of his birth and in His tomb, so that through his life, death, and resurrection, his own self-gift, he might communicate his abundant life to each of us, as our heavenly manna in the Holy Eucharist.  At Christmas, the icon of the Nativity should remind us of the Lord's Supper (Christ's Mass = Christmas), where sacrifice, communion, divine presence, and the joining of heaven and earth continues today.

                                 

Watch the three minute summary below. 

What Time Was Jesus Born?

The Bible does not make explicit the month, day, nor hour of Christ's birth (although there are Scriptural and historical clues which support the theory of December 25th being Christ's literal birth date and the Church Fathers were pretty unanimous about the year -- 2 or 3 B.C.  There wasn't a year 0).  But the gospel of Luke does record the general time of day; the host of angels appear to the shepherds who keep watch "at night" in order to announce to these pastors that the Messiah has been born "today" (Luke 2:8-12).  So it's no surprise why all of our representations of the Nativity in art, greeting cards, plays, and films show a late night / early morning birth of Christ under a peaceful, starry sky.  However, there is a clue in the Old Testament, which some early Christians used to pinpoint the hour of Jesus' birth more specifically. 

A Word to the Wise 

In the deuterocanonical book the Wisdom of Solomon 18:14-15 (a book of the Old Testament omitted from modern Protestant Bible canons but included in some earlier translations such as the KJV), we get the following description of an event from the exodus of the Hebrews: 

For when peaceful stillness encompassed everything

    and the night in its swift course was half spent,

Your all-powerful word from heaven’s royal throne

    leapt into the doomed land.

Literally, this passage describes the personification of God's "word", the destroying angel who came down at midnight to carry out the Lord's final judgement upon Egypt during the first Passover -- a time when the Lord vanquished the dominion of evil in the land and freed Israel from slavery to their corrupt masters.  This liberation was accomplished specifically through the Hebrews' shared meal of the lamb, whose blood on wooden doorposts served as a sign of life -- a "no" to local idolatry and chattel servitude and yes to trust in God's promise of deliverance (Ex. 12:13-17).  Afterwards, the Hebrews, strengthened by their ritual supper, were released by their captors to return back to freedom and life in the Promised Land.  

The Definitive Deliverer

The typological connection to Christ is clear.  Christ is the ultimate all-powerful Logos, the Word of the Father (Jn. 1:1), who leapt into our fallen world in order to destroy sin and deliver us from death through his own sacred Passover banquet, his sacrifice upon the wood of the Cross, and his resurrection from the tomb. 

Remember the time of the angel's "leap"?  It happened when "the night in its swift course was half-spent" (i.e. - midnight).  This cross-references other Old Testament passages which affirm that God delivered the final blow to the Egyptians (fallen world) and brought salvation to Israel at midnight: 

Moses then said, “Thus says the LORD: About midnight I will go forth through Egypt. (Ex. 11:4; cf. Ex. 12:29). 

In fact, when Jews today re-experience the exodus at their Seder meal, midnight serves as the deadline for eating the matzah, bitter herbs, and meat of the Passover.  One ancient hymn sung at the concluding rite of the Passover references midnight: 

“And so it was, at the half-point of the night; many miracles You wrought wondrously in the night, at the starts of the watches of this night.”

Similarly for Catholics, the new Passover of the Christian Triduum begins Holy Thursday evening, continues Good Friday, and culminates at the Easter vigil liturgy at dusk on Holy Saturday, which reigns in Easter Sunday's approach at midnight. 

What About Christmas?

Okay, so the connection of a midnight liberation at the first Passover connects with Christ's Paschal Mystery which saves everyone from sin and death, but that's the Triduum and Easter.  What does this all have to do with Christmas?

Notice the wording of Wisdom 18:15, "Your all powerful word from heaven's royal throne leapt into the doomed land". Although Christ's death, resurrection, and ascension make up the culmination of God's redemptive work, God's inauguration of the plan of salvation kicked off with the incarnation of Christ -- when the second divine Person assumed human flesh and became fully man in the womb of the virgin Mary.  This really happens shortly after the Annunciation (Gabriel's visit to Mary), which is celebrated March 25th.  Since the Church has always taught that human life begins at conception, this would be the moment God became man: body, blood, soul, divinity.  Count nine months forward, and you get Christ's birthday on December 25th, when the God-man finally greeted the world face-to-face.  The Lord "descended" into our world becoming a mortal human child without compromising his divinity, so that we united to him, our Passover, may ascend back with him to our homeland with the Father (literally in Greek kenosis: Christ "emptied Himself" κενόω (kenóō) Phil. 2:7, submitting his created human will to the one eternal divine will - cf. CCC 475).

Wisdom then foreshadows Christ, the Word of God, making his appearance among men as Savior at the midnight hour -- a time thought to be the darkest of the night, the night watch. Theologically, this makes sense.  Jesus, the Eternal Word, is the Light of World (Jn. 8:12) who shines and scatters the darkness (Jn. 1:5; Jn 3:19) and illuminates our path (Jn 1:9) to show us the way back to the Father: 

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and theWord was God. He was in the beginning with God;  all things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made.  In him was life, and the life was the light of men.  The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. (Jn. 1:1-5). 

“I came into the world as light, so that everyone who believes in me might not remain in the darkness” (Jn. 12:46).

Even Christ's late December birthday after the Winter solstice suggests this, since the days begin to lengthen, and sunlight gradually increases in the natural world.  The Church, united to Christ, becomes the light of the world, the city shining on a hill that cannot be hidden (Mt. 5:14), showing others the way to freedom in God's kingdom.  As the lamb's blood marked the homes of the elect at Passover, Christmas lights in a delightful way represent the light of Christ shining forth from every home, a domestic church (assembly). Midnight also provided a convenient and symbolic axis for the B.C / A.D. distinction introduced into the calendar in the sixth century, which calls to mind the eternal difference Christ's birth made in history.  All time hinges upon Him. 

Midnight Traditions

 

The Lord's midnight entrance also served as an inspiration for Christmas carols such as "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear", which is about the angels' announcement of Christ's birth. 

Another carol that takes its inspiration from Wisdom is "Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming": 

Lo, how a Rose e'er blooming from tender stem hath sprung!

Of Jesse's lineage coming, as men of old have sung.

It came, a floweret bright, amid the cold of winter,

When half spent was the night.

Isaiah 'twas foretold it, the Rose I have in mind;

Mary we behold it, the Virgin Mother kind.

To show God's love aright, she bore to us a Savior,

When half spent was the night.

The belief in a midnight birth also gave rise to the tradition of inaugurating December 25th with Midnight Mass, where Christians join voices with the choirs of angels in proclaiming the birth of the Savior (the word "Christmas" means "Mass of Christ", his passover celebration). 

The first recorded instance of a midnight liturgy is found in the chronicles of Egeria, a woman who made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land in the late fourth century to document holy sites.  While in Jerusalem, she celebrated with other Christians the Lord's birth and epiphany at midnight on January 6th.   Pope Sixtus III is said to have established the custom on December 25th, 430 A.D., for the Roman rite Mass at the Basilica of St. Mary Major (although some sources attribute the start of the custom to the seventh Bishop of Rome, Pope St. Telesphorus, c. 125-136 A.D.).  Later in history, the famous carol "Silent Night" was written by Father Joseph Mohr, specifically for its first performance at midnight Mass in 1818 at St Nicholas parish church in Oberndorf, Austria.  

Wisdom 18:14-15 also served as the Introit for the Sunday after Christmas; today it's heard on December 30 in the Church. Regardless of whether one believes Christ entered the world literally on midnight or not (it's not a binding dogma), the symbolic significance of this pious interpretation is clear: the awesome glory of God, hidden in the form of a weak baby, invaded the dark world at a definitive point in time to  shine forth divine light as a beacon for those seeking to find the way toward abundant life -- something Christmas always proclaims in splendor. 

If you had been afraid of shadows, you would have been born at noon. But you preferred the night. Lord, you were born in the middle of the night because midnight is pregnant with the dawn."  Dom Helmer Camara, "It's Midnight Lord".   

Watch the 1.4 minute video for a summary. 

© Joe Aboumoussa

Was St. John the Baptist Born Without Original Sin?

No Christian disputes the fact that St. John the Baptist, the forerunner and martyr who prepared the way for the Messiah, was a righteous man.  His cousin, Jesus himself proclaimed, "...among those born of women there has been none greater than John the Baptist; yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he" (Mt. 11:11).  In context, Jesus was defending John's character against those who found fault with the Baptist and accused him of being a false prophet.  Christ emphasized that among all the prophets of the Old Covenant who pointed to the Messiah, John was not only one of them but the greatest of them.  The Catechism summarizes the esteem with which the Church has always held St. John:

John the Baptist is "more than a prophet." In him, the Holy Spirit concludes his speaking through the prophets.... (CCC 719)

St. John the Baptist is the Lord's immediate precursor or forerunner, sent to prepare his way. "Prophet of the Most High", John surpasses all the prophets, of whom he is the last. He inaugurates the Gospel, already from his mother's womb welcomes the coming of Christ, and rejoices in being "the friend of the bridegroom", whom he points out as "the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world".... (CCC 523)

Notice the part in bold?  It's this scriptural fact which serves as the basis for a theological postulation which asserts St. John the Baptist was free from original sin, the privation of grace, at a certain point in his mother's womb.  A Catholic who knows his or her faith might interject though, “I thought Jesus and Mary were the only ones never to have had original sin,” and this would be a correct conclusion. The key is that neither Jesus nor Mary were conceived with original sin, nor did they personally sin during their lifetimes.  If John received sanctifying grace before he was born, it nevertheless happened after his conception. Therefore, he was conceived with original sin, as we all are.  But can it be demonstrated that John did receive a kind of pre-natal Baptism?  When, if so, did this happen?

Impeccability (Sinlessness)

Let's reflect on the holiness of Christ and Mary first. As all Christians acknowledge, Jesus, fully man, is completely sinless ipso facto because he is fully divine in nature too.  According to Catholic dogma (divinely revealed truth infallibly defined by the Church), Mary is also sinless because of a singular privilege of prevenient grace, which protected her from the stain of original sin at the first moment of her existence.  In other words, her divine Son's redemption worked retroactively to prevent her from entering into a fallen state so that she would respond to and carry out her special mission as Mother of the Savior (Jesus saved her but in a different way).  Scripture and Tradition refer to Jesus as the new and Last Adam (1 Cor. 15:22) and Mary as the new Eve (Gn. 3:15).  The old Adam and old Eve were created in a state of original holiness and justice, but pushed God away and forfeited their supernatural inheritance. The new Adam and new Eve were also created (as human beings) in a state of grace, yet both obeyed the Father and retained their love for Him.  Only Jesus and Mary had complete impeccability during their earthly lives, something all the saved will  enjoy in heaven. 

Back to the Baby Baptist

Okay, so unlike Jesus and Mary, St. John the Baptist was conceived with original sin, but can we pinpoint an early stage where he did receive grace?  There is evidence in both Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition which shows God sanctified John after his conception but before his birth to prepare the Forerunner for his later mission as the last and greatest prophet who would herald the coming of the Christ.  

An article on Mary's Immaculate Conception at the online Catholic Encyclopedia contains a section on the conception of John the Baptist and highlights this belief in his pre-natal holiness: 

The soul of the precursor was not preserved immaculate at its union with the body, but was sanctified either shortly after conception from a previous state of sin, or through the presence of Jesus at the visitation.

Proof in Scripture?

But where in the Bible can we find such proof?  The gospel of Luke provides the clearest evidence. In announcing the Forerunner’s coming birth to John’s father Zechariah, the Angel Gabriel promises:

“And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, for he will be great in the sight of [the] Lord...He will be filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother’s womb” (Luke 1:14-15). 

Notice, that Gabriel points out John "will be filled" with the Holy Spirit. The Greek verb is πλησθήσεται (plēsthēsetai), a future passive tense, indicating that eventually the actual indwelling of the Spirit within a person will occur. Later, when the Blessed Virgin, pregnant with Jesus, visits her cousin St. Elizabeth, who is pregnant with St. John, Elizabeth exclaims: 

“When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the infant leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, cried out in a loud voice and said, ‘Most blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And how does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy.’” (Luke 1:41-44)

Luke points out that Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, and the Lord inspires her to proclaim those famous words of Marian veneration which are recognizable as part of the "Hail Mary".  Yet, Gabriel's promise to Zechariah also appears to have its fulfillment. Although still hidden from the world in his mother's womb, St. John intuitively rejoices in the presence of the unborn Christ child, whose Spirit touches the Forerunner's heart.  Pope Innocent III appears to interpret this moment in Scripture as John's unmerited reception of grace.

“John the Baptist, sent by Him, was holy and just, and in the womb of his mother was filled with the Holy Spirit.”(“Eius exemplo” Letter to the Archbishop of Terraco, Dec. 18, 1208)

What Did the Doctors Say?

Not an OB/GYN obviously.  A church doctor (teacher) is a saint whose writings (teachings) are held to have universal benefit for the whole Church, and several of them believed in St. John's pre-born sanctification. In his Summa Theolgiae, Question 27, Article 6, Replies to Objections 2 & 3 St. Thomas Aquinas, the Angelic Doctor, supports this belief and even makes the case that John’s sanctification provides support for infant Baptism since God retroactively infused saving grace for John before birth. In John’s case, the amniotic waters substituted as the waters of Baptism through which the Holy Spirit sanctified him. 

One might object and point out that an adult St. John later proclaims to Christ, "I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?". This shows that he was not sanctified in the womb.  But John’s expression was one of humility before the Lord, who had come to model obedience, repentance, and solidarity in receiving John’s symbolic baptism (even though Christ did not need to repent nor be baptized by John nor later by His Church's sacrament of Baptism).  John in requesting his own ritual from Christ, shows that he, like most of us, did occasionally sin after receiving grace and had to confess and work on continual conversion.  Aquinas points this out, stating that unlike Jesus and Mary, St. John most likely had venial sin, but not mortal (see Question 27. Article 6. Reply to Objection 1),

However, there were saints of the opinion that St. John did not sin at all throughout his life.  St. Catherine of Siena, a Doctor of the Church, declared so when she examined her own struggles: 

“Wretch that I am! John the Baptist never sinned and was sanctified in his mother's womb. And I have committed so many sins..." — A Treatise of Prayer, (1370)

A Catholic is not bound to hold the belief that John never personally sinned though.  

Additional Papal Confirmation

Although the timing of John’s justification has never been dogmatically defined, another papal pronouncement does add doctrinal weight to the belief in John's pre-born holiness.  In 1894, Pope Leo XIII, in his encyclical Iucunda Semper Expectatione, a reflection on the rosary, explicitly taught:

Then St. John the Baptist, by a singular privilege, is sanctified in his mother's womb and favoured with special graces that he might prepare the way of the Lord; and this comes to pass by the greeting of Mary who had been inspired to visit her cousin. (#2)

In that short passage, Pope Leo seems to confirm that 1) John enjoyed a unique privilege of prenatal sanctification; 2) he received special graces; and 3) this all happened when he leapt at the sound of Mary's voice. 

Liturgical Evidence

Because St. John the Baptist seems to already have been a saint at birth and in light of his important mission and martyrdom for Christ, his birthday, June 24th is one of only three birthdays celebrated on the Catholic Church’s liturgical calendar.  The other two are Jesus on December 25th and Mary on September 8th.  It is also noteworthy that the Church, since ancient times has also celebrated the conceptions of the same three: St. John on September 23rd, Mary on December 8th, and Jesus on March 25th.  Count nine months ahead in the cases of Jesus and Mary and one calculates a perfect nine months of gestation in the womb -- a symbol of the holy perfection of the persons (although Mary’s conception was immeasurably below that of her divine Son).  St. John misses this perfect calculation by a calendar day, symbolizing that he was conceived with a fallen nature.  Regardless, he lived a life of exemplary devotion to God, remaining faithful even to the point of martyrdom. Plus, holiness is not about starting out perfect, but trusting Christ, the perfect man, to help us through our struggles and achieve perfection: to love God and neighbor without impediment. 

In the Maronite Catholic calendar, St. John's birth is also commemorated on the third of six Sundays during the Eastern Advent season called "Happy Announcements".  The Baptist is one of the universal Church's models for Advent, since he prepared the way for Jesus and looked forward to his coming even from the womb. Advent calls upon all of us to relive the ancient expectancy for the Messiah, rejoice over his continual presence now, and look forward to his future coming at the end of all things. But every life is an Advent, a preparation to meet the Lord face-to-face one day and be fully transformed in Him.  Therefore, the Church highlights the humility of the Baptist as a virtue to imitate:

By celebrating the precursor's birth and martyrdom, the Church unites herself to his desire: "He must increase, but I must decrease." (CCC 524)

A final note: John's universal birthday on June 24th is six months before Christ's birthday on December 25th. Since John's birth comes after the Summer solstice, the days begin to shorten; light decreases as John wished his own reputation to decrease before the manifestation of the Lord.  After the Winter solstice and Christmas, the days will lengthen after the darkest hours, signifying John's wish that Christ's light should increase in the world and be our eternal radiance. 

                              Click to view the 2.5 minute video. 

© Joe Aboumoussa 

Why Do Nativity Scenes Feature the Ox, Donkey, and Sheep?

A Reflection on Pope Benedict XVI's Jesus of Nazareth, The Infancy Narratives

You might know that Saint Francis of Assisi famously introduced the first live Nativity scene with actors portraying Jesus' birth in Bethlehem at a Christmas Mass at Greccio, Italy in 1223, an event that inspired the statuary we often see in churches and homes today.  However, the iconographic depiction of Christ's birth in a lowly stable among the animals goes back much further in history. The familiar ox and donkey, along with sheep, have been stable (pun intended) images in Nativity scenes since late antiquity; in fact, some of the earliest depictions featured only these animals worshipping the infant Jesus, sans shepherds and wisemen (although the most ancient image from a third century catacomb features Mary holding Jesus). An ornamented detail from the late-fourth century marble Sarcophagus of Stilicho, which today is kept under the pulpit of Sant'Ambrogio basilica in Milan, Italy, shows Christ in his manger flanked by the familiar ox and donkey.

                                                   Picture by Giovanni Dall'Orto, April 25 2007.

As Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI stated in his book Jesus of Nazareth, the Infancy Narratives: “Christian iconography adopted this motif at an early stage. No representation of the crib is complete without the ox and the ass.” (pg. 104).

But why these animals in the first place?  After all, the New Testament doesn't mention them at Christ's crib.

Born in a Barn

Well, we know Jesus wasn’t born in a pristine maternity ward at a local St. Luke’s hospital. St. Luke himself tells us Mary placed her newborn son in a manger, a feeding trough for farm animals (the word "manger", from Old French and Late Latin, means "to chew" and traces back to the Biblical Greek "phatne" or "stall for feeding" - see Luke 2:7,12,16.  If you're familiar with the Italian command "Mangia!" or "eat up!" you'll notice the same root).  The presence of the manger is a clue indicating the Holy Family took shelter in one of the many rocky caves that served as an animal stable or granary in ancient Bethlehem (a town whose name means "House of Bread" in Hebrew because of its wheat production and "House of Flesh" in Arabic because of its animal husbandry). In the second century, St. Justin Martyr spoke of the Lord's cave-stable as a holy site of pilgrimage (today the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem graces the ancient spot).  So naturally, there were probably farm animals there when Jesus was born, even though neither Matthew's nor Luke's infancy narratives mention any specific creatures being present.  Why then are oxen, donkeys, and sheep included in our own artful depictions and front yard displays?  Simply because those were common rural animals in Jesus' day?  The answer lies not only in practical reasons but theological symbolism as well. 

'Feed My Lambs' (Jn 21:1)

It’s no mystery why sheep would probably be at Christ’s crib. They were the most common animal kept in caves and sheepfolds in Bethlehem, the ancestral capital of the Shepherd-King David, which served as an important center for the year-round work of shepherds. This included the rearing of lambs for Passover sacrifices in Jerusalem. Shepherds keeping watch on the night of the Lord’s birth were the first to hear the angelic call to come and behold the Messiah (Lk. 2:8-12), and it’s probable they brought some of their flocks with them to the manger. The Christological symbolism is clear: shepherds come to behold the Good Shepherd who gathers and tends to his people, and who is at the same time the pure paschal Lamb of God, who will offer himself as sacrifice and food in Jerusalem, bringing to fulfillment the full significance of the Passover at his Last Supper and on the Cross.

The Ox and Donkey Find True Food 

More mysterious though is the presence of the ox and the donkey in Christian art.  Yes, they were common farm animals in Israel which logically would have been near a manger waiting for a bite to eat, but why have they always been so essential to recreations of the Nativity if neither is mentioned in the Gospels?  Are they just rural decor? To understand their inclusion and symbolism, we have to read Messianic prophecies from the Old Testament in light of the New Testament, and hear what other ancient historical sources had to say as well. 

Isaiah 1:3 states: "An ox knows its owner, and an ass, its master’s manger; But Israel does not know, my people has not understood." The Church always connected this Old Testament verse with Luke 2:12: "And this will be a sign for you: you will find an infant wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.”  Thus, Isaiah compared Israel's obstinance with animals known for their own stubbornness, yet still have enough sense to know who takes care of them (hence, in English we get phrases like "stubborn as a mule", "mulish", and "bull-headed" to describe people who act that way).  But the prophet also foretold where the true Messiah would one day be physically found and recognized -- not in an elaborate public palace surrounded by elites and their flatterers but rather in an out-of-way stable surrounded by the poor, outsiders, and beasts of burden. 

In Nativity art, these beasts seem to relinquish their stubborn nature and humbly kneel before their true Master who presents Himself as their food - the "Bread which came down from Heaven" (John 6:41) in a feeding container.  One can see where this is going: the animals are really a picture of prideful, foolish, and impoverished humanity transformed by true Meekness, Wisdom, and Divine Sustenance found in the least likely of places. Pope Benedict XVI again relates the full significance: 

Thus the manger becomes a reference to the table of God, to which we are invited so as to receive the bread of God. From the poverty of Jesus' birth emerges the miracle in which man’s redemption is mysteriously accomplished. The manger, as we have seen, indicates animals, who come to it for their food (ibid. 103-104). 

Although the Last Supper wouldn't happen for another 33 years, already we have a picture of the Mass in the Nativity (after all the word Christmas means "Mass of Christ"). Jesus came down in the House of Bread not only to be with us, but to remain in us as our supernatural nourishment:

Whoever chews my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me. (John 6:54-57)