Christmas

On Christmas, the Church celebrates the birth of Jesus. The Gospels do not tell us the day, but since early times the Church has kept it on 25 December. Luke tells it simply. Because of a census, Mary and Joseph went from Nazareth to Bethlehem, and there Mary gave birth to her firstborn son. She wrapped him in cloths and laid him in a manger, an animal’s feeding trough, because there was no room for them in the inn. The Church teaches that God’s Son was born in a humble stable, into a poor family.

The first people to hear the news were shepherds, who were keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and a great light shone around them. They were afraid, but the angel told them not to be, because he brought good news of great joy for everyone: a Savior had been born. The sign was a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger. Then a crowd of angels appeared, praising God. The shepherds hurried to Bethlehem and found Mary, Joseph and the baby, just as they had been told. They went back telling everyone, and Mary kept all these things in her heart.

In Spanish-speaking homes, Christmas is lived around the nacimiento. Many families gather on Christmas Eve, Nochebuena, to place the baby Jesus in the empty manger they have kept waiting since Advent, to pray and to share a supper, and many go to the Misa de Gallo, the Mass at midnight. The nativity scene is traditionally traced back to Saint Francis of Assisi, who in 1223 arranged a living Nativity in the Italian town of Greccio so that people could see Bethlehem with their own eyes. Ever since, the Church has loved to place the baby in a manger where we can look at him.

Saint John, who by tradition wrote the fourth Gospel, tells Christmas in a different way. He does not mention the stable or the shepherds. He tells us who the baby is. The Word, who was with God from the beginning, is God’s own Son, and he became a real human being like us. The Church teaches that he did it for us and for our salvation, and it calls this mystery the Incarnation. A baby in a manger is God come close. This is how John says it: