One of the most famous icons is that of the Nativity. Its symbolism is that of the Creator of the Universe entering history as a newborn babe. The little helpless figure in swaddling clothes represents the complete submission of Christ in the physical conditions governing the human race. Yet He remains Lord of Creation. The angels sing praises. The Magi and the shepherds bring their gifts. The sky salutes Him with a star. The earth provides Him with a cave. The animals watch Him in silent wonder and we humans offer Him one of us, the Virgin Mother.

The lower scenes underline the scandal of the Incarnation. The right-hand scene shows the washing of the infant by the mid-wife and her assistant.

It tells that Christ was born like any other child. The scene in the left portrays Joseph, who, having observed the washing of the infant, is once again assailed by doubts as to the virginity of his spouse.

He is tempted by the devil, who suggests that if the infant were truly divine He would not have been born in the human way. The Mother Mary is in the center, and from her reclining position looks at Joseph as if trying to overcome his doubts and temptations.

 

 

 

Nativity of our Lord (Christmas)

Christ is Born! Glorify Him!

“In those days Caesar Augustus published a decree ordering a census of the whole world. This first census took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria. Everyone went to register, each to his own town. And so Joseph went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee’ to Judea, to David’s town of Bethlehem — because he was of the house and lineage of David — to register with Mary, his espoused wife, who was with child.” (Luke 2:1-5)

With these words St. Luke records the time in history when all things, which according to the prophets were to precede the coming of the Messiah, had come to
pass. The eternal Son of God, having taken flesh from the most pure Virgin by the work of the Holy Spirit, had become man and now was born for the salvation of the
human race. God the Father had, from the fall of our first parents, gradually disposed all things for the fulfilling of His promises and the bringing about of the
greatest of his mysteries — the incarnation of His Divine Son.
The thought and foreknowledge of this mystery had comforted Adam in his banishment; the promise of it sweetened the pilgrimage of Abraham; it encouraged
Jacob to dread no adversary and Moses to brave all difficulties in delivering the Israelites from Egyptian slavery.
All the prophets saw the spirit of the promise which was given to Abraham and they rejoiced. If the expectation of this event gave patriarchs and prophets such joy, how much more ought the accomplishment give us.
This theme is clearly enunciated and summed up as the theme song of the service of Great Compline usually chanted on the eve of Christmas. As verses
from the prophet Isaiah are read aloud, the people respond: “God is with us! Let all nations understand and repent for GOD IS WITH US!”
In a later verse from the Litlja we read: “Heaven and earth are today joined together. Christ is born and today God has come to earth; man has ascended into heaven. Today the unseen is seen in the flesh for the sake of man.’
And in the Vesper service we proclaim: “Come let us rejoice in the Lord Let us proclaim the present mystery ... now shall the cherubim let us all come t~
the Tree of Life. I am returning to the bliss of paradise whence I had been driven by original sin. Behold the image of the Father has taken the form of a servant
Let us raise our voices in hymns and sing: 0 God, born of the Virgin, have mercy on us.”
Thus, what the Church sees in the nativity is not simply that sentimental picture of the babe of Bethlehem. In the descent of God to man, the Church
celebrates a reality which can be perceived and understood by faith alone — the beginning of the action which is to bring man back to God.
God became man so that man could in some way become God. Certainly then, a celebration of the nativity of Christ which sees the feast as solely the celebration of the temporal birth of Christ is a mistaken notion of the feast am
never intended by the Church. How can we seriously beg of God that the Savior be born when, in fact, he was born centuries ago. Even when one considers the expectation of the patriarchs and prophets we must realize that the human birth of Christ was not, in itself, the object of their hope. They hoped for the advent of the Kingdom of God, for the visible destruction of the powers of evil, for the abolition of sin and death and for the manifest appearance of God to His people.

 This, we know, will come about in fullness only at the second and glorious coming of Christ, “At Christmas,” says
St. John Chrysostom, “Christ came not so as to shake the world at the presence of majesty; not in thunder and lightening as on Sinai, but He came quietly, no man knowing it.”
The hope and expectation of the patriarchs and prophets must be our hope as we celebrate Christmas. This temporal event is only the beginning of all these things. Far from satisfying our hopes, Christmas serves only to intensify them,
Our Christmas hope is now the hope and longing for the second and glorious coming when Christ will begin to reign gloriously, visibly and forever. Our hope is fed and nourished with the Bread of Heaven — the flesh of the Son of Man.
But this bread has been given us only to bring us to the Kingdom of the Resurrection when it is no longer under a veil that we meet the Master but face to face.
 

 

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