It is almost a year since my first blog, and I cannot believe how quickly the year has passed. We now enter the Advent Season and await the coming of the infant Jesus. The most beautiful season in the Church calendar is upon us. There is no better time to reflect on some hidden lessons the Holy Family has to teach us.
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| Nativity scene under our Christmas tree, 30 November 2021 |
In Luke's gospel, Joseph took his pregnant wife, Mary, and travelled about 130 km from Nazareth to Bethlehem to be enrolled for the census. We know enough to realise that St. Joseph was not particularly well off and probably did not own a donkey or cart to make the journey a little easier. So imagine your pregnant wife, with swollen feet, a sore back, and uncomfortable under the weight of carrying the tiny infant in her womb, setting off to travel on foot to the next town.
Bethlehem was full as travellers were coming in from different places and would have been packed with people bumping past each other, make-shift stalls set up to sell things to the incoming travellers. It would have been noisy as long-lost friends shouted across the crowd to greet each other. Indeed, a young woman pregnant and her husband inexperienced on what to expect would have been quite overwhelmed by the crowds of people and trying to avoid Mary's protruding belly from being bumped by some traveller barging past.
It would have been a long journey, and the Holy Family would have longed for a place to rest their heads and regain some energy after the long journey. The accommodation would have been relatively primitive. The innkeeper simply provided a place to stay, fodder for the animals, and a warm fire. The travellers would have brought their own food along. There were no cooler boxes, flasks, or sealed packaging, so imagine the type of food you would bring along for the journey. Suppose St. Joseph had been lucky to get an order before leaving. In that case, he might have been able to afford to buy something from a local trader.
St. Joseph would have gone around searching for some accommodation, but they were too late. There was no room available for them to stay. He would have started to grow concerned where they would rest, then Mary began to go into labour pains, and the place of rest would have been required sooner than later. After wrapping baby Jesus in swaddling cloth, Mary laid him in a manger. Now the word manger literally translated meant the place where animals feed. Jesus could have been laid directly where the animals fed, or it could have meant a stable. Alternatively, it could have been a cave where shepherds took their animals for protection through the night. Either way, imagine bringing a little baby into the world among the animal grunts, smell of dirt, or surroundings where animals had recently rested.
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| Irene Farm, 7 November 2021 |
We often like to visit Irene Farm to take Noah to see the cows, and he loves imitating their sounds with long protracted "Mooooo's." Now the cow pens smell of all sorts of strange things. There are flies and fresh mud (wet from urine and cow dung). Our Lord's first experience of the earth would have been in the environment of a farm-like setting. We also know that Jesus was wrapped in swaddling cloth, a square material with a long bandage strip attached to the corner of the fabric. First, the child was covered in the cloth, and then the strip of bandage was wrapped a few times around the child to keep them snug. Today hospitals have temperature-controlled rooms cleaned every few hours. You receive an instruction pack to bring vests, baby grows, socks, nappies, receiving wraps, and blankets. Jesus had no vest or clothing. He was simply covered in a piece of cloth.
The nativity scene is always portrayed as something very quaint, beautiful, and dreamy. Take a moment and realise that the creator of the universe chose to enter the world in such a humble place, time, and setting. Our Lord is all-knowing and could have timed the angel's message to come after the census to avoid such a situation. Still, he lowered himself to do the will of His Father. The baby Jesus was refused the treatment he truly deserved from his birth, right up to his death as an adult on the cross. Even in death, he did not have a place to lay to rest his body.
It may seem somewhat odd that St. Joseph does not protest or complain to the innkeeper, and he had every right to do so. His wife was pregnant and bore the Son of God. We are quick to make it known when we are concerned or upset. Here St. Joseph knew perfectly well that this child was no ordinary child. It was the Messiah. He could have demanded getting a decent room. He never did this, and we can stop and contemplate, why?!
Mary could have used labour pain as an opportunity to influence the innkeeper to give up a bed to lay Jesus to rest his tiny body, as opposed to the rugged manger. Instead, she chose simply to accept the stable provided to bring God into the world. Why was Mary so obedient?!
"… humility is the foundation of prayer. Only when we humbly acknowledge that "we do not know how to pray as we ought," are we ready to receive freely the gift of prayer. "Man is a beggar before God." (CCC, 2559)
Why is humility the foundation of prayer?
- A prayer of petition is first initiated by asking for forgiveness. The sacrament of confession is a mystery waiting for us to discover its true value. We know the Church suggests we make at least one confession a year, but some of the great Saints were well known for frequenting the confessional even a few times a week. St. John Paul II would often go every three days. Now, we can stop and think about what he could possibly have confessed within three days. Well, he obviously examined his conscience thoroughly and was very alert to his failings and faults, and recognised the importance of returning to a state of grace after even trivial or venial sins. When we regularly frequent the confession, we also prevent any obstacles we cannot visibly see that obstruct us from impacting our relationship with God. We are not on the level of going every few days, but at least trying to go once a month could make a world of wonder in your life.
- A spirit of forgiveness purifies our prayer and allows humility to return to our souls. Confession frees our heart, mind, and soul, allowing us to better enter into a deep and personal prayer with God. When we are free, nagging thoughts no longer keep our focus away from the intimate conversation with God.
- Humility allows the light of the Father and the Son to once more shine in our souls and enables us to live communion with our neighbour. When we make a sincere confession, we humble ourselves before God himself (who works through the meditator, the priest). It is not natural for us to be vulnerable, similar to how a child who has done something wrong is afraid to confess to their parents. However, Our Father in heaven is all-knowing and all understanding. So we are called to be like little children and abandon ourselves in his loving fatherly embrace. If we were to grow in a tiny ounce of humility like that of a child. Our personal prayer would become more genuine as if we talked to the infant Jesus in the manger who is God without the wrath of his all-powerful judgment.
Mary and St. Joseph were so detached from the physical world that unimportant things did not deter them or fill them with worry and anxiety. They saw their whole life as an encounter with God in a physical way as they raised Jesus Christ. Still, God chose them as parents precisely because their life before Jesus exemplified a depth of prayer (or intimate conversation with God). St Joseph was not free from sin but so open to grace his life radiated humble perfection.
When we try to take prayer seriously, we detach ourselves from the time that could have been used for things viewed as necessary from the lens of the world. Still, in the eyes of God, that prayer is transformative. It connects heaven and earth. Our hesitance to spend time in prayer is like Eskom turning off the lights during a virtual meeting. The Wi-Fi goes out and disconnects us, breaking the communication.
Every Advent is an invitation to enter into a deeper, more intimate conversation with the infant Jesus. Mary and St. Joseph are the best teachers on approaching Jesus, and they will teach us how to soothe him, hold him, and care for him through our words of prayer. There is so much that God holds out for us every Advent, and all we need is to ask for the humility to discover the true treasure of Christmas.
"Pride makes us artificial and humility makes us real." (Thomas Merton)
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