The Catholic Sense: The Infancy Insanity

Here comes the obligatory Christmas post. I’ll be taking a new look at Christmas, though. Here’s a question. Have you ever considered just how insane the idea of Christmas is? There’s a tapestry hanging in the Vatican that helps demonstrate this. It was painted by Raphael and then woven in Brussels in the 1500s. It’s called The Adoration of the Magi, but it points out another truth. Here’s the tapestry.

Ordinarily, the focus of the tapestry would be on the Christ-child in the middle. But the first crazy thing about Christmas isn’t in the middle. No, look to the left. There is a crowd of shepherds standing about. These were the first people to hear about the birth of Christ. It wasn’t the mighty kings or the great priests. No, it was the shepherds. The dirty poor. The men who were doing the job nobody wanted to do. They were stuck out in the fields with no companions but sheep all day and night. Men like this:

These were the first people to hear about the birth of GOD. The God of the Universe, who made the heavens and the earth, who destroyed the entire world BECAUSE HE COULD (see Noah’s Ark). The God no one could look upon and live. The God who would destroy the Israelites simply by walking among them. This very same God chose these poor shepherds to be the first people to adore him. These lowly shepherds who were stuck in the fields. He passed over the rich, the mighty, the kings, the princes of the world. He chose these shepherds.

But that’s not even the strangest part of Christmas. No, the strangest part of Christmas is this: The baby. Let’s take a second and think about it. The God of the Universe, who made the heavens and the earth, God of hosts, who commands the winds and the seas, became a BABY. We tend to glorify the baby. We forget that a baby looks like this.

We talk about how God humbled himself and became man, but have you ever considered what that means? The infinite power that created everything contained itself. That which has no bounds became bounded. But not only did he become bounded, he became entirely defenseless. A baby. This baby was stuck in a manger. God was man. Not just a man, a baby. Not just a baby, a baby in an ox’s feeding trough. And he wasn’t just in a feeding trough, he was stuck in a cave that was used as a stable. So here, let’s paint that picture for you.

Not quite what the nativity scenes and Christmas crèches show, is it? Now, not only is this baby special, we’re supposed to WORSHIP this baby. This newborn child demands our adoration. We are to come to the manger and kneel and worship. Coming and kneeling out of respect is not enough. No, we are to come and worship. A newborn baby, and we are to worship it. This is the message of Christmas.

It’s not this.