Sunday Reflection | We wait in wonder

The Angel Gabriel was sent by God to Mary to communicate God’s glorious plan and await her response: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore, the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God.”

We, too, wait in wonder. Today, the Fourth Sunday of Advent, marks the shortest Advent season possible—mere hours after today’s Sunday Masses we celebrate the Vigil of Christmas. We wait in wonder for the glorious celebration of the commemoration of the Birth of Christ.

Today also marks the 800th anniversary of the first-known Christmas creche—the scene where Our Lady and Saint Joseph welcomed the Christ Child into the world. The place in which this reenactment took place was Greccio, Italy with Saint Francis of Assisi who inspired this live depiction.

The first biographer of Saint Francis, Thomas of Celano, wrote that the Saint desired to present the birth of that Child in Bethlehem in such a way that “with our bodily eyes we may see what he suffered for lack of the necessities of a newborn babe and how he lay in manger between the ox and ass.” Saint Francis, after a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, was inspired to “make real” the scene of His Birth so that the reality of the Poor One, Jesus, may penetrate our hearts. He Who bowed low to our humanity lifts us up to His Glory. Jesus is made real so that all may be drawn toward Love Incarnate. Eight hundred years later, all of our Christmas creche’s – in city squares, church lawns, or our own homes – seek to do the same. They are a powerful, visible reminder of God made man.

Our Holy Father Pope Francis issued the Apostolic Letter Admirabile Signum on the meaning and importance of the Nativity Scene in Greccio, at the Shrine of the Nativity, on December 1, 2019. He beautifully states: “The Franciscan Sources describe in detail what then took place in Greccio. Fifteen days before Christmas, Francis asked a local man named John to help him realize his desire “to bring to life the memory of that babe born in Bethlehem, to see as much as possible with my own bodily eyes the discomfort of his infant needs, how he lay in a manger, and how, with an ox and an ass standing by, he was laid upon a bed of hay”. At this, his faithful friend went immediately to prepare all that the Saint had asked. On 25 December, friars came to Greccio from various parts, together with people from the farmsteads in the area, who brought flowers and torches to light up that holy night. When Francis arrived, he found a manger full of hay, an ox and a donkey. 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.

This is how our tradition began: with everyone gathered in joy around the cave, with no distance between the original event and those sharing in its mystery.

Thomas of Celano notes that this simple and moving scene was accompanied by the gift of a marvelous vision: one of those present saw the Baby Jesus himself lying in the manger. From the nativity scene of that Christmas in 1223, “everyone went home with joy.”

Now in these waning hours of our Fourth Week of Advent, we, too, are invited to journey with the Holy Family from materialism to the manger, from over-indulgence to gospel poverty, and from the pride of modern life to the little town of Bethlehem.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God…and the Word became Flesh and made His dwelling among us.” May Christ be reborn in our hearts so that, as we wait in wonder for the Word to become Flesh again, we may give praise to our God Who is already with us.