Reflections on the Nativity
A Monk of the Eastern Church
The Gospel begins with the Genealogy of Jesus Christ.1 What does this long list of Hebrew names mean? For the Jews, the necessity of underlining the descent of the Messias from David. Another meaning is that in this lineage there are murderers, adulterers and incestuous persons. If Jesus is born in my soul, He is born there in spite of and through the accumulation of my sins. Jesus pierces, finds His way through my faults, climbing over them one after the other. It is His genealogy in me. In this break-through shines forth His mercy, His condescension, also His strength.
Mary, bearing the child in her womb, and Joseph, are on their way to be registered at Bethlehem.2 It is not at Rome, nor at Athens, nor at Jerusalem that Jesus wished to be born. So we can find the mystery of Jesus’ birth only in the poor Judean village. We must go up to Bethlehem, become citizens of Bethlehem, acquire — no, achieve — the humble spirit of Bethlehem.
The angels do not simply say to the shepherds that a Saviour is born. They say : “This day is born to you a Saviour.”3 Jesus is born for each one of the shepherds. His birth remains for each one of us a very personal event; Jesus is a gift offered to every man.
There is no room in the inn for Mary who is bearing Jesus, nor for Joseph.4 There is no place in the inn of this world for a disciple of the Master. What dangerous comfort, if I succeed in getting a place for myself there! What do the inn and the manger have in common?
The Magi, divinely warned in a dream, return to their country by another road.5 They must avoid Herod. In the spiritual sense, he whom God has led to the crib can certainly go back home, to his own country, to his house; but it will be by another road. That is to say, the motives, the attitudes, the manner of existing, the means used, can no longer be the same. When one has gone to Bethlehem, a radical change takes place.
It had been revealed to Simeon that he would not die without seeing the Saviour.6 Oh! how much I should like to have such a guarantee! Not to die without seeing Jesus — not to see Him with the eyes of the body, but to see Him (to really see Him) with the eyes of faith! After my death, I hope to see Him differently.
To Simeon was granted more than to see Jesus. He held the child in his arms.7 Lord, let me embrace spiritually the little child.
The angel orders Joseph to take the child and his mother and flee into Egypt.8 There are times when, because we are too weak, it is better to fly from danger, to draw apart from it. But we must take with us what is more precious: take Jesus, take the child in His smallness, in His own weakness, who will strengthen us in our own weakness. With Him we must take His mother, as the beloved disciple took her, after the ninth hour. The mystery of Mary is inseparable from the mystery of Jesus : a mystery of mercy and affection.
(A Monk of the Eastern Church. Jesus: A Dialogue with the Saviour. New York: Desclée Company, 1963.)
St Matthew 1:1
St Luke 2:3
St Luke 2:11
St Luke 2:7
St Matthew 2:12
St Luke 2:26
St Luke 2:28
St Matthew 2:13