On Nativities

It is finally that time of the year. Christmas is here, and with it, we can see all the houses lit up with Christmas lights; Santa Clauses all over the city posed for pictures with kids; all the TV channels are airing Christmas movies; most of the articles you read here in Catholic365 are about it too. But, on the top of that all, what should be on the house of every Catholic Family is not a Santa toy, but a Nativity Set. So let’s talk about them.

Most think a Nativity Set is, just like Christmas lights, are a decoration, while it goes far beyond that. It should be as a reminder to, at least once a day, make you look at it and think about what happened there and say a little prayer. Whoever had the chance to pray a novena during this Advent, may have also seen the importance of the Nativity Scene, as some of the Christmas Novenas invite you to set up one part of your nativity per day.

But we’ll go a little deeper on this simple, yet full of meaning, image; starting with the obvious. The Nativity represents the Holy Family looking for shelter to have their baby in Bethlehem. As we know, they didn't live there, they went there all the way from Nazareth because the Romans wanted to have a census, and, to do so, every family needed to go to the Husband Father’s town. A little complicated, but we all know already this story. So, they were in Bethlehem, amidst many other families, and they had no place to go – the inns were all full of people. Seeing that mary was just about to have a baby, one innkeeper allowed them to stay; but not inside the inn: outside it, in the stables. After this, Baby Jesus was born, the three Wise Men came, Herod heard that the King of Kings was born and ordered every newborn to be killed. After it, Mary and Joseph ran away to Egypt, where they stood hidden for six years, to then come back to Nazareth.

This is what we all know. It’s in the Gospel. So, I’ll bring it to our reality, nowadays, which may be very polemic, but I hope you understand what I want to say. The story has three main places: Nazareth, Bethlehem and Egypt. Egypt is, of course, Egypt. Nazareth is a city in Israel and Bethlehem is a city in Palestine.

Now let’s look again at the nativity scene. If it’s not about a middle eastern couple desperately looking for shelter, I don’t think I know what it is. Today, the Holy Family would be an Israeli family, sent to Palestine, but with nowhere to go. They are threatened and have to run and hide in another country – Egypt. Today, the Holy Family would be just like another refugee family, running away from a war situation.

This is what got me writing today. I think our role, as Catholics, is not to judge, but to shelter these people, who have nothing to do with all the war situation – they just lost everything they had because of it. No, I’m not asking anyone to receive refugees in your house. It doesn’t need to go that far. I’m asking you not to judge these families.

Let’s stop stereotyping every Muslim as a terrorist, it’s not up to us to judge them. We, Catholics, are asked to love and shelter them, for our Savior came from a family much similar to those.