Fr. Dr. Martin N Antony, OdeM

Christmas is the day when history changed its course. Until then, history had been a linear development from small to large. It was about the have-nots living under the haves. It was about the weak being oppressed by the strong. But on that night when the angels sang a song of joy, the flow of history up to that point in time ends. A baby is born in Bethlehem, and a new history begins. It flows in the exact opposite direction to the old history. God comes down to man. Big becomes small. Heaven descends. City seeks the village. The manger becomes a temple. Wisemen wander in search of a baby.

The insignificant God: This is Christmas. This is the divine logic that has broken through history. That night is the axis of history. Ages, days and nights will dance around it. That manger will become the place of eternity. The God who created man from clay has come down to the same soil. The great potter becomes a beautiful pot.

• Baby in the Manger

“She gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger” (Luke 2:6-7). The manger – in Greek, φάτνῃ (phatnē), also means crib; a place reserved for animals. It is the last resort of a pregnant woman who has been neglected by inns. From there resounds the cry of a new-born baby. The gentle caress of a mother flows like a breeze to that tender baby wrapped in swaddling clothes. The loving God experiences the love of a mother and father in a coop in Bethlehem. God has become a baby! Mother breastfeeds him. Father protects him. If that baby-God is to survive on this earth, he needs the love and care of those parents. A God who lives by our love! A God who is protected by men! Mary and Joseph are the people who are attentive to the will of God. This child, when he grows up, will teach us the same thing: be attentive to God’s will. Then we will pray; hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done.

• Distance from the Manger

Manger is a place where the One, who has no place to lay his head, is born. The foxes have dens and the birds in the sky have nests (cf. Luke 9:58). He is the one who has no place to be buried (cf. Matthew 27:60). He still wanders like a vagabond. He comes and knocks at every door, hoping that it will be opened (cf. Revelation 3:20). The inns that were not opened at the time of his birth are still closed.

The insignificant God: This is Christmas. This is the divine logic that has broken through history. That night is the axis of history. Ages, days and nights will dance around it. That manger will become the place of eternity. The God who created man from clay has come down to the same soil. The great potter becomes a beautiful pot.

Eastern Christians are those who present their theology through icons. There is an icon in which the manger appears to be a coffin. The icon indicates that Christmas opens its doors to the light of Easter. The distance from the manger to the cross is the measure of history.

• House of Bread

Manger is a diner where food is served; not for humans, but for animals. Food is always sacred. It is an element that preserves the sacredness of life. The entire universe is in food. It contains the sun, the moon, the rain, the stars, the birds, the animals, the plants, etc. At the same time, it contains the sweat and labour of man.

In Bethlehem – the house of bread – a baby is laid in a manger. Tomorrow that baby will say: “I am the bread of life”. He is an edible God. Bread, at the same time, is a beautiful and terrible symbol, a nourishment that passes through millstone and fire, a biological symbol of kenosis. God becomes bread and dissolves in you. It is in this moment that the incarnation of God reaches its perfection. God dissolves into you and becomes you! Tomorrow, that child will teach us a heavenly transformation that will alter the word into bread, just as the Word took flesh.

Look into the eyes of that child. They are the eyes of God. The hunger of that child is the hunger of God. The hands that the child lifts to his mother are the hands of God reaching out to us. The one who walked the celestial path rests pleasantly in his mother’s arms. The strong one has become weak! This is the logic of love. When our logic and calculations stumble, remember that God’s logic takes a different direction.

• Caesar’s Census

The Evangelist Luke portrays the birth of Jesus as a small incident within a major event in world history. Caesar’s census is the historicity of his birth. It is a period when the tyranny eroded the spirit of the people. The census of the population in the Roman Empire begins with the idea that the ruler needs to control everyone. The census is a sign. A sign that your life is only a means to fill the treasury of the state. A sign that you are just a number. It is at this moment, when man has become a number, the history takes a different direction.

When darkness has firmly gripped history, God revealed himself as light. When rulers began to determine the future of the world with the point of the sword, a baby was born in Bethlehem. From now on, men are no longer numbers. They are brothers and sisters of the Son of God. History, behold, has taken a different path. In Bethlehem, God sanctifies the dignity of man. If the world has a capital, it is the place where the Saviour was born; Bethlehem.

When darkness has firmly gripped history, God revealed himself as light. When rulers began to determine the future of the world with the point of the sword, a baby was born in Bethlehem. From now on, men are no longer numbers. They are brothers and sisters of the Son of God. History, behold, has taken a different path. In Bethlehem, God sanctifies the dignity of man. If the world has a capital, it is the place where the Saviour was born; Bethlehem.

• God in the Manger

The Evangelist Luke describes the birth of Jesus in seven verses (2:1-7). The balance and brevity of the lines reveal the beauty of God who intervenes in history. God becomes man. Yes, God becomes a child. He chooses a crib far from royal palaces. He transforms it into a place of eternity. In the silence of night, among the poor, God is born.

No new born child inspires fear. That child trusts in everyone, and is loved by everyone. He is a God who scares no one, a God who wants to love and be loved. The birth of that God is the fulfilment of history. The birth of that God is a new axis on which the ages, days and nights dance.