A Sunday Thought About the Fourth Day of Christmas and How Jesus Was Born to Start the Week Off Right
This Sunday marks the Fourth Day of Christmas. I thought we might look at just how Our Blessed Lord was born those many centuries ago as we continue to celebrate His Incarnation and Nativity. For this we turn to both Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI and the great St Bernard of Clairvaux.
But before we do, let's remember that as children of the Enlightenment, many of us will have to overcome a certain attitude that may prevent us from fully appreciating the miracle of the Birth of Jesus Christ over 2,000 years ago. We need to drop the pretension that we're somehow more rational or intelligent than our forbears. We need to stop being so impressed with the so-called "progress" our world has made from it's supposedly ignorant and superstitious past such that we no longer believe those "narratives," as they're called, about the birth of Jesus Christ. Such perverted thinking reduces the Gospel accounts of His miraculous birth to mere "stories." Maybe there's some symbolic meaning in those ancient words, but surely the gospels of Matthew and Luke aren't meant to be taken literally, right? Just take the virgin birth: nonsense, of course. Not very scientific is it?
Actually, Benedict XVI in his commentary on the birth narratives in the Gospels, points out that it is by neither reasonable nor scientific to assert with any degree of certainty that a virgin birth is impossible. Read that again. It's accuracy is unassailable.
That's the first step we need to take to understand and appreciate St Bernard of Clairvaux's account of the actual birth of Our Lord. As quoted in the “Catholic Replies” feature in a recent edition of the Catholic weekly The Wanderer, St Bernard comments about how Mary gave birth to Jesus, referring to her title “Star of the Sea”:
Now, from Handle's Messiah, the chorus that boldly declares exactly Who was this Babe born in a Manger in Bethlehem. I was especially taken by the photo of the new-born baby that accompanies some of the lyrics. I hope you enjoy it as much as did I.
But before we do, let's remember that as children of the Enlightenment, many of us will have to overcome a certain attitude that may prevent us from fully appreciating the miracle of the Birth of Jesus Christ over 2,000 years ago. We need to drop the pretension that we're somehow more rational or intelligent than our forbears. We need to stop being so impressed with the so-called "progress" our world has made from it's supposedly ignorant and superstitious past such that we no longer believe those "narratives," as they're called, about the birth of Jesus Christ. Such perverted thinking reduces the Gospel accounts of His miraculous birth to mere "stories." Maybe there's some symbolic meaning in those ancient words, but surely the gospels of Matthew and Luke aren't meant to be taken literally, right? Just take the virgin birth: nonsense, of course. Not very scientific is it?
Actually, Benedict XVI in his commentary on the birth narratives in the Gospels, points out that it is by neither reasonable nor scientific to assert with any degree of certainty that a virgin birth is impossible. Read that again. It's accuracy is unassailable.
That's the first step we need to take to understand and appreciate St Bernard of Clairvaux's account of the actual birth of Our Lord. As quoted in the “Catholic Replies” feature in a recent edition of the Catholic weekly The Wanderer, St Bernard comments about how Mary gave birth to Jesus, referring to her title “Star of the Sea”:
“There is indeed a wonderful appropriateness in this comparison of her to a star because as a star sends out its ray without detriment to itself, so did the Virgin Mary bring forth her Child without injury to her integrity. And as the ray emitted does not diminish the brightness of the star, so neither did the Child born of her tarnish the beauty of Mary’s virginity."If you can free yourself of the prejudices, dare we say ignorance and superstition, of our post-Enlightenment modern age, you'll grasp the awesome wonder contained in St Bernard's description. You may even understand and appreciate the probability that these words more likely capture how Jesus was born rather than some purportedly “scientific” insistence that child-birth could not have occurred in such a fashion. After all, this Child born on Christmas Day was not just any child. As surely as He was a man, He was God, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity. Why would such a birth as described by St Bernard not be perfectly reasonable and appropriate in such a circumstance?
Now, from Handle's Messiah, the chorus that boldly declares exactly Who was this Babe born in a Manger in Bethlehem. I was especially taken by the photo of the new-born baby that accompanies some of the lyrics. I hope you enjoy it as much as did I.
Merry Christmas!
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