December 22, 2008 - I wonder if those arguing about manger scenes in public squares in the US really understand the story. The scene is usually quiet and poetic. No dirt, cute animals, and pretty...

The manger can only be understood if you spent time in poorer countries. People live not much better than that. A family with five kids in a house with three rooms...plus (in the Middle East) a roof to sleep on, and a lower room to house the sheep.

This was what Mary faced: Having a baby, when there was no private room for her to do so. The thought of a quiet, private area which had animals is not as shocking as it seems: at least she didn't have the baby on the street, and undoubtably St Joseph got a relative to help her with the labour.

Joseph and Mary were poor, but not destitute. He lived similar to the majority of people in the history of the world: working, marrying and begetting and finding happiness and support in one's family.

Yet all the time,a drought, an epidemic, a storm, an earthquake,political problems, a passing army or banditry, or any number of things could mean you lose your home, or even death for you and all of those you love.

So Jesus' birth is not so much a poetic story for people to ponder as a realistic story that could be faced by the majority of people over the last two thousand years.

St. Francis, seeing how the poor people had lost sight of that reality, made the first manger scene, using real people and real animals... and suddenly, the story was not of angels and miracles, but a story that everyone could relate to: A simple child who was born to ordinary parents, but that child was God.

Too often, in pagan worlds (and in the modern society that worships fame and fortune) the "superior"people are those who are rich or famous or powerful. Those who are lesser beings are seen as unimportant to the world.

But God didn't come into the world as a man in a cloud of light, nor was he born of a queen in a palace.

He came as a baby, born in the stable because the house was crowded. And if God could be born and live as an ordinary village worker, that means that every farmer and carpenter and mechanic and small shopkeeper's life has dignity.

The world worships youth and beauty, but sees the child as a burden, a "choice" to be aborted when inconvenient to the parents.

God sees the child as a symbol of hope.

So mangers are anathema to the culture of death...is it any wonder that the richest land on the earth suddenly is facing opposition to the story of a baby born in poverty?



Nancy Reyes is a retired doctor living in the Phillipines. She is the author of a number of blogs including Finest Kind Clinic and Fishmarket.

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