The Birth of Jesus

Catholic presentation

The third joyful mystery

The artist shows Mary looking lovingly at her Baby son.  Her labour over, she has no further cares at this moment than to gaze upon her son and Lord.  If ever your mind boggled at the thought of God becoming man, imagine her wonder now: for the first time, she sees the child that God has conceived with her.  We marvel at the concepts, she beheld the reality.

If she seems remarkably unaffected by the physical aspects of the labour, then perhaps that's the artist's take on her perpetual virginity.  Some people have suggested that Mary will have experienced the pains of childbirth as other mothers do.  Others hint at the opposite: that as the Church teaches that even her physical virginity remained intact during giving birth, then being free from all sin, she was even spared the pain of childbirth.  In that understanding the birth process was all the more exceptional.  The argument seems to show that God fully reciprocates according to our spiritual state.  My experience is that sometimes God does bless and confirm our actions explicitly, at others He holds off doing so for good reason.  And we know that Mary was not spared other later sufferings linked to Jesus' own death on the cross.  So while the arguments are good, my mind remains open on them.  But it's worth pondering on what our good God intended for us, had we never gone astray.

Unlike Mary, Joseph (shown here standing behind her) seems much more in the 'here and now'.  Perhaps he is pondering what is to come.  What this divine child's life is going to be like?  Could he have anticipated the great upheavals his family would suffer?  Only days later they would leave everything and run as refugees.  But for now, Joseph must try and enjoy the fact that Mary has safely delivered, and they appear much like any other normal growing family.

Yet the two shepherds on the left of the picture, force Joseph to confront reality.  They speak of the Angel's message that a saviour has been born today!  Joseph is becoming all too familiar with the reality of Angel's messages: first in a dream, and now out in the fields, each time they herald upheaval for him.  But then he remembers the Angel's assured and confident tone in his dream.  And not just any angel, but the Angel of the Lord.  So he can relax.  All he has to do is his bit.  God knows what Joseph is capable of, and everything else is up to God.  After all, Joseph didn't have to announce the birth to all the shepherds!  No, God is directing events, and Joseph only has to do what any father would.  So he takes courage, and so should we: God is in charge and we only have to do our bit.

Yes the world is troubled, but we are not its saviour: Jesus is.  Where we can help, we must, but where we can't we must put those cares into His hands.  And in doing so let's recognise the Holy family that opened the door to our salvation: let's pray raising up our concerns of the day, to the Father, through the providence of the Son, invoking the maternal prayers of Mary, and the resourceful prayers of Joseph.