Untitled Homily (2)

Ox and donkey

- I’d like to reflect upon two interesting creatures that appear in every nativity scene: the ox and the ass or donkey

o Every nativity set has these two animals

o When we see beautiful nativity scenes in Churches, or in life-size Christmas displays in town squares in Christian countries, or even in tiny nativity sets for a small bookshelf or table, we always see an ox and a donkey

o It is so interesting because when we look to the Gospels of Matthew and Luke where we learn of the infancy narratives it has no mention of these animals, it only mentions a manger in Luke

- Where does this universal Christian tradition of always including an ox and a donkey at a nativity scene come from?

o To answer this question I’d like to take us to three different times and places

§ The first of course is the time of rural life in Bethlehem of Judea

§ But the second is to the 1200s to an Italian town south of Assisi

§ And finally to the time of Isaiah the prophet who proclaimed God’s word in (mid 700s BC)

o My hope is that by looking at these places we can be renewed in the reality and meaning of Christmas

First let’s look at rural life in Bethlehem at the period when Jesus was born

- Here even a young child can begin to see the basic meaning of the Ox and donkey at the manger scene

o Jesus was born in a stable were animals say, he was laid in a manger where animals eat

o That is why there is an ox and a donkey: to show that he was poor

- When we look to the details of Luke’s Gospel and the history of Bethlehem we see that this meaning is absolutely correct.

o In Luke’s gospel we learn the reason why Mary had to lay Jesus in a manger, it was because “there was no place for them in the inn.”

§ Interestingly the Greek word Luke uses for an “inn” is the same word for upper room and guest room.

§ There was no place for him in the upper room

o A typical house in Judea in the ancient world consisted to two floors:

§ (1) the upper floor which was the living space where a family would sleep, eat, and host guests and

§ (2) the lower floor which consisted of storage, inner courtyard for animals, and a basic kitchen

§ The livestock such as goats, chickens, sheep, a donkey and at times an ox were needed for daily living and sustenance, for travel and work: this is why they would stay in the lower room of the house

§ Likewise, one of the advantages of having the livestock there is that their heat would reach the upper rooms to help keep the house worm

- That there really would have been an ox and a donkey near the manger when Jesus was born makes perfect sense b/c it was typical in rural Bethlehem, but it also begins to teach us the meaning of the Incarnation

o God’s son became poor, literally poor to meet us in our poverty

o Through his poverty and defenseless we finally have access to the love of God and the warmth of his glory

o The brute rawness of an ox and an ass point to the reality of his poverty though which his glory shines

But there were other animals there too so why in our nativity scenes do we have to have an ox and a donkey? We might even ask why is there such a strong tradition of elaborate nativity scenes in the first place?

- These questions lead us to the time of St. Francis of Assisi in the 1200s, to the country town of Greccio in central Italy

o It was actually St. Francis of Assisi who in the Christmas of 1223 was inspired to set up the first full and life-size nativity scene.

o This inspiration likely came from his pilgrimages to Bethlehem in the Holy Land

o There he would have seen the ancient Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem which was built over the location of the traditional spot where Jesus was born

o From this experience “He was moved by the desire for closeness, for reality; he wanted to experience Bethlehem really present, to have a direct experience of the joybrought by the birth of the child Jesus, and to share this with all his friends”

- When he began to set up the first nativity scene the town of Greccio heard about it and joined Francis in this work; here he directed some of the people to bring an ox and a donkey to the nativity scene

o According to his biographer Francis said: “I wish in full reality to awaken the remembrance of the child as he was born in Bethlehem and of all the hardship he had to endure in his childhood. I wish to see with my bodily eyes what it meant to lie in a manger and sleep on hay, between an ox and an ass.”

o That night in Greccio, everyone become aware of the reality of God’s closeness, it renewed in a permanent way the reality of Christmas

o The experience was so strong that the tradition of a nativity scene with an ox and a donkey spread throughout the Christian world.

o It was St. Francis of Assisi who helped give the feast of Christmas its special warmth and humanity, b/c he awakened everyone to the warmth and humanity of God

That is where the tradition of always having an ox and a donkey at a nativity scene comes from but again why specifically these two animals?

- This leads us finally to the time of Isaiah the prophet who in the mid 700s B.C. proclaimed God’s word to a people who had become numb to the reality and nearness of God

o In fact it is in the very first chapter of the book of Isaiah where the prophet speaks to the people using the image of an ox and a donkey

o Isaiah 1:3 “The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master’s crib, but Israel does not know, my people do not understand.”

o Isaiah is saying that these brute animals have more sense than did the people of his time

§ The ox knows the one to whom be belongs

§ And the donkey knows the source of its life and substance

§ But Israel grew numb to the fact that they belonged to God and did not understand that he is the source of their life

o Yet, these words of Isaiah not only were given to awaken God’s people but also are a hidden prophesy of what is to come

§ Ancient Christian writers saw in these words, especially in the ox, the donkey, and the master’s crib, a prophesy of the new people of God, the Church

§ An Ox is simple and faithful

§ A Donkey/ass is humble and peaceful

§ It is precisely with these disposition of humility, fidelity, and peace that we can recognize the master’s crib, that we can understand that God has come among us

- The Image of an ox and a donkey at the nativity, then, help us to see the poverty of Christ, his warmth and closeness to us, and the dispositions we need to recognize the Son of God born among.