The stable, made of stones and frequented by animals, was in a completely remote region. Cold, damp, and dark, it could not have been more inhospitable for the cradle of the King of the universe.
Newsroom (20/12/2021 10:47, Gaudium Press) After millennia of waiting, the Son of God will finally be born, and this grandiose fact will take place due to humble secondary causes, determined, apparently, by the natural course of things.
Jesus, under normal conditions, was to be born in Nazareth, the town where his parents lived, and where he would find, at least, a simple but dignified house, a cradle, and domestic warmth.
According to the prophecies, however, Jesus’ birth would take place elsewhere.
He could order the Angels to build the most beautiful palace in history, unattainable by the human creature, to come into the world there. But these were not the divine designs.
Our Lord gives us a lesson, choosing to be born in one of the smallest towns in Judah, the insignificant house of bread, in the most hidden and poorest place, a cave.
Jesus, of eternal origin and infinite supremacy, wanted to teach us the opposite of what sin suggests. If this was a revolt by man in order to subvert the order and equalize himself with God, the Redeemer, seeking the least important city, reminds us that we should be humble.
So why did He choose a stable?
For the benefit of humanity and the glory of his Only Begotten, God wanted to make the contrast between the human and divine aspects of Christmas sharp, so that we would not pay more attention to the human aspects than to the divine.
After original sin, our nature became so crude that if the Child Jesus were born in a sumptuous palace, many people would stop to admire the building and relegate the Savior to a secondary place.
The cave, the ox and the donkey, and even the absence of witnesses other than Mary and Joseph were providential elements to make Christ’s divinity shine out in a special way.
God wanted to show that He didn’t need a splendorous place to enter the history of humanity; all He needed were chosen and providential souls like Our Lady and St. Joseph, and the rest He would do.
Msgr. João Scognamiglio Clá Dias, EP
Text taken, with adaptations, from the book São José: Quem o conhece? Saint Joseph: Who Knows Him?
