At
Mass yesterday Father observed that the Christmas season ends with Jesus the
man. All at once, a week after Epiphany,
we fast forward from baby Jesus to the thirty-year-old Son of the Carpenter
being baptized by his cousin. It’s fast,
but as any mother can tell you, kids grow
so fast.
Children
grow fast, and rightly so. For as charming
as children are, a child who never ceases to be a child would be a pitiful
thing. Jesus in the manger is wondrous because He is the King of Glory; if He
never advanced to the full manifestation of his glory, then the manger scenes
would not be wondrous but pathetic. That
is why much of the best Christmas art and music already hints, like the feast
of the Baptism, at Jesus’s mission.
Without that overtone or undertone of awe and sadness, the manger scenes
become sentimental, kitschy. With it,
they contain all the complexity of human life: its threat and its promise.
No comments:
Post a Comment