Nativity lessons

In Umbria the truth of the Nativity was revealed to me

Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O�Connor

12 December 2007

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Life in Italy as a student priest

There is no mention of an ox or an ass in any of the Gospels. The only animals mentioned are the sheep the shepherds tended in the fields, and none of the Gospels says that the shepherds brought their sheep with them. What Francis and his friend the nobleman Giovanni of Greccio staged on Christmas Eve in 1223 has been portrayed ever since in paintings and carvings, on calendars and Christmas cards, even in the carols we sing. This was the way that extraordinary young man from Italy helped people realise that Jesus of Nazareth was born not in a noble palace or in any kind of comfort, but in extremely humble surroundings. His biographer puts it poetically: Francis ‘wanted the poor and hungry to sit at the tables of the rich, and oxen and asses, the humble beasts who had warmed the cold body of the baby Jesus with their breath, to be given more than the usual amount of grain and hay’. He also wanted to ask the emperor to make a law commanding people ‘to scatter corn and other grains along the roads so that the birds might have an abundance of food on such a great solemnity, especially our sisters the larks’. The animals were welcome there because Francis thought the birth of Jesus had an effect not just on the human race but on every living creature, indeed on the whole of creation. A powerful idea!

Saint Francis also wanted to share his own experience of visiting the Holy Land with people who would probably never go there. In fact, to this day the Catholic Church entrusts care of its shrines there to the Franciscans. I was there myself just a year ago. It is obviously moving, and a privilege, to visit the places made sacred by the presence of Jesus 2,000 years ago, and a constant stream of pilgrims ever since. But I came away with a heavy heart, because of the continuing tensions, which mean that even now most Christians in Israel and the Palestinian-controlled territories cannot travel a few miles to celebrate the birth of Christ in Bethlehem itself. The political difficulties are myriad but any solution must create space for Christians, as well as Jews and Muslims, in the city that is holy for them all.