To My Boys: October 7, 2020

The first one I confess I am not too clear about. You will notice, if Mary is sitting in the manger she placed the baby Jesus in, why is Jesus portrayed as an older infant instead of a newborn? That question has always intrigued me. Since the Bethlehemite Fathers are no longer around to ask them, I have come up with my own theory. 

 

Maybe it has something to do with the fact that the image is trying to portray a segment of the life of Jesus we don’t have access to from the gospels. What I mean is, the gospels don’t give us any details or really any stories of the middle infancy stage of Christ. Matthew and Luke tell you about his birth, but then it skips all the way to the moment Jesus is about 12 years old and gets lost in the Temple. 

 

Mark and John don’t say anything at all about baby Jesus. Is the image trying to capture, at least artistically, a stage of the life of the Messiah that obviously took place, but to which we have no access? Maybe. Or maybe the image was taken from a vacation trip Mary, Joseph, and Jesus made to Bethlehem. They went by the stable, found the manger, and posed for a picture (or carving). Who knows?

 

The second element I do know about. It refers to the twelve stars that adorn the head of the Blessed Mother. There are actually many images of Mary crowned with twelve stars. It comes from the Book of Revelation, “A great sign appeared in the sky, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars” (12:1). This is the vision St. John had and it refers to the Blessed Mother, not only as the Queen of the Apostles (remember there were 12 of them), but also of the twelve tribes of Israel. 

 

This image beautifully unites both the Old and New Testaments. Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s promise of a Messiah to the people of Israel and Mary made it happen. It is not only Church theologians who understand Mary as queen of the apostles, but also the apostles themselves. It is the reason why she is with them at Pentecost in the upper room when the Church is born. It is the reason she was placed by Jesus himself under the care of John at the foot of the cross. It is the reason why the evangelists assuredly picked her brain about Jesus in order to get the story right in their gospels.

 

Mary is a powerful figure in our faith as Catholics. What extraordinary courage in the face of such strong adversity and hate. Such a young woman who had to stand for what she knew to be right and good, even though many wanted to attack her, threaten her, and even have her killed. She understood that being faithful to God meant she was going to have to face the ugliness of people who would make fun of her and spread ugly rumors about her. Even though she expected it and got it, she always stayed peaceful and faithful. She was the strongest disciple Jesus had. This is why we adopted her as our patroness. In the midst of such a challenging world, in the midst of such adversity and hate, she is the example of courage, faith, and perseverance.