The Wonder of the Christ Child
Midnight on Christmas Eve was very special to Padre Pio. As the solemn “Christ mass” began, the Capuchin priest would carry a statue of the Baby Jesus into the small, darkened church of the friary at San Giovanni Rotondo where visitors and fellow friars were holding candles and singing hymns of praise. He would then make his way up to the altar and gently place the statue in the empty manger.
On more than one occasion during this solemn procession, however, witnesses testified that they saw him carrying not a porcelain statue, but the actual Baby Jesus, alive and bathed in an aura of light. The saint’s face would become radiant as he lovingly gazed upon the glowing Child in his arms.
Seven centuries earlier, St. Francis, after a pilgrimage to the Holy Land and seeing the humble stable in a Bethlehem cave where our Lord was born, was deeply moved by the poverty and humility into which our Savior had come into the world. He wanted to recreate and venerate that first Christmas night in a more concrete and visual way. So, on Christmas Eve of 1223 in the hilltown of Greccio, Italy, Francis brought hay, an ox and a donkey, and an empty manger to a cave. St. Bonaventure tells us what happened next:
He stood before the manger, full of devotion and piety, bathed in tears and radiant with joy as the Holy Gospel was chanted. A certain soldier, Master John of Greccio, who had become a dear friend of this holy man, affirmed that he beheld an Infant marvelously beautiful, sleeping in the manger, Whom the blessed Father Francis embraced with both his arms, as if he would awake Him from sleep.
Saint Anthony Of Padua With The Christ Child Gioacchino Assereto (Italian, 1600 – 1649)
St. Anthony of Padua is always depicted holding the Baby Jesus. We’re told that while the saint was traveling, a pious benefactor gave him lodging in a room separated from others. It was night when the owner passed by his room and he observed that rays of light were coming through the cracks of his closed door. Curious, he approached it and saw Anthony kneeling, as if in ecstasy and full of wonder, admiring and caressing a loving child of rare beauty, who was tenderly embracing the saint. It was Jesus who, under the appearance of a loving child, was pleased to visit His faithful servant whose love of Sacred Scripture had helped him to become an extraordinary preacher and teacher of the faith.
Finally, in 1587, Princess Polyxenia of Lobkowitz received a statue of the Infant Jesus as a wedding gift from her mother. (Legend has it the statue originally belonged to St. Teresa of Ávila). In 1628, she donated it to the Discalced Carmelites in Prague where it was venerated in their oratory. In 1631, the Carmelites were forced to flee and were unable to take the statue with them. An army ransacked the city and the Carmelite friary was plundered. The statue was thrown into a pile of rubbish behind the altar where it lay forgotten for years. In 1637, Carmelite Father Cyrillus found it and placed it in the oratory again. Kneeling before it in prayer one day, the Infant Jesus began to speak to him:
“The more you honor me, the more I will bless you.”
The Feast of the Infant Jesus of Prague is celebrated every January 14 toward the end of the Christmas season. Our Savior grants special graces to all who venerate His Infancy. The King of kings and the Lord of lords came into the world as a poor Child. Our devotion to Him as an Infant shouldn’t end when we put the Nativity set away.
“Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 18:3-4)
A joyful, holy, and blessed Advent and Christmas season to you all.
Leonard Moraglio
Parishioner