by Mrs. Ann Dawn

“And she laid Him in the manger” (Luke 2:7). “This is a mystery,” says St. Thomas of Villanova. Now, wait a minute. What is the mystery here? Even as a young Protestant, I knew about the manger. There was nothing mysterious about that well known scene. Virtually everyone the world over is familiar with the Christmas picture of the Babe lying in the manger surrounded by His Mother, St. Joseph and the stable animals. We Catholics know that the mystery here is that which is unseen: the fact that the Babe is God. That is an awesome fact. But the Babe’s lying in the manger is no mystery, is it? There was no room in the inn and nowhere for Mary to have her Baby, so Joseph found the only available place he could for her which happened to be a stable. From our earliest childhood we have sung, “Away in a manger no place for a bed; the little Lord Jesus lay down His sweet head. . . .” Sweet, sweet scene was my childish thought.

“She laid Him in the manger.” Where is the great mystery in these words? Of course, now in my adult Catholic mind, the illusion of a cozy, sweet stable has been destroyed, with the help of St. Alphonsus’ realism. He writes:

“Jesus is born in the stable of Bethlehem. His poor Mother has neither wool nor down to make a bed for the tender Infant. What does she do then: She gathers together a handful of straw into the manger, and puts Him to lie upon it: “And she laid Him in the manger.” But, O my God, how hard and painful is this bed for an infant just born; the limbs of a babe are so delicate, and especially the limbs of Jesus, which were formed by the Holy Ghost with a special delicacy, in order that they might be the more sensible to suffering. . . . Wherefore the hardness of such a bed must have caused Him excessive pain—pain and shame; for what child, even of the lowest of the people, is ever laid on straw and yet the Son of God had none other on earth than a bed of miserable straw!”

Yes, assuredly the stable was a miserable place, but where is the mystery in Mary laying the Child down? I am a mother, and even a grandmother. I know what it is to hold a baby and to lay it down in its bed. Granted, I have never held a newborn in a stable in the winter when it was cold and damp and there was nothing but straw and an animal feed box to lay the little tiny baby in, and with no cozy warm blankets to tuck around it, and. . . . Wait a minute! I would never do that to my baby!!! and Mary loved her Baby infinitely more than I have ever loved mine.

Why did she put Him down? Why didn’t she hold Him? What was she thinking of?

“She laid Him in the manger.” This is a mystery! St. Alphonsus, clear this up for me, please. Now that I recognize the mystery, I want the solution.

“But why did Mary, who had so earnestly desired the birth of this Son—why did she, who loved Him so much, allow Him to lie and suffer on the hard bed, instead of keeping Him in her arms? This is a mystery, says St. Thomas of Villanova: “Nor would she have laid Him in such a place, unless there had been some great mystery in it.” This great mystery has been explained by many in different ways, but the explanation most pleasing to me is that of St. Peter Damian: Jesus wished as soon as He was born to be placed on the straw, in order to teach us the mortification of our senses: “He laid down the law of martyrdom.” The world had been lost by sensual pleasures. From the time of Adam, multitudes of his descendants had thus been lost. The Eternal Word came from Heaven to teach us the love of suffering; and He began as a Child to teach it by choosing for Himself the most acute sufferings that an infant could endure. It was, therefore, He Himself Who inspired His Mother to cease from holding Him in her tender arms, and to place Him on the hard bed, that He might the more feel the cold of the cave and the pricking of the rough straw.”

“She laid Him in the manger.” Sin and redemption; suffering and the Cross. At untold cost to herself, she obeyed the inspiration of her God and her Son. The foreshadowing of Mary at the foot of the Cross, obediently offering her Son to the Eternal Father. O my dear Jesus, you have laid down the “law of martyrdom” by example. O Mary my Mother, Mother of God, you suffer with the sufferings of Jesus. Please teach me to seek not the pleasures of this life, but to suffer my crosses and trials with patience. From the Manger to the Cross to a glorious Eternity with Jesus and Mary!