What were the top posts here during the last year? Which posts did the most people read? Here’s the Top 10 list of 2021… do some sound familiar? It’s because so many people read them–maybe even you! Click the links to read the ones you might have missed.
Satan Bound for 1,000 Years on August 30–read it here if you missed it before
Religion Pure and Undefiled on October 19–read it again
Keep your eyes peeled for the new posts coming in 2022! (Some readers might be asking, “If these were the most popular posts of this past year, what was the most popular post ever in the history of the blog?” This was the all-time most read post ever.
For while all things were in quiet silence, and the night was in the midst of her course, Thy almighty Word leaped down from heaven from thy royal throne, as a fierce conqueror into the midst of the land of destruction, with a sharp sword carrying thy unfeigned commandment, and he stood and filled all things with death, and standing on the earth, reached even to heaven. (Wisdom 18:14-16)
St. Luke tells us that there were shepherds in the field at night who were told by angels that Christ had been born. But the Gospel does not say that Jesus was born at night. Many readers simply assume that the angel appeared to the shepherds at night as Christ was being born. But that is not explicitly stated in the Gospel. The idea that Christ was born at midnight developed over time and was especially influenced by this text from the Book of Wisdom.
The passage from Wisdom is describing the Word coming down to slay the firstborn of Egypt at the time of the Exodus. The Word comes to redeem the Chosen People, slaying their enemies and leading them from bondage and death into freedom and life. This text was understood by the early Christians as also referring to the descent of the Word into Hell on Holy Saturday to destroy Death and Hell, leading the human race to salvation and life. This descent into Hell and Resurrection was the focus of the Easter Vigil. Over the centuries, the celebration of Easter Eve influenced the celebration of Christmas Eve and the descent of the Word at midnight was applied to Christmas as well as Easter.
Some early Christians did think that Christ was born at midnight even before this became a common idea influenced by the Wisdom passage. The Protoevangelium in the second century describes Christ’s birth at night and how the newborn baby filled the stable-cave with light that was so bright Joseph and the midwives he had gone to find could not enter the cave when they arrived. Gradually, as the light faded, they saw that Christ had been born already and was nursing at his Mother’s breast.
There was always brilliant light when God appeared in the Old Testament. Moses could not enter the Tent of Meeting because the light of God’s glory was too bright. (Exodus 40:35) The priests could not enter the Temple to serve when Solomon dedicated it because the light was too bright. (1 Kings 8) Many Christmas cards show beams of light shining from the manger and we sing about the bright beams of light from Christ’s face in Christmas carols.
Christ’s life begins and ends in a borrowed cave–the stable and the tomb. The light shines in the darkness when the Word descends at night into that stable and even to the dark depths of Hell to save the world. God’s activity to save–whether at the Exodus, at the Nativity, or at the Death and Resurrection–is always the same: he comes down to where we are and finds us there, no matter how dark that place is.
In these icons of the Nativity (on the left, a 12th century fresco from Cappadocia; on the right, a Coptic icon), we see the newborn Christ being washed by the midwives (lower right corner of the Coptic icon). In many depictions of the midwives washing the newborn Christ-child (as above), the cistern or tub they use looks similar to the paten on which the Holy Bread is offered in the Eucharist to become the Body of Christ. Jesus as identified as the Lamb of God offered to the Father from the moment of his birth. In the Coptic icon, we also see the shepherds around the midwives watching a flock of white sheep and black goats–the righteous and the sinners Christ is born to save.
“Doubting midwife?” Where did she come from? There is no mention of a midwife in Matthew’s or Luke’s account of Christ’s nativity. This woman is the “Doubting Thomas” of the Nativity cycle.
According to the Protoevangelium, Joseph brings the Blessed Virgin to Bethlehem but as there is “no room at the inn,” he settles her in a stable–a cave, not a barn–as her labor begins. He goes to find midwives to assist in the birth.
Joseph quickly finds a pair of local midwives and brings them back to the stable-cave but none of them can enter because of the brilliant light shining within. As the light gradually fades, they are able to see the Virgin and the newborn baby. They enter and begin to tend to mother and child.
The first midwife washes and examines the new mother and is startled to discover that Blessed Mary is still a virgin. She reports this to the other midwife who doubts this and reaches out to examine Blessed Mary herself. But her hand withers as it nears the Virgin’s birth canal and even feels as if it were burning. She quickly withdraws her hand but it remains paralyzed and withered; as she struggles to assist in washing the newborn baby, she is healed by touching the child or by the water splashing from the tub–different versions of the story report both styles of healing. This second, doubting midwife proclaims that the new mother is indeed still a virgin and that the miraculous withering-healing of her hand is the sign of this and the miraculous nature of the new baby.
The midwife–who is eventually identified as Salome, possibly the same Salome that brings myrrh to Christ’s tomb with Mary Magdalen–has the same experience as Moses at the burning bush. Moses’ hand withers and is struck with leprosy because he asks for proof that it is truly God who is speaking to him. Isaiah is purged by a burning coal from the heavenly altar, just as the midwife’s hand feels as if it is burning. The midwife exclaims, “Woe is me! Because of my lawlessness and unbelief!” just as Isaiah exclaimed, “Woe is me! I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell among a people of unclean lips!” The midwife’s healing is also an allusion to the healing of the woman with the 12-years issue of blood who is healed simply by touching the hem of Christ’s garment in the crowd.
Just as the Apostle Thomas says he will not believe that Christ is risen unless he touches the wounds in Christ’s hands and side, the midwife cannot believe the report of the first midwife unless she also touches the evidence of the miracle. The disbelief of the apostle and the midwife is healed by touch; both Thomas and Salome testify to the truth of God’s action in the world because they have handled the evidence themselves.
Why is it important that the Mother of God remain ever-virgin? Her perpetual virginity is a safeguard of our status as brothers and sisters of Christ; if she had other biological children who were biological relatives of Christ, it would relegate Christian believers to second-rank status in the Church. Some members–the biological relatives–would be MORE the “brothers and sisters of Christ” than other believers who were not biological relatives. In order to avoid this two-tier system in the Church and to prevent a dynasty of Christ’s relatives from ruling the nascent Christian community, it was important that Mary have no other biological children. (We see in the Gospels themselves that she had no other children or Christ would not need to commend her to the care of St. John, the Beloved Disciple, at the Crucifixion. Those people the Gospels refer to as Christ’s brothers and sisters were his cousins or stepbrothers and stepsisters, the children of Joseph’s first marriage.)
Read my prior post about the stable-cave in which Christ was born here.
Read my prior post about the goldfinch often seen in portrayals of the Virgin and Child here.
