This classic icon has several interesting details. You can read about the ox and the ass in this article. Notice that the Baby Jesus is wrapped up like a mummy. This foreshadows his burial in the tomb. Notice, too, that the manger resembles a crown of thorns, which foreshadows the Lord’s Crucifixion. These details remind us that the ultimate reason for the Lord’s Incarnation and birth into this world was to offer Himself as a sacrifice for our sins so that we might be born into heaven.
My assignment as a teacher at Kolbe Cathedral High School in Bridgeport afforded me a certain insight into the mind of the teenager. I found that mind to be a peculiar and attractive mix of quasi-mature thinking and childlike wonder and awe; just the qualities necessary to ponder the mystery of Christmas, and just the sort of mind required to process the legend I recount here.
When I was a child my mother once told us that on Christmas Eve at midnight when the Christ child was born God gave animals the power to speak so that they might give praise to the new-born king. She also mentioned that some people say that animals to this day will speak at midnight on Christmas Eve.
Being a boy of about 11 at the time and living on a small farm in rural Arkansas complete with cows, pigs, an un-mountable curmudgeon of a horse, chickens, and an odd assortment of other creatures of God, I leapt at the opportunity to sneak out to the barn at about 11:45 on Christmas Eve to discover whether the animals could indeed speak.
Before I relate my experience to others, I consider it necessary to define all my terms and outline my research process.
According to reliable dictionaries a “legend” is a) a story coming down from the past, especially one popularly regarded as historical but not verifiable; b) a body of such stories; c) a popular myth of recent origin; etc. We could summarize these definitions and express the common connotation of the word by saying that a legend is a story generally thought not to be true. However, the Latin word legenda, from which our word comes, literally means “things which ought to be read”. Our next question may be, “Why ought they to be read?” The answer undoubtedly would be “Because they have something to teach us”.
In the second place, I was unable to find among my dusty old books any reference to the legend of the talking animals. This forced me to turn to the internet, a wholly unreliable, and as far as I am concerned, completely loathsome source of information. Here I found very little beyond the retelling of my mother’s legend with the suggestion that it comes originally from Scandinavia.
My third consideration was the fact that most Nativity scenes, whether those painted by the great masters or the little ceramic one my family had when I was young, include an ox and an ass present at the birth of the Savior. The reason for this is that the Prophet Isaiah, at the very beginning of his extended discourse on the Messiah, delivers a withering insult to the Israelites: “An ox knows its owner, and an ass its master’s manger; but Israel does not know, my people has not understood” (Is 1:3). In other words, the early Christians, poring over the Old Testament for prophecies of the Messiah, interpreted this passage to mean that the dumb animals knew who the Savior was but the Israelites did not.
Finally, by not recording it, the Gospels leave open the question of whether animals talked at the Savior’s birth. I am not a trained zoologist, but I am rather sure that animals are unable to speak.
So, what of my experience? That cold and crisp Christmas Eve I tip-toed to the barn very quietly as not to startle the sleeping animals. Although I took care that they would not hear my approach, it did not occur to me that they would smell me, but because they were quite familiar with my odor they were not disturbed. I waited, and while I waited, I heard the sounds of the animals breathing, an occasional snort or grunt, and the idle swish of a tail. I listened for what seemed to me to be a long time, and I thought about that first Christmas Eve over and over. At last I began to hear what the animals had to say.
I pray you all a blessed Christmas and encourage you to find a barn, or some similar place, in which to ponder the mystery of Christmas.
Fr. Ringley
Pastor
