December 2023
Bethlehem: God's Masterplan
In public places where Christmas Nativities are still allowed they evoke joy in the hearts of believers: as much for the counter-cultural message they convey, as for the silent power with which they proclaim it.
Tailored to a hi-tech age that eschews the literary for the visual, these cribs of endearing simplicity, goodness and timeless beauty quietly affirm the fundamentals of our holy Faith: the sanctity of life, marriage and familial love, while proclaiming the Holy Child as the indispensable fulcrum on which everything depends and turns.
At a glance, in other words, Nativities recall the elementary non-negotiable solutions to all the problems of a world spiralling ever faster and deeper into conflict, tyranny and madness:
1. Placing Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ at the centre of every endeavour of whatever scale: international, national, local, or personal;
2. Fidelity to His familial design for human existence and its fruitful, orderly sustenance and prosperity.
Although announced imperceptibly in the hidden confines of a chilly grotto, and re-presented each year in tranquil tableaux, the silent message is deafening. Not even the exceedingly noisy Culture of Death can drown out the affirmations of the natural law of life and love presented at Bethlehem. As St. Irenaeus of Lyon explains in his ensuing meditation, this "law rooted in our hearts" makes truths knowable even without supernatural assistance: commonsense truths that constitute reality.
And so, in those places where they have not been supplanted by Santa (at best), or blasphemous depredations of the homo-collective (at worst), at least for a short merciful moment the salvific Truth of the Incarnate Word and His plan for mankind is heard above the hellish cacophony seeking to upend reality; to refashion the familial bedrock He created in His own image, and made manifest in His Holy Family.
This delight before the glorious designs of Almighty God is tempered, however, by the same tragic scene that was to sadden the Child thirty years later; namely, the sight of "sheep that have no shepherd" (Mk 6:34) — aimless crowds who look upon the heartwarming scene but, like their leaders, do not see.
They ever recall the question posed by the adult Christ. "Can the blind lead the blind?" He asked.To which purely rhetorical question He might simply have answered: 'No. Obviously not. They will stumble and fall.' Instead, He preferred to underline that "both will fall into the pit." [Matt. 15:14] The "pit," of course, is the repository of errors and unbelief that leads to Hell; the fate of those held captive in ignorance of His birth, life, and resurrection: "For if you believe not that I am he, you shall die in your sin." [Jn 8:24]
Two thousand years on, we inhabit that living hell. Blinded by a "diabolical intelligence" — comprising fallen 'angels of light' and their unwitting human surrogates high and low — both unbelievers and those who feign belief are dying in their sins as they blithely follow their blind leaders into pits of their own making; not least the papally-overseen social gospel-excavations being dug with self-righteous zeal by the synodal Counter-church.
Regardless, even the World Wars failed to 'cancel' Christmas cheer and peace among men of goodwill! The daily horrors only served to evoke deeper understanding and appreciation: of the Holy Child, and the divine and natural order embodied in the intact family unit through which He chose to enter into the world of His own making; thereby to elevate it as a prime instrument of sanctification and salvation.
So it is with today's signa temporum: thefrenetic, multi-faceted, total war being waged by Hell against Heaven and earth — against the order of God's creation in general, and Christ and His followers in particular — only intensifies our gratitude for Nativity scenes. For, each crib stands as a bulwark against the Evil One and his minions now raging against the familial love, life and stability they simply and beautifully express. Indeed, Heaven itself assured us (via Sister Lucy) that this is the final battle.
Let's rejoice, then, in the grace of the lessons trumpeted with serene and silent power each Christmas. Thus fortified, let us march into this ultimate war bearing our victorious standard — the Word made flesh — in one hand, and our Bethlehem blueprint — the Father's familial masterplan — in the other! Alleluia! Alleluia!