In the forty-second year of the reign of Caesar Octavian Augustus, the whole world being at peace, an infant—free of all selfish inclinations—giggled beneath the floor of Bethlehem. His mother, having just given birth in the subterranean stable typical of ancient Israel, was filled with joy. To this cave, shepherds came to bear first witness to the most magnificent glory of mankind. To this dwelling, fit for ox and ass, kings traveled from the east to rest their knees on straw and manure, presenting treasures to a family known to the heavens, but otherwise obscure.
“It was here,” as G.K. Chesterton put it, “beneath the very feet of the passers-by, in a cellar under the very floor of the world, that Jesus Christ was born… [here] the hands that had made the sun and stars were too small to reach the huge heads of the cattle [above].”
In this divine and incongruous jest is the salvation of all mankind. This, the paradox of the Incarnation, resolves all paradoxes and concretely imbues the universe with the logos that gave it meaning when it was first spoken into being.
Our God came to us in a dark and dirty place avoided by respectable men. This Christmas, let us look at the paradoxes of our own lives and notice the resolution Christ has to offer. Let us look to the dark and dirty places where we dare not tread and, in them, see the birth of He who is our salvation. It is in these places, where we best witness the joy of the Incarnation.
Have a Merry and Blessed Christmas,
—Frank J. Connor
Frank J. Connor is the author of The Ridiculous Man and The Progressive Reports. He is a former journalist at Fox News and worked as an analyst at a prominent bond rating agency. Frank graduated from Villanova University in 2019, where he earned a degree in economics and wrote his first book. After years of discernment, he responded to a call to the Catholic priesthood and entered the Order of Saint Augustine in the summer of 2021 where he is currently in formation.
