Gazing closely

In St Peter's Square, in Rome, a large 'Christmas tree' is erected in December, and a Nativity scene is set up, which always arouses appreciation and also criticism, which we will leave out here; likewise, many smaller Nativity scenes are set up under the colonnade of the square, from various parts of the world. And there is a flock of tourists and pilgrims to visit them: and each one, explicitly or not, expresses a preference, for the style, for the characters, for the setting. Everyone goes to see something in those cribs.

Perhaps in many large cities, all over the world, we find something similar; but it is striking, that in St. Peter's, the symbolic place of the Church, so much space is given to seeing with the eyes the representations of the bi-millennial scene of the Nativity of Christ.

 

 

St Francis, too, wanted to see with his own eyes the scene described in the Gospel and so, at Christmas 1223 in Greccio, he "invented" a Sacred representation, which has come down to us under the name of the Crib. He is the inventor. He, in some way, wanted to see with the eyes of the body the hardships in which he found himself due to the lack of things necessary for an infant, how he was laid in a crib and how he lay on the hay between the ox and the donkey (cf. FF 468). There is poetry, yes; but also much realism!

Visiting the Cribs, there are many perspectives with which we do it and elements that strike us when we review them, just as there can be many expressions with which we invoke the Lord and seek Him. Francis had a simple and clear objective: to see the poverty surrounding the birth of Christ, the simplicity of the event. He wanted to see up close, to embrace with his gaze, the closeness of God to man, of a God who makes himself a free gift for man, he who is the Supreme Good, asks to be seen. That is all.

On closer inspection, the search for the Good, realising his closeness, is also the structure of our Franciscan vocation: the primacy of the Good is at the centre of the Franciscan vision of life [...] Our vocation as brothers is realised in consolidating and spreading the good (cf. Ratio, n.63).

The closeness of the other always asks us to adapt a little, to make room for him, so that he is comfortable, and always asks for a gaze that recognises his presence.

The wish is that we, like Francis, are stretched to see God's closeness in our lives, in what we do, in our fraternities, in the faces that crowd our days, in our labours as in the feast of Christmas.

                                

By F. M