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Show THE CHRISTMAS CRIB; THE CHRISTMAS TREE. (Written for The Intermountain Catholic.) Cath-olic.) The holidays are nigh; the joy and mirth of celebration are' already rampant, ram-pant, and the merry peals of the joy-bells joy-bells will soon fill the air. The song of the angels, will be heard in the hills, and the Star of the Wise Man will shine in the heaven of the soul. We will kneel before the crib and offer of-fer our new born Savior the triple tribute tri-bute of our hearts, gold, frankincense frankin-cense and wyrth, the gold of our hom age, because He is King; the frankincense frankin-cense of adoration, because he Is God, and myrrh of love and gratitude, because He became man through love of us. We shall see all the pomp and splendor of the Church ptu forth in her celebration of that mystery which has given joy to angels and hope to man the magnificence of her liturgy, the stateliness of her ceremonial, the eloquence of her ministry, the melody of her music unrivalled and inimitable; inimi-table; her altars laden In a wealth of nature's beauty and art's perfection. perfec-tion. And now, It will be a timely i thought to ask ourselves, .what Is the meaning of it all? Faith answers: It is the zeal of the loved for the lover, of hte spouse for thTfluegrodmTfcIt is the expression of the : creature's gratitude for the Creator's beneficence. bene-ficence. But why make use of the vain pomp and beauty of the natural and finite to enhance the unchangeable glory and magnificence of the supernatural super-natural and Divine? We are composite beings, formed of two distinct substances,-' the one spiritual and the other material. The spiritual part, that is, the soul, is a prisoner in the material part, the body, andw hile the union of soul and body exists, the soul can - perceive things, receive impressions 1 and acquire ac-quire knowledge only through the narrow nar-row gratings of her prison cell, that is, through the five senses of the body. Now, those five senses, being qualities of a material substance, are themselves them-selves material, and can never rise above their nature; and, therefore, can perceive only material objects. When an object comes within reach of the senses, an impression of the object is made on the "phantasia," or imagination, but the impression is yet material. The imagination acts upon this impression and abstracts from it all its intelligibility and, sd to speak, immaterializes it, and presents It, thus immaterialized,, tot he intellect. The intellect then acts upon it: by a process pro-cess of reasoning and draws its conclusion, con-clusion, whichc onclusion we term an idea of the object. It is through this mechanical process we get all our ideas of the supernatural, as well as of the natural. Hence Aristotle's maxim the natural. Hence Aristotle's axiom: "There is nothing in the intllect which was not first in the senses." The church recognizes this truth, and for this reason makes use of! material things the crucifix, statues, pious pictures, pic-tures, cribs, etc., in order to make impressions im-pressions on the senses, and through these impressions to enable the soul to form ideas of the supernatural and divine di-vine which thos images represent. In passing let me illustrate this truth by a simple fact. Strangers cmoing into a Catholic Church are struck immediately immediate-ly by the reverence and devotion of the people. Now, where is the cause of this admirable reverence and devotion? It is the Blessed Sacrament. Catholics Catho-lics as well as other Christians adore the invisible God, but they do more they adore him under the visible or sensible form of bread and wine. The accidents or appearances of bread and wine captivate the senses,' while the eyes of faith see God underlying. "This is my body; this is my blood." Of all the ceremonies recognized and used by the church to. enhance the pomp and splendor with which she surrounds the celebration of the Savior's Sa-vior's birth, none is more common and appropriate, none more apt to generate pious and salutary thoughts, than the i practice of erecting Christmas cribs a practice observed not only in our churches, but also in very many of our hom"e SInceTnis practice is irairgfrt with salutary lessons, and since very few of us, perhaps, are aware how, when and where this practice- origi-nate.d origi-nate.d a little dissertation at his time will not be out of place. The devotion of erecting cribs originated orig-inated with St. Francis of Assisium, who lived in the twlefth century, and who instituted the Order of Minor Brothers, afterward called Franciscans. Francis-cans. This Saint, whose maxim was, "Let us love the child of Bethlehem," ordered a stable to be built at Christmas Christ-mas in the forest of Grecio, and an ox and an ass, with the necessary hay, to be put in it, and a temporary altar erected there represented the crib. At the proper time St. Francis, with his brethren in the Order and their pupils in great numbers from the neighboring monasteries, accompanied by a multitude multi-tude of people, came down from the mountain, all carrying lighted torches in their hands to signify that the night in which the Light of the world was born should not be dark. The Saint, filled with heavenly joy, assisted as deacon at the mass, and chanted the gospel, after which he preached with transporting eloquence to the assembly on tne birth of Jesus Christ,- always referring to the Redeemer as "the adorable Child of Bethlehem." Following the example of their zealous zeal-ous founder, it is the custom of the Franciscans to this day to put up Christmas cribs in their churches that the faithful may be the more vividly reminded of the sweet child, Jesus, and desire to become conformable to Him to be childlike, not according to the body, but according to the spirit, in simplicity of heart and in purity of morals. Afterward the practice became be-came more general and was introduced into secular churches; and even many pious Christians, imitating St. Francis, Fran-cis, erected cribs in their houses. This pious custom happily still exists, ex-ists, and there is scarcely a parish in which you will not find a crib erected in one place or another. Children, and even adults, visit these cribs and find pleasure in looking at the Infant Jesus lying charmingly upon hay and straw, and near Him, the Virgin Mary and the venerable St. Joseph, while, repre sented in an atitude of adoration, are the angels and the shepherds; and, lastly, one turns his gaze on the dumb animals in the stable, which appear so harmless and guileless, seemingly cognizant cog-nizant of the wonderful child that lies in their midst. The crib has a beautiful signification significa-tion for children. It awakens, fosters and strengthens in their little hearts religious sentiments, and is calculated to inspire them with love' for the divine di-vine child. Their hearts are like tableaux tab-leaux of soft wax impressions are readily made, and, once made, are not easily effaced. How much more be coming and Christian-like it would be if parents would explain to their children chil-dren the representations of the crib, and thus-iaairiirei-iliem- ia-the wisdon of God, than to instruct them in the wisdom of the world. While I pen this paper my thoughts travel back to the days of childhood, when a devoted mother led brother, sisters and myself to the little crib. I shut my eyes and I still hear her soft, sweet words of instruction in-struction and advice pouring into my ear. "See, children,' she used to say to us, "this figure represents Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who for love of us was born a poor child in a stable like this. If you be always good chil dren, if you have God before your eyes and never do anything . bad, whether alone or with others; if you learn well, pray devoutly and obey willingly, the dear Infant Jesus will be pleased with you, and will take you hereafter to live and be happy with Him in heaven. But if you be bad children and will not learn and pray and be obedient, but tell lies and steal and destroy other people's property and do other naughty things, the Infant In-fant Jesus will not love you, will forsake for-sake you, and when you die he will have to send you to hell." This lesson i have .never forgotten. It comes back cday. as fresh and blocming as the day I received it; and perhaps it is no exaggeration to say that it is to lessons les-sons like this I owe the exalted position posi-tion I now hold. Cribs have a signification no less beautiful for grown people. He who has a childlike, pious mind and is not an infatuated worldling, feels himself charmingly attracted by the crib; tender ten-der feelings are awakened in his heart, and with the Child Jesus he becomes a child again . Even those who are filled with the spirit and imbued with the principles of the world are moved on such occasions, when they see how merry and happy the children are, too; they themselves again rejoice over the divine Child whom they loved when children. They can hardly look upon the scene without moistened eyes, and many a time, in presence of the crib and the happy, innocent faces which surround it, have silent tears been seen stealing down the worldling's and the sinner's cheek. Nor is this to be wondered won-dered at. The scene forcibly recalls to their minds happy reminiscences of their childhood's days, and they unconsciously uncon-sciously contrast the beauty and joy of innocence with their own seared and blighted hearts. No doubt conscience is doing its stealthy work, and their guardan angel seizes on the. occasion of this softened mood to press upon them the love of the Babe of Bethlehem. Bethle-hem. The grace of God does not rest. The true star of Bethlehem, the Light of the World, i3 risen for them once more, and dispel3 the darkness of the shadow of death in which they were enveloped. They see things with other eyes; they turn from the Christmas crib with firm resolutions to abandon their evil ways, to bury their sins in the old year's grave and to rise with the new year's sun to a life of innocence inno-cence and yafP -igfr From the crib let us learn a lesson. If the Christian has any end and object ob-ject in life it is to build cribs, and, when built, preserve them all the days of his life. These are not material cribs erected in their houses, but spiritual spir-itual ones in our hearts. Christ must be born in us in a spiritual manner, and in our hearts He must not remain a newborn babe, but must "grow and wax strong." This will be effected if we comply with the admoniton of the Prince of Apostles: "Increase in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." (II Peter, iii, 18.) By the sacrament of Baptism the crib is erected in the heart, for thereby the soul, which was once the abode of Satan, is purified, sanctified and transformed trans-formed into a dwelling or crib for Christ. Therefore the priest, breathing on the face of the catechumen, says: "Depart out of him (or her), O unclean spirit, and give place to the Holy Ghost, the Comforter." Baptized persons per-sons are not only figuratively, but in reality dwelling places of the living God; and the divine Infant, who once reposed in the crib of Bethlehem, really re-ally dwells in their hearts. "Know you not that you are the temples of God, and that the Spirit of God dwell-eth dwell-eth in you?" (I Cor. ii, 16.) W. F. M. |