The Nativity Scene
The Savior amid scum
Editor’s Note: Fr. Ben Daghir reflects on the stained-glass window of the Nativity scene at St. Catherine Church of Holy Spirit Parish in DuBois, Pa.
Our stained-glass window provides a valuable spiritual lesson. Notice the scene: dirty, lowly, muddy, messy, rough, and not the most welcoming place for the King of the Universe to rest his head.
There’s scum all over the ground. Animals are lying next to Jesus. Hay, dirt, mud, and animal waste are mixed in.
Yet, this is where Jesus rested during his first days after birth.
In many ways, the manger scene is reflective of the sinful soul. It’s reflective of my soul. I am a sinner. My soul can be like scum. My soul is like the ground on which the baby Jesus rested his head.
The point could not be clearer: Jesus can rest and will rest amid scum. In fact, He desires most to be with sinners.
Consider the Gospel of Luke when the Pharisees questioned why Jesus ate dinner with sinners. Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick” (Luke 5:39).
So many of us think that our minds and hearts are not suited to welcoming Jesus. We believe we are not good enough, not holy enough, not morally upright enough, not enough, etc. Yet, Jesus spent a tremendous amount of time with sinners, with the scum of 1st-century society.
This stained-glass window shows Jesus Christ resting his head amid scum as opposed to the pillow of a 1st-century palace.
Jesus can make do with scum. Jesus can turn it into his home. Jesus can transform a place of scum into the resting place of God. Jesus can transform a sinner into a saint.
How often do we think that we must be perfect and spotless? Of course, the goal is for our souls to be “whiter than snow” and for us to be “perfect, just as our Heavenly Father is perfect.” But do we think this happens before Jesus arrives?
The spiritual life, much like the scene in this stained-glass window, is messy, muddy, often disorganized, and there’s scum involved. Jesus enters into all of this and seeks to transform it.
Take another look at the scene in the stained-glass window.
I encourage us to look closely at Jesus, the Virgin Mary, and St. Joseph. I encourage us to do so for long periods of time.
But I also encourage you to take a closer look at the scum in the window. Look at the dirt. Look at the mud. Look at what the animals leave on the ground.
Jesus still rests his head in all of it. Jesus desires to enter into the dirt, into the mud, and into the scum.
Quite beautifully, the stained-glass window has open space. The artist brilliantly left space in the scene. There’s room amid all of the scum. Jesus wants more sinners to be near him.
Our souls are depicted in this marvelous stained-glass window. Jesus can rest his head in the stench and the scum. He doesn’t run away from it.
Jesus desires to enter into our lives. Of course, this means allowing Him to rest His head on our gifts and talents, as well as our sins and weaknesses.
Fr. Ben Daghir
