MY MANGER

In my heart, there is a manger, and in my manger, there is the ox talking with the ass.

The ox says : 

-      Brother Ass, you are cute.

 And the ass to answer:

-     Thank you, brother Ox, you are too good.

In my manger, there are also three hens, a chubby-cheeked cat, a small she-dog, a piglet, a red fish, a lab mouse and a canary; they are there to represent all the small and big beasts that daily feed, help, rescue, protect and comfort a lot of people on the Earth, especially the many brothers and sisters who are among the poorest, the most destitute, and the most abandoned of the planet.

Right in the middle of my manger, there is a baby sitting prominently on the straw. It is Jesus. He is Lord. Without saying a word, he tells me loudly that God is within reach, very close to us, at the very place where we do not have much value and where we expect him the least.            

There also are Mary and Joseph; they are young people who are stuck between Palestine and Egypt. Without these refugees, there would be no Jesus. It seems that the future of the world lies more in the distress and the audaciousness of the rising generations than in the peace and the certainties of those generations that are vanishing away. It is also found undoubtedly in the inexhaustible reserves and mostly unknown and despised of those millions of humble people who are knocking desperately at the doors of our supposedly «open» countries…

Finally there are the Magi – those tireless researchers of science and of beauty – and their camels – those «space» vessels of the faraway deserts – and that superb star above the heads: she came from the extremities of the universe to show the way to those who lose themselves in the labyrinths of life. I am one of them among billions.      

In my manger, I have placed also a small Pope Francis because he is doing his best to drive away from the DNA of old Catholic Church the eagles of the ancient Caesars and replace them with the spirit of humaneness of the humble prophet of Galilee.      

In my manger there are also gifts of gold, of aromas and of precious balm, and legions of angels who dance and sheep which smile while meditating. Because there is not only greed and barbarity on the planet, or hypocrisy and fundamentalism in the Church; there are also pieces of heaven; there are holiness and clear-sightedness, courage, goodness and especially a lot of good will.                    

And of course there are the shepherds and shepherdesses; they represent the men and the women who have at heart the cause of the screwed up individuals of our world; they crawl on their knees by hundreds of millions; they gather the crumbs which fall from the table of the crooks, - the most voracious of all times! – who appropriate the vital resources of humanity, transform them into mountains of dollars and fill up to heaven the banks of those paradises where there is no income taxes to be paid (like in hell!).

And in my manger, there is Water, our Mother; she is the source of everything.               

Finally, in my manger, there is the whole Earth; she suffers from acute asthma due to the great Herods who lead the world by dint of drones and of oil, and also because of the billions of little Herods who live as parasites on our souls by spreading within them the love for pipelines and all kinds of other marvels which poison our lives.                

In my manger, there are also ourselves, men and women, with our skin with its different shades, our thousands of languages, our millions of outfits : the totally naked, the bearded, the snobbish gent, the people weighed down by a burden, the women wearing a veil and those who do not, the believers, the unbelievers, the good looking people, the good ones and the ugly ones, the friends and even the enemies; in spite of our hatreds, our cowardice, our fears, our bombs and all that breaks our hearts and drives us mad, we are still bothers and sisters. Unbelievable, isn’t it?                          

Believe it or not, my manger claims that the happy achievement of the human adventure takes roots in the heart of that child who is born among the little ones: he in us and us in him, together with the Universe, all united in the magnificence of God.    

Whether it thunders or it hails, whether the most violent typhoons blow over our lands, whether it rains cats and dogs or tons of ice, the Good News of Jesus being born in a manger is a sun alive even behind the thickest clouds; it is the breath of the whole Universe.       

                                                          Eloy Roy

Christmas 2014

Translated from the French by Jacques Bourdages