by Joseph Nangle, OFM
Pax Christi USA 2023 Teacher of Peace
Christmas is a time for sharing memories – memories which center on this Great One we hold in common, the birth of Jesus Son of Mary, our “brother and friend”; also memories of our own peak moments when we celebrated His place in our lives and in human history.
Here is a memory of one Christmas in my life. It is not a typical upbeat story. But it has an important lesson for our time.
Early one Christmas Eve I was celebrating the Sacrament of Reconciliation in the parish in Lima, Peru where I was pastor. One of my brother Franciscans had used his outstanding artistic talent
to paint the Bethlehem scene and place it as the backdrop for the midnight Mass which would begin in a few hours.
He had depicted a winding pathway leading to a distant little shack with a bright light above it. On the pathway were images of typical Peruvian Indian folk, representing of course the shepherds on their way to the stable.
A well-dressed gentlemen entered the church and approached me to say that he was not there to receive the Sacrament. Rather he wanted to complain about the painting. He said it was an insult to his (obviously privileged) class to have “those kind of people” given such prominence in the nativity scene.
I told him that his uneasiness was well placed – that indeed “those kinds of people” were in effect front and center in the story of the first Christmas. They were poor shepherds and the first to hear the “tidings of great joy” and went to Bethlehem “to see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord had made known to us.” These privileged ones were definitely not of his/our class.
When I returned to the friary later on, I spoke to my brother, the artist, about this encounter. Actually, he had arrived in Peru and joined our community only a few weeks before and I was anxious to bring the whole experience to his attention with all of its underlying meanings. I told him that this was the first of many similar events which underscore the complex nature of Peruvian society (and so many other societies, including in the United States). As I explained the racism which this wealthy man represented – a prevailing attitude which looked down on impoverished people – I felt that he was not “getting it.” It was clear that this analysis was totally unfamiliar to this brother – it was not on his radar screen.
Not unexpectedly, he lasted only a few months with us and returned, I’m sure, frustrated by the demands of the Church in Latin America for a preferential option for the poor and its implementation in judging all pastoral situations through the eyes of the impoverished masses there.
It would not be fair to be critical of this priest from the U.S. In his seminary training, which I had experienced as well, there was never a class, much less a course, on the demands of social justice considerations in pastoral work. There was little or no mention of Catholic Social Teaching; never a case study on the Gospel imperatives of “see, judge and act.” This incredible absence of this full reading of the Gospel is one of the main concerns of Pope Francis in his critique of the way men (!) are still being prepared for priestly ministry.
Yet every Gospel teaching cries out for a social analysis – the Christmas story in particular. A poor young woman of a remote village in an occupied country is chosen to be the mother of her people’s long-awaited Messiah. In her ninth month of pregnancy she has to travel overland to her husband’s ancestral city following an edict from imperial Rome. Later with her husband she and the newborn must flee to a foreign country lest another powerful leader kill her child.
This narrative is a striking metaphor for the lives of millions today. Christmas is not fully understood without prayerful attention to its underlying realities.
Joe Nangle OFM is a Pax Christi USA Ambassador of Peace and the 2023 Pax Christi USA Teacher of Peace. As a member of the Assisi Community in Washington, D.C., he is dedicated to simple living and social change. Joe also serves as the Pastoral Associate for the Latino community at Our Lady Queen of Peace, Arlington, Virginia.
Father Nangle, thank you for your perspective on our celebration of Christmas.