[This one is a reprint of a story published a
few years ago… and re-published online by Our Sunday Visitor this month. I hope you
enjoy it:]
Every year of his adult life until his death
at the age of 95, my Cuban grandfather Alipio Páez set up a Nativity scene or
nacimiento that could easily compete with the elaborate window displays put on
by Macy's.
Not satisfied with presenting just the
figurines of Mary, Joseph, Jesus, and the cast of usual characters, Alipio
would turn the living room of his small house into the whole town of Bethlehem.
This was not just the Bethlehem described in
the Gospels, but a Caribbean-style Bethlehem — with abundant palm trees,
rivers, houses on the hills, tall blooming trees, all set up on papier-mâché
mountains painted in shades of green and brown. My meticulous grandfather even
had plastic pigs and cows to keep the miniature sheep and their shepherds
company.
No matter what new addition he came up with,
Alipio's Bethlehem always centered on the glorious crèche, the physical place
where the deepest and most complicated elements of Christian theology became
flesh.
My earliest Christmas memories all center on
that humble stable, where the mystery and wonder of the word
"Incarnation" came to life for me. The virgin birth. The Son of God
conceived in Mary's womb. A baby in Mary's arms, both true God and true man.
Even as a child, I understood the unspoken truth that the colorful Christmas
tree was meant to take a back seat to the stunning Bethlehem scene.
By bringing his own world of pigs and palm
trees to Bethlehem Alipio was not saying that the biblical details of the
Christmas story were unimportant to him. It was entirely the opposite. By
bringing to life the surroundings of the story beyond the historical pesebre,
the humble crèche, my grandfather emphasized the central truth — the actual
point — of the story!
God so loved the world that He came to be one
with each of us, right where we are.
Like Alipio's beautiful nacimiento, Christmas
traditions for Hispanics are often a gentle incarnation of the sacred within
the ordinary. Through traditions that inspire all the senses -- with songs and
sights and delicious smells -- Hispanics bring to life and celebrate the
familiar birth story of Jesusito, reminding us what's most important about the
Christmas season.
[Click here to read the rest of the story,
published originally as "Celebrating Christmas with Hispanic Eyes" in The Priest Magazine.]
Advent is almost over… take time to ponder
what the Bethlehem event means for you today!
 |
| my Michelle, awed by her great-grandfather's "Bethlehem"! |
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