By Jason Klaiber
Staff Writer
The month-long break from classes is approaching, the first half of which sees people across the country heavily concerned with holiday shopping. Sr. Margaret Carney’s presentation “God’s Embrace of Our Humanity,” which took place in the University Chapel on Dec. 2, shined a light on a different perspective toward the Christmas season.
Sr. Margaret’s talk focused on the origin of the now commonplace nativity scenes set up during Christmastime. St. Francis of Assisi, the patron of ecology, created the first of these seasonal displays in Greccio, Italy during the 13th century with the goal of asserting the importance of Christian worship over materialism during the celebration of Christmas. St. Francis replicated Jesus’ birth using actual people and animals rather than the figurines and ornaments we see today.
“He really recreated a birth-in-a-stable setting, as he wanted to shock people into realizing that the coming of Jesus was something stark and shocking,” Sr. Margaret said.
She added that during that time period, nobody expected a messiah or savior to come into the world that way, so it caught a considerable amount of attention.
“I think that sometimes it’s a little hard for us to understand how big of an impact that made because we’re accustomed to seeing Christmas Cribs, but in (Francis’s) day, that was a totally new thing. It had the impact because from that point on, people wanted to make it a part of the Christmas season.”
Sr. Margaret’s message centered less on gift-giving and more on family throughout the Christmas season. According to her, this should include sitting, talking, and joking around with relatives.
“The focus should be on creating memories with the people we love instead of creating material success for people,” said Sr. Margaret. “There are a lot of families that would want to get back to that kind of simplicity because now it’s out of control.”
Freshman international studies major Hannah Schaefer said the talk was very interesting.
“It was great to see a different perspective,” Schaefer said.
Similarly, sophomore history major Jason Liao acknowledged that the talk presented a different way of looking at Christmas.
“I feel like she took Christmas less materialistically and made it more about the human experience and how God fits into the picture,” said Liao.
“We’re really commercial as Americans,” freshman journalism and mass communications major Sean Lynch said. “Bringing Jesus back into our homes is really nice.”
Senior theology major Troy Hillman is going on a pilgrimage to Greccio starting in January and said that Sr. Margaret’s talk provided “helpful background” for what he’ll see there.
“I think a lot of Christians don’t know where the nativity scene comes from, so it’s helpful to get that background and learn where some of our traditions originate,” Hillman said.
During her presentation, Sr. Margaret said, “Jesus is in the midst of everything we do.”
Referring to this quote, Fr. Francis Di Spigno said we don’t see this idea reflected in the way many of us treat each other.
“What is instrumental to the gospel is that you love your friends, but you should also love your enemies,” said Fr. Francis.
He added that St. Francis believed strongly that all people are interconnected spiritually through their relationship with creation and God, leading him to follow a lifelong approach of respecting his enemies just as much as his close acquaintances.
“What the Christmas Crib celebrates other than just a beautiful scene that’s appropriate at Christmastime is that year-round it reminds us that God isn’t far away,” Fr. Francis said. “St. Francis tried to communicate that by creating a crib showing the birth of Jesus. It’s an event to remember that great mystery of God becoming flesh.”
