The God in the Cave: A Meditation

Well, it's Christmas season again, and so time for my annual Christmas meditation:

I was struck by the title of chapter 1 of part II of G. K. Chesterton's The Everlasting Man: "The God in the Cave (from which this meditation is partially adapted)." We sometimes forget that the stable where Jesus was born was probably a cave and if we do remember it, we dismiss it as a mere bit of historical trivia with no further significance. However, if we consider the implications, we will realize the paradox: God in heaven in born not just on earth, but under it. It is like a medieval painting where earth is placed at the top and heaven is placed below. God has descended not just to earth, but below.

When we talk of Christ's passion, we forget that it began not with the betrayal of Judas, or with his prayer in the garden, or even with the last supper, but with the birth of Christ. The suffering of Jesus began at Christmas. We say in the creeds that Christ descended into Hell and forget that He descended, not when He died, but when He lived. He preached to the spirits not only in the three days of His death, but in the thirty-three years of His life.

So, God was born in the cave and to this cave came the shepherds. There may be no more universal symbol than a shepherd, for a shepherd represents the beginnings of civilization. Abel was a shepherd; David was a shepherd. Virgil's Eclogues are his poems of the shepherds. Shakespeare presents the shepherds in As You Like It as examples of virtue. The Highlanders of Scotland were shepherds. In Africa today, one may still find examples of this ancient, noble, and despised profession. Any of these shepherds of history would have felt at home here: Abel with his sacrifice, David with his sling, the classical shepherd with his simplicity, Shakespeare's shepherds and their virtue, the highlander in his kilt, and the modern African with his staff. All of these would have understood and fallen at the feet of the child.

For all of these would have known that this was the great shepherd. All would have understood that this was the one who would find the lost sheep. The mystery of Christmas is plain enough for the simplest shepherd to understand.

To this cave also came the wise men: the philosophers and here they were confounded. With the wise men came the spirits of Plato, of Aristotle, of the Egyptians, of Confucius, even of Buddha. It is no coincidence that the wise men were conceived as being from Greece, from Egypt, and from Persia. These wise men came seeking answers and they found a mystery. They sought a king and found a baby. Truly, as Chesterton remarked, "The riddles of God are more satisfying than the solutions of men." In coming here, Plato would have had to acknowledge the value of matter, Buddha the personal, and Confucius the transcendent. Here their theories would have been confounded and yet confirmed. The story of Christmas was simple enough to be understood by the shepherds and yet it confounded the wise men.

The paradoxes of Christmas abound. Here is the myth become fact: the God in the cave: the simplicity and the mystery. The only proper response to this is wonder, delight, and thankfulness. For this day is born to us a savior who is Christ the Lord.

Merry Christmas,

~Roccondil