On one occasion, a little boy was struggling to drag a very heavy table. His father, seeing the unequal struggle of his little boy, asked him:
– “Are you using all your strength?”
– “Of course I am!” -the little boy replied grumpily.
– “That’s not true,” replied his father, “you didn’t ask me to help you”.
The boy felt incapable and also helpless in his task. The opposite happened to Pablo Picasso, the great artist. When he was also a child, a huge fire broke out in the town where his family lived. On that chaotic night, the people ran wildly through the streets, shouting like mad. Unrest and anarchy reigned everywhere in the midst of a Dantesque scene.
As an adult, Picasso himself, remembering that night, remarked how in the midst of all the chaos, his father placed him on his chest and protected him with his waistcoat. From that place he was able to observe all the confusion around him. In the warmth of his father’s embrace, he recognised, he felt no fear, only a special awe that made him retain in his memory everything that was happening. He felt that he was out of danger and he realised that a father is not the one who gives life. That would be too easy. A father is the one who gives love and protection. And that, for every child, is unforgettable.
I don’t know why, but all this reminded me of the story of another child because of something that happened to him on the 24th of December. It was Christmas Eve. As was customary, he went to Midnight Mass with his family. As he entered the church, he was struck by the crib next to the door. He had seen it before. At Christmas it was normal for parents to bring their children to the crib to contemplate the Nativity scene. But on that occasion he was powerfully attracted to the baby Jesus, as he had never been before. It belonged to a nativity scene that had been kept for many years in that parish, he already knew it and was able to visit it often afterwards. What went through his mind and heart?
To the astonished eyes of that sensitive child, all the peace promised in the vision of the prophet Isaiah was unveiled right there: a little child, the Prince of peace, the God of the whole universe, sleeps peacefully on straw, surrounded by a loving mother, an attentive father, adoring shepherds and calm and quiet animals… For a child, the scene of Jesus’ birth is like a “safety waistcoat”.
A sensitive child who sees and experiences all that in those images, walks away from the crib with the eyes and heart of a mystic, with the assurance that the God of the poor, the peaceful, the small and the innocent rules the world. Merry Christmas.
Juan Carlos cmf
(PHOTO: Lee Young)
