‘And while they were there [in Bethlehem], the time came for her to be delivered. And she gave birth to her first-born son and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for him in the inn’ (Lk 2:6f.)
Let us begin our exegesis with the concluding words of this passage: there was no room for them in the inn. Prayerful reflection over these words has highlighted an inner parallel between this saying and the profoundly moving verse from Saint John’s Prologue: ‘He came to his own home, and his own people received him not’ (Jn 1:11). For the Saviour of the world, for him in whom all things were created (cf. Col 1:16), there was no room. ‘Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man has nowhere to lay his head’ (Mt 8:20). He who was crucified outside the city (cf. Heb 13:12) also came into the world outside the city.
This should cause us to reflect – it points towards the reversal of values found in the figure of Jesus Christ and his message. From the moment of his birth, he belongs outside the realm of what is important and powerful in worldly things. Yet it is this unimportant and powerless child that proves to be the truly powerful one, the one on whom ultimately everything depends. So one aspect of becoming a Christian is having to leave behind what everyone else thinks and wants, the prevailing standards, in order to enter the light of the truth of our being, and aided by that light to find the right path.
Mary laid her newborn child in a manger
Reliquie della Santa Culla – Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore (Roma)
From this detail it has been correctly deduced that Jesus was born in a stable, in an inhospitable – one might even say unworthy – space, which nevertheless provided the necessary privacy for the sacred event. In the area around Bethlehem, rocky caves had been used as stables since ancient times.
As early as Justin Martyr and Origen we find the tradition that Jesus was born in a cave, which Christians in Palestine could point to. The fact that after the expulsion of the Jews from the Holy Land in the second century, Rome turned the cave into the shrine of Tammuz-Adonis, thereby evidently intending to suppress the Christian memory cult, confirms the age of this shrine and also shows how important it was thought to be by the Romans. Local traditions are frequently a more reliable source than written records.
Mary wrapped the child in swaddling cloths
Without yielding to sentimentality, we may imagine with what great love Mary approached her hour and prepared for the birth of her child. Iconographic tradition has theologically interpreted the manger and the swaddling cloths in terms of the theology of the Fathers. The child stiffly wrapped in bandages is seen as prefiguring the hour of his death: from the outset, he is the sacrificial victim…The manger, then, was seen as a kind of altar.
Augustine drew out the meaning of the manger using an idea that at first seems almost shocking, but on closer examination contains a profound truth. The manger is the place where animals find their food. But now, lying in the manger, is he who called himself the true bread come down from heaven, the true nourishment that we need in order to be fully ourselves. This is the food that gives us true life, eternal life. Thus the manger becomes a reference to the table of God, to which we are invited so as to receive the bread of God. From the poverty of Jesus’ birth emerges the miracle in which man’s redemption is mysteriously accomplished
Mary gave birth to her first-born son. What does this mean?
The first-born is not necessarily the first in a series. The word ‘first-born’ points not to a continuing number…Pauline theology took the idea of Jesus as a first-born two steps further. In the Letter to the Romans, Pail calls Jesus the ‘first-born among many brethren’ (8:29). Having risen, he is now ‘first-born’ in a new way, and at the same time he is the beginning of a host of brethren. In the new birth of the resurrection. Jesus is no longer merely the first in dignity, he now ushers in a new humanity. Once he has broken through the iron door of death, there are many more who can pass through with him – many who in baptism have died with him and risen with him.
In the Letter to the Colossians, the idea is developed further: Christ is called the ‘first-born of al creation’…The concept of first-born takes on a cosmic dimension…
Luke does not speak in these terms, yet for us, reading his gospel with the benefit of hindsight, this cosmic glory is already present in the lowly manger in the cave in Bethlehem: here, he who is truly first-born of all that is, came to dwell in our midst.
And in that region there were shepherds…
‘And in that region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flocks by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them’ (Lk 2:8f). The first witnesses of the great event are watchful shepherds. There has been much reflection on the significance of the fact that shepherds were the first to receive the message. It seems to me that we should not read too much into this. Jesus was born outside the city in an area surrounded by grazing grounds where shepherds would pasture their flocks. So it was natural that, as the people physically closest to the event, they would be the first to be summoned to the manger.
Of course one could immediately develop the idea further: perhaps they were living not only outwardly but also inwardly closer to the event than the peacefully sleeping townsfolk. 
Inwardly too, they were not far from the God who had become a child. What is more, they were among the poor, the simple souls whom Jesus would bless, because to them above all is granted access to the mystery of God (cf. Lk 10:12f) They represent the poor of Israel, the poor in general: God’s first love.
They were filled with fear
But the angel takes away their fear and announces to them ‘a great joy, which will come to all the people; for to you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord’ (Lk 2:10). They are told that, as a sign, they will find a child wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.
‘And suddenly there was with the angel a great multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom he is pleased’ (Lk 2:12-14). According to the evangelist, the angels ‘said’ this. But Christianity has always understood that the speech of angels is actually song, in which all the glory of the great joy that they proclaim becomes tangibly present. And so, from that moment, the angels’ song of praise has never gone silent. It continues down the centuries in constantly new forms and it resounds ever anew at the celebration of Jesus’ birth. It is only natural that simple believers would then hear the shepherds singing too, and to this day they join in their caroling on the Holy Night, proclaiming in song the great joy that, from then until the end of time, is bestowed on all people.
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