The new born infant is as a light shining in the darkness. The small child lies in a manger watched over by his mother. Behind her and barely visible in the shadows, Joseph looks on. The broken wall behind suggested that this is a stable for animals and not a house for human habitation. Through the opening, you can see an angel announcing glad tidings to shepherds on a hillside. Inside the stable are five more angels. Thus all the details which Luke gives us in his account of the birth of Jesus are included. The light radiating from the child bathes the faces of the angels and of Mary and their faces draw us into the mystery of the Word Incarnate. We can see clearly that Mary is caught up in wonder and love for her child, and yet there is a hint of something more sombre in her eyes and her parted lips. The manger is made from stone. It is almost like a sepulchre. The child is not wrapped in swaddling bands but instead lies naked and vulnerable on the straw which the animals eat. Below it and now barely visible are two sheaves of wheat. This image of the Christ child radiating light is based on a vision of St Bridget of Sweden in which she saw the child radiate “an ineffable light and splendour that the sun was not comparable with”. This painting was damaged in a fire and as a result much of the detail has become harder to see. But its power to captivate remains and perhaps there is something added by its fragile state. The heads of the ox and ass are very large, so that the smallness of the child beneath them is emphasised. In this way, the artist asks us to ponder the great mystery of the Incarnation and how God enters a darkened world as a vulnerable child. The straw in the manger and the sheaves of wheat suggest the Eucharist. This child is not only the “light that enlightens every man” (Jn 1:9) but also “the bread of life” (Jn 6:35). In our world where where there is so much darkness and where a great many are so vulnerable, this painting of the child in the manger reminds us where like the shepherds we will find him.
The Catholic Chaplaincy serves the students and staff of the University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh Napier University and Queen Margaret University.
The Catholic Chaplaincy is also a parish of the Archdiocese of St Andrews and Edinburgh (the Parish of St Albert the Great) and all Catholic students and staff are automatically members of this parish.
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St Albert's Catholic Chaplaincy is part of the English Province of the Order of Preachers, a charity registered in England and Wales (231192) and in Scotland (SC039062).