The earliest uses of a crib in worship date back to fourth-century Rome. Of the three masses observed at Christmas, one was called AdPraesepe (meaning "to the crib"). This mass took place in the basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, at a shrine built from boards believed to have come from the original stable of the Nativity in Bethlehem. Churches throughout Italy and Europe gradually adopted the custom of saying mass over a crib at Christmas time.
St. Francis of Assisi (c. 1181-1226) generally receives the credit for popularizing the Nativity scene as we know it. It is said that at Christmas time in 1224 he recreated the manger scene using real people and animals in a cave near the Italian village of Greccio. Mass was said in this novel setting and St. Francis preached about the humble birth of the newborn King. Onlookers enjoyed this reenactment of Christ's birth so much that the custom soon spread throughout Italy and Europe.
Saint Bonaventure, Francis's biographer, said of the scene, "Many brothers and good people came at Francis's bidding, and during the night the weather also was beautiful. Many lights were kindled, songs and hymns were sung with great solemnity so that the whole wood echoed with the sound, and the man of God stood by the manger, filled with the utmost joy, and shedding tears of devotion and compassion. By his order the manger had been so arranged that Mass was celebrated on it, and blessed Francis ... sang the gospel and preached to the people on the Nativity of Christ our King, and whenever he pronounced His name with infinite tenderness, he called Him the 'little Babe of Bethlehem'".
In a society where few could read, the explanations of theologians and the beautiful Latin chant of the Christmas liturgy passed over the heads of ordinary people. Who would explain to them what it meant that God became human, that Jesus felt at home among the poorest and loved them above all? They needed something visible, something they could see, touch, and so adore the beauty of the newborn child among the hay. So they came, saw, understood, and remembered.
Through the centuries Catholic people have continued the tradition, and it is the most wonderful affirmation of what our faith is about. The Christmas crib is a ringing proclamation about the kind of God we worship—a God who lives with the poor and ordinary and welcomes them.
We need the Christmas crib. Ours is the God who is vulnerable, who needs love, who waits and welcomes. The Christmas crib doesn't need to be great art; it just needs to be tender, human, and full of joy. If we have crib scenes in our churches, they too should be homely, full of the awe and ordinariness of a God who lived with poor, treated their sick, made friends with women and other despised people, felt comfortable with children, and preached liberation for the poor.
The Christmas crib is a precious heritage, and if we lose or trivialize it or make it a sophisticated work of art to be admired, we are in danger of losing touch with the very heart of the Christmas mystery. The model of the child in the manger with all his loving and delighted attendants reminds us of the joy at the heart of the universe, of God who touches us and lives in us bodily—a God who is incarnate.
The Christmas crib is a sign of defiance in the face of what is greedy and cruel in our society and a sign of hope that the goodness is in us and near us as we greet the newborn child
Fr. Antonius David Tristianto, O.Carm.