The Christmas crib at St Teresa's Church (2024)
This year, Christmas coincides with the beginning of the Jubilee of the “hope that does not disappoint” (Romans 5:5). This hope is the event of Jesus Christ who won death and gave us new life in the resurrection. But to die and rise again, Jesus had to be born. Christmas is the beginning of our hope.
In the Jubilee we are invited to cross the Holy Door. Jesus is the Door, the Gate: “I am the gate. Whoever enters through me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture. A thief comes only to steal and slaughter and destroy; I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly” (John 10, 9-10).
In this year’s Nativity scene, all peoples go to Jesus to obtain life and hope, after having seen the failure and disappointment of (only) human hopes. The broken Roman column is the symbol of this failure. Even the Roman Empire, once so powerful, has fallen into ruin.
The Baby Jesus is the center of the Nativity scene and the spring of life. The Magi (the people who come from paganism) and the shepherds (the people who come from the Jewish tradition) gather around Him. Thanks to the Baby Jesus, they become one family.
In the distance there are symbolic images of Beijing, Hong Kong and Taipei, with roads that lead to Jesus. He invites us to be his witnesses, so that the three cities can become one family in Christ.
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