I’m a baby person.
Whenever I see a baby or a toddler in public, I try to get them to smile or laugh. It’s my own little mission, and it can be quite challenging.
I had a big win in an airport recently. I’d passed through security and was waiting on a bench for the rest of my family to make it through. A little girl was in her mom’s arms a few benches away. Her eyes locked with mine, and the game was on. It took several minutes and my full arsenal — silly faces, various versions of peek-a-boo — but eventually, she broke and gave me a big grin. Maybe it was out of pity, but no matter. Mission accomplished!
Fast forward to Holy Thursday night. My family attended Mass and stayed afterward for adoration. The hosts had been relocated to a side tabernacle under a statue of St Joseph. I was positioned right in front of Joseph, who was holding the infant Jesus in his arms.
I took the opportunity to use the statue as a focus of my prayer. The first thing I noticed was that Jesus was an actual infant, not like some of those old-timey statues where He looks more like a creepy little man. (I’m not even judging — as an artist myself, babies are hard to get right.)
The second thing I noticed was that he was smiling.
And I didn’t need to earn it.
I pondered that if I ever encountered baby Jesus in the wild, like at a restaurant or in an airport, I’d never have to work to make Him smile at me.
But there was more.
First, let me describe a phenomenon any parent knows well. Let’s say you’re holding your child — he or she is about a year old — and your spouse is standing next to you. Without warning, your kid decides to be with the other person, and suddenly lunges toward them, throwing you a little off balance. There’s not much you can do about it, as they transform into a desperate, squirming, twisting muscle with superhuman strength. And there’s no need to feel bad about it, because odds are, three minutes later, they will be lunging back in your direction.
So there I was, under that statue, and I got the super-parent Spidey sense that baby Jesus wanted to lunge. His arms were outstretched, and it seemed like He was leaning forward, ever-so-slightly. I am not questioning Joseph’s ability, but he was holding him with just one arm — he had a lily in the other — and if Jesus decided to go for it, it was on me to catch Him.
(Of course, this was all in a spiritual, metaphorical sense. I didn’t actually expect the statue to break off and land in my arms.)
Anyway, that led me to think how incredible it would be to actually hold baby Jesus. What an overwhelming, life-changing experience that would be!
A heartbeat later, I remembered the truth: that this sweet, small, vulnerable baby is also God.
God!
And a truth about how God feels about us landed in my heart.
God is so desperate to be near us that He made Himself man. And not just a man, but a little baby. A baby that, if he were just able to get close to you, He’d lunge Himself in your direction with desperate, squirming determination so that you’d be forced to receive Him and He could rest in your arms.
Imagine it! The Creator of the Universe…in your arms!
And He would look up at you…and smile.
And it’s one of those big smiles that only babies can give, the kind that says, “You are just the coolest, most amazing thing I’ve seen in my whole entire life!”
When a baby gives you that look, it makes you feel good all over, and you accept it, as ridiculous as it may seem, because who’s going to argue with a baby?
Lots of people give Catholics a hard time about us having statues in our places of worship, claiming they are idols.
No.
What they really are is reminders.
And in that dark church on that Holy Thursday night, when we remember that Jesus gave up everything out of love for us, that statue reminded me that God loves me so much that He became a little baby who wants to lunge into my arms and give me a big smile that lets me know how cool He thinks I am.
And not because I did anything to earn it or deserve it.
But only because I am His.
😎 How Cool Is This?
Throughout the history of Christianity, the Church has used art to tell her stories, teach the Faith, and educate the faithful. Stained glass windows, icons, paintings, and statues were the most common means of teaching the early Christians. Since most people at that time could neither read nor write, art was a crucial way to share stories from the Bible and to present truths of the Faith.
Christian veneration of images is not contrary to the first commandment, which proscribes idols. Indeed, “the honor rendered to an image passes to its prototype,” and “whoever venerates an image venerates the person portrayed in it.” The honor paid to sacred images is a “respectful veneration,” not the adoration due to God alone. —The Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2132
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