https://youtubetranscript.com/?v=_HwMh3gXK-g
We have, of course, Christ, the Christ child who is laying down in the manger. Surrounding him is the ass and the ox. By the way, the ass and the ox is one of the oldest elements of the Nativity. It doesn’t say in Scripture that there is an ass and an ox specifically, but it is one of the oldest elements. In the first images we have where we see Christ in a manger, we see the ass and the ox. There are some images from the third century where you just see a manger with Christ and an ass and an ox on each side. The ass and the ox relate to Old Testament laws. There were foods in the Old Testament which people could eat. Today Jews call it kosher food. There are some foods that people couldn’t eat. They were impure foods. The ox is a pure food and the ass or the donkey is an impure food. You’re not allowed to eat donkeys. Because of that, the donkey becomes in the symbolism an image for us, actually. Most of us. I don’t know. Are there any Jews here? Maybe not. All the nations, let’s say. All those that aren’t Jewish. You read in the Church Fathers, they talk about this ass and this ox. There’s a law in the Old Testament which says you cannot yoke an ass and an ox together if you’re going to plow. It’s like that’s a very strange law for people. Especially for kind of atheist types, they always like that. They want to make fun of the Bible. Here’s this crazy law which says that you can’t yoke an ass and an ox together. What it meant is exactly what I told you. You cannot bring together the outside and the inside. You cannot join with the foreigners. You cannot mix the pure and the impure. Christ brings us a different vision of the world. Brings us a different reality. In fact, he does. I would say Christ is the only one who’s allowed to break that law. Because he does in fact bring the ass and the ox together. And he does it and we see it happen in this icon. So the ass and the ox become this image of how the Jews and the Gentiles are going to join together and the Church will be born out of that union. I’m not making this stuff up by the way. I don’t have the quotes but in the Church Fathers they explicitly talk about this symbolism.