https://youtubetranscript.com/?v=8xu8-zxtO1U
Look at the manger in the traditional icon. What does it look like? It’s a pretty fancy manger, isn’t it? The reason why it looks like this, is that it’s also supposed to represent a tomb, a sarcophagus actually. And so already showing that the incarnation of Christ is an entry into death. The swaddling clothes are also the linen wrappings that were going to cover the body of Christ. So for example, here is a traditional icon of the finding of the empty tomb where Christ was laid. And you can see the sarcophagus and you can see the empty wrappings. And you can see visually the relationship that would be found between the way the manger is represented and the cloth and the way the tomb is represented in the cloth. So in the icon, the beginning of life is connected to death. Now look again at the manger in the icon. Is it a manger? Is it a sarcophagus? Is it the Ark of the Covenant with the two beasts between which God showed himself? One must remember that in the Ark of the Covenant was placed the manna, the bread of heaven, which was given to Israel in the desert. So the Ark is also a container for food. So you see, the traditions that are added, the ass and the ox, the cave and other details, are not arbitrary. They are there to focus, to give us one more hint of the implications of this moment when God united himself to man. And all of the imagery of the nativity is to show us that this point, this child in this manger, is a union of the very lowest with the very highest. That is, it is in fact the center of the cosmic mystery. Laying there, a child, life and death, union of pure and impure, the star and the cave, the wise three kings and the lowest of shepherds. All these traditions woven together to show us as much as it is possible for us to see what the center of all things looks like, what that logos is. So I wish you all a wonderful Christmas later this month, as hopefully you are able to remember in the darkest moment of the year when the sun is at its lowest of that hidden flame in the cave, the logos rising out of darkness to fill the whole world.