The Third Joyful Mystery: the Birth of Jesus

It must be universal for mothers to want their children to have a better life than they had.  Surely Mary wished this for Jesus.  She must have been gravely disappointed in the external circumstances of her son's life. 

A woman giving birth for the first time no doubt wants her mother with her. Instead, Mary gave birth either alone or with the assisstance of a midwife she had never met until that night. Jesus was not welcomed by joyful grandparents and surrounded by an extended family who loved him.

We have sentimental images of the Baby Jesus lying in a manger surrounded by his adoring parents, gentle-eyed animals and kneeling shepherds and wisemen.  We forget that stables stink and are full of animal waste, that they are cold and drafty, and that a manger does not make a comfortable bed. 


The difficulties of Jesus' birth did not end when they left the stable and moved into a regular house.
Because in the world's eyes, Jesus was conceived under embarrassing circumstances--the villagers in Nazareth didn't know about the Annunciation, they only knew Joseph wasn't really the father--she knew her firstborn would be scorned as a child born of adultery. In fact, when Jesus was over 30, the accusation of illegitimacy was stll being flung in his face. "Is this not Mary's son?" critics would ask? 

Even if Mary didn't know yet that she would watch her son's torturous, humiliating death on the cross, she knew her son had been born into a life of poverty and social stigma.  We like to think of her serenely smiling, her faith so strong that she was unmoved by difficulty but even a woman of indomitable faith could not but feel her heart sink when she, an impoverished citizen of an occupied country who had just borne an "illegitimate" child, laid her son in the manger.