How the nativity reminds us of our responsibilities towards animals
The Bible doesn’t mention animals at the birth in Bethlehem. A text called the Gospel of Pseudo Matthew, now not considered Biblical, mentions an ox and an ass. St Francis invoked this in the Italian village of Greccio in 1223, creating the first Nativity tableau of Christ’s birth. He wished to emphasise Christ’s humble origins and importance for all the world, not just humans. “Laudato sie, mi Signore, cum tucte le Tue creature,” he wrote in his Canticle of the Sun: “Be praised, my Lord, through all your creatures.”
In time, Nativity scenes included other animals, like the sheep of the shepherds and the camels of the Magi. In other parts of the world, local animals also feature, like elephants in India, llamas in Peru and kangaroos in Australia. Oddly, pigs rarely appear in Nativity scenes. An important reason for Christianity’s success was discarding food-related taboos, like the one on pork enforced in Christ’s own Jewish community. Yet, pigs seem out of place. Does an animal raised only to be killed feel inappropriate in a scene devoted to new life?
But the reality is that many of the animals in the Nativity, like the sheep and oxen, would have been killed for food at some point. In rural communities like Greccio, or the Bethlehem that inspired it, this would have been a fact of life. Humanity’s adoption of animal husbandry was profoundly transformative, changing our diets and commerce, landscapes and climate. Did it work for the animals as well? On the basis of sheer reproductive success, the answer might
