Prayer to the Christ Child

A question often arises when people see Catholics praying in front of the Christmas crib or honoring the Lord under the title "Infant Jesus of Prague". Why do we worship and honor Our Lord Jesus Christ as a small child? Why don't we always honor him only as an adult? People also wonder why, in the image of the Infant of Prague, he is dressed and crowned as a king, for surely the poor Child of Nazareth never walked around in such grand array.

Variety of Devotions to Jesus

Christian devotion to Jesus Christ has developed many dimensions over the centuries, taking its symbolism from different cultures and eras. But often devotion concentrates on a specific event or phase in the life of Christ. This is partly because the whole mystery of Christ is too wide for us to absorb in a single moment, and also because there are so many aspects to his life and work.

We can take an obvious example, devotion to the sacred Passion. This does not mean we believe Jesus is always suffering on Calvary. Likewise if we honour Christ as a Child we do not imagine he is still a child. But by concentrating on Christ crowned with thorns or the crucifix, the stations of the cross or certain prayers and litanies, we are able to absorb the immense reality of our need for a merciful Redeemer. This helps express our love and gratitude to the Saviour for all that he done for us.

There are other aspects of Christ's sacred humanity that have helped many people to know, worship and love Our Lord more. The physical body of Christ has been a source of devotions such as the sacred Heart, the holy Wounds, the holy Face. Based on the scriptural reverence for a personal name, there has long been devotion to the holy Name, Jesus, which means "Saviour".

Each of these devotions is more than "a devotion". It is a way of coming to know Jesus "more clearly and love him more dearly, day by day". And the key to this knowing and loving is the Incarnation, the coming into flesh of the Son of God. In this great event God enters our time and space as one of us. The unseen God became visible, when in the womb of Mary "the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us".

Devotion to the Christ Child

It is not surprising that devotion to the infant Jesus or the child Jesus has developed in the light of the Incarnation events recounted in the infancy narratives of two of the Synoptic Gospels: Matthew and Luke. The roots of devotion to the holy Infant are found in Christmas and the Epiphany, particularly in the popular devotion of the crib that Saint Francis of Assisi introduced when he was deacon and preacher at Midnight Mass for Christmas at Greccio, in Italy, in 1223.

However, we turn to Spain for a more specific devotion to the Christ Child, based on the Christmas mystery but going well beyond it. For centuries devotion to the Infant Jesus has been strong in Spain, where Jesus is still hailed as "el sacro Nino", "the holy Child". Indeed the most beautiful, and life-like, images for the babe in the Christmas crib are those made in Spain and Latin America. But images of the older child were also popular in these regions. So it is not surprising that the original image of the Holy Infant of Prague is Spanish, fashioned out of wax and dressed in royal robes made of rich fabric, as is still the custom for adorning religious statues in Spain, Latin America and the Philippines. The small statue of the infant Christ was a wedding present given to a Spanish princess, which she brought with her to Prague in the early Seventeenth Century. At that time Prague was the capital of Bohemia, a land now known as the Czech Republic.

When her husband died, this princess gave the image of the Infant Jesus to the Carmelite Fathers in Prague, who were poverty stricken at the time. She prophesied that "As long as you venerate this image you will not be in want." Her words came true. When the devotion was strong the community prospered. When it was weak the community faded. When there were troubles and the brethren turned to the little King they found comfort and strength. The Carmelite family has promoted the devotion of the little King ever since all around the world.

Having been a key part of the Holy Roman Empire, Bohemia later became the Western region of the Republic of Czechoslovakia, which was subject first to Nazi conquest and then to a brutal Communist regime. Can we say that the "velvet revolution" in 1989-1990, marking a peaceful transition from Communist tyranny to democracy, was due to the devotion to the Holy Child. I cannot confirm or disprove this. A friend who passed through Prague in the Communist era once told me that when he visited the Church of Our Lady of Victories he found the original image of the Little King rather neglected and deserted in his magnificent, but shabby, chapel. This has all changed no. This devotion is being maintained and promoted throughout the wider world, in homes and parishes.

But why is the Holy Child dressed and crowned as a King? In gratitude for all the blessings the Carmelites and others had received, the original sacred image was solemnly crowned on the Sunday after Easter in 1665, the day, interestingly enough, that would later become Divine Mercy Sunday. Crowning sacred image is an old custom, recently underlined in a new rite officially approved for crowing images of the Blessed Virgin. The gesture is obviously symbolic. But the holy Child is not a King because of some symbolic event three centuries ago. He is a King because this is what Isaiah prophesied of the Messiah, the Child Jesus, that "the government will be upon his shoulders", that "his reign will have no end".

The promised Messiah is a King, born out of the human stock of the House of David. Isaiah also prophesied to this House of David: "..the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, a virgin will conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel." In the Book of Revelation, chapter 12, the celestial vision of Mary as
Queen of the Universe is really a great sign of the birth of the true Messiah, "a male child, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron." Therefore, the Christ Child is not honoured as King out of pious devotion or sentimentality, but in terms of what has been revealed to us in the Sacred Scriptures.

The Call to be Childlike

We have some great examples of saints devoted to the Holy Child Jesus, saints such as Saint Bernard, Saint Francis of Assisi and Saint Teresa of Avila. That other great Carmelite, proclaimed a Doctor of the Church, SaintTherese of Lisieux was known in religion as Sister Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face. Therese teaches us her "little way", seeking to live according to Christ's counsel, "Unless you become as little children, you shall not inherit the Kingdom of Heaven."

Jesus did not teach us to be childish but to be childlike. There is a big difference between those two words. Reflect on the difference. To focus our prayer and devotion on the Christ Child is not childish. There was nothing childish about the real Saint Therese of Lisieux. She was a strong young woman, who endured spiritual and physical sufferings with courage based on the grace of God and abandonment to his holy Will. Through her sufferings she learnt that to be childlike is to trust, and to trust in God is to become a strong mature person, not weak or passive.

Trust in God is also the secret to settling all our temporal or practical affairs in daily life. The Infant of Prague is asked to grant prosperity to those in financial need. That too puzzles or shocks some people, who may look upon this aspect of the devotion as superstitious or materialist!

However if God took our flesh, was born in a stable at Bethlehem and lived in a home at Nazareth, is this not the God who is concerned with the "small" matters of daily life? God is concerned whether a family can eat properly, whether they can pay off a house, whether they can educate their children, settle debts, maintain a decent standard of living. Look at the parables Jesus told about lost coins, lost sheep, yeast in bread etc. These stories remind us that the true personal God of Christianity is involved in our daily lives, in our work and the practical matters of living.

Let us never slide into a false understanding of religion, as if the "spiritual" things of God in no way relate to the affairs of this world. If you wish to place financial matters in God's hands, do so! Do not hesitate to have recourse to the generous Infant of Prague. But never do this in a superstitious or magical way, rather with serene and simple trust in God. That is what we are doing when we let these matters pass into the hands of the little One who lived and played and later worked so hard in that humble home at Nazareth, surrounded by the love of Our Lady and Saint Joseph. How wonderfully does this devotion affirm the value and virtue of family life and all the small things that make up the 'community of life and love" in the families of our school and parish.