Vatican City, Dec 28, 2022 / 05:00 am
The manger and the cross are the chosen thrones of Jesus Christ, our King, Pope Francis said on Wednesday.
“When the angels announce the birth of Jesus — ‘Go to find him’ —the sign is: you will find a baby in a manger. That is the sign. The throne of Jesus is the manger, or the street during his life when he preached, or the cross at the end of his life: this is the throne of our King,” the pope said Dec. 28 at his weekly public audience in the Vatican.
In his message, Francis emphasized the love with which Jesus came into the world, lived, suffered, and died. He also gave a particular focus to the words of St. Francis de Sales, a bishop and doctor of the Church, who died 400 years ago on Dec. 28.
The pope quoted from a letter of St. Francis de Sales to his friend, St. Jane Frances de Chantal: “I imagine I see Solomon on his ivory throne, all beautifully gilded and carved, which, as the Scripture tells us, had no equal in all the kingdoms of the earth (1 Kings 10:18-20) neither was there any king that could be compared, for glory and magnificence, with the king that sat upon it (1 Kings 10:23). And yet, I would a hundred times rather see the dear Jesus in his Crib, than all the kings of the world on their thrones.”