Joseph Pearce
On the Twelfth Day of Christmas two of my great loves sent to me a couple of great meditations on the mystery of the Nativity.
The first and better-known meditation is by T.S. Eliot, whose “Journey of the Magi” places the poet in the entourage of the Three Wise Men as they journey to Bethlehem. The narrative voice is that of one of the Magi who recalls the journey and its hardship, especially in terms of the cynical indifference of those whom they meet en route. The journey of the Wise is through a wasteland of worldly ignorance in which hollow men bereft of either hearts or chests spurn the presence of the three Truth Seekers. There’s no room for them in the inns of “the cities hostile and the towns unfriendly,” condemning them to “the villages dirty” where they are overcharged for inadequate shelter from the inhospitable elements.
Eventually they arrive at the designated place, “not a moment too soon,” finding the place “satisfactory.”
The place is not a palace but a stable, but it is “satisfactory”; the Child is not in some stately crib but in a manger, which is also satisfactory. It is enough, the Latin for “enough” being satis. The Child is Himself enough. He is not merely satisfactory but entirely satisfying. Nothing more is needed.
The narrating Magus tells us that it was “a long time ago” but even the distant memory is enough. He would do it all again, embracing the discomfort of the journey through the wasteland of indifference and the hostility of the hollow men. But he wonders if he and his two confreres were led all that way for birth or for death. The birth was not without suffering, either for the Mother of the child or for those who had made the pilgrimage to pay homage to them.  » Read More
https://theimaginativeconservative.org/2025/01/christmas-belloc-eliot-twelfth-night-epiphany-joseph-pearce.html