Pope Francis’ Missing Miriam

Pope Francis’ gift to Catholics this Christmas is his new apostolic letter on the Nativity scene, Admirabile Signum. It is quite moving. Francis says the crèche “never ceases to arouse amazement and wonder” and is “like a living Gospel,” and dives into reflections on the varied elements of these scenes. Among these elements, Francis acknowledges, are “many symbolic figures.” These figures are not drawn from the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ birth, and yet, “these fanciful additions show that in the new world inaugurated by Jesus there is room for whatever is truly human and for all God’s creatures.”

The Nativity scene is a more traditional form of devotional prayer, yet one I cherish greatly. I first received the Holy Family figurines in high school. My scene has grown by a figurine or two each Christmas in the years since. I now have not only the standard shepherds and kings, but many “symbolic figures.” Indeed, there are now more than thirty characters in my annual tabletop drama.

Beyond adding new figurines each year, the arrangement of the scene changes, too. I have come to find positioning the characters concentrically around the Holy Family is an extension of my prayer life. The arrangement reflects what I have brought to God this Advent. In past years, it might have been shepherds to call to mind those in poverty. One year, all of the female characters were front and center against the patriarchy. This year, the closest figurines to Jesus are two sets of children. They call to mind the migrant children detained and abused by the federal government at the Mexico-U.S. border. These kids have been central in my prayer and my activism this year. And their suffering relentlessly persists in concentration camps where they exist without basic needs being met. When I see the infant Jesus in the Nativity scene, I think of Mariee Juarez, age one, who died in U.S. custody. At least five other kids have died in custody, too.

There is, however, one constant symbolic figure who remains at the stable’s edge year after year: a dancing Miriam. This figurine, dressed in vibrant red with tambourine in hand, came to my collection a bit differently. She was not boxed and wrapped under my Christmas tree. Rather, she caught my eye in a small shop adjacent to St. Peter’s Square in Rome. A lone figurine, an afterthought amid tourist trinkets, Miriam has come to be among my favorite characters.

In her dancing, Miriam celebrates Jesus’ birth defiantly against the countless oppressions afflicting the world into which God became human. She reminds me of the many women, my mother foremost, who formed me to be a faithful, yet critically-thinking Catholic. She reminds me of the prophets alongside whom we walk in this journey towards a renewed church. She reminds me of our Women’s Ordination Conference community that rebels against kyriarchy with joyful spirits. She reminds me that Sophia Wisdom is alive and moving in my life and in our world.

Miriam is the element Pope Francis is missing, not only in his apostolic letter on Nativity scenes, but in his vision for church reform. I am grateful for Pope Francis’ gift in Admirabile Signum. In return, perhaps I should send him a Miriam figurine for his Nativity scene. The pope needs to come to know and reflect on the Miriams of our church who, though devalued because of their gender, dance the People of God into new life as they welcome Jesus anew. Perhaps then he will see at last that, like the Nativity scene, our church is at its best when there is room for all God’s creatures.

Robert Shine is vice president of the national Board of Directors of the Women’s Ordination Conference.