The Mary Underground

A visit to Mary’s tomb outside Jerusalem in no way exhausts Christianity’s underground dimensions. The next day I found myself in Bethlehem. The journey from Jerusalem into Palestinian territory itself entails a descent into relative poverty. Then there is the descent required to enter the Church of the Nativity, through a low doorway just like the entrance to Mary’s tomb. Annie Dillard gets it right when, describing this church, she remarks that “each polished silver or brass lamp seemed to absorb more light than its orange flame emitted, so the more lamps shone, the darker the space.” But even this is only preparatory darkness. Next comes the descent into the cave of the Nativity down a semicircular staircase. On reaching its base, one then stoops down even lower to touch the fourteen-pointed star that encircles the very site where, Christians believe, God “emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in human likeness” (Philippians 2:7). This is the Grotto of the Nativity, and the place of Christ’s emergence looks—fittingly—like the clogged drain of a shower. No one said the cleansing of the world would be tidy. Read Full Article »