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This is a creche which was among the vast collection of 1,000 crèches collected over the years at Montreal’s St. Joseph’s Oratory.
Photo by Paolo Gaetano, Getty Images via Canva.com
December 19, 2025
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In his “Theological-Aesthetical Manifesto,” Catholic literary scholar, novelist, short story writer and poet, Joshua Hren, makes a claim that might startle even the devout of Holy Mother Church.
“Against the reams of unread dissertations (and) in spite of the fact that (James Joyce’s novel) Ulysses might have had more peer-reviewed articles plumbing its pages than the Book of Job, fiction does not merit the degree of study that Sacred Scripture does,” Hren writes in his 2022 book Contemplative Realism.
Awash in the crash-bang-boom of Netflix and rival streaming storm drains of fictionalized murder, mass destruction, serial sexual incontinence, and blood-stained “humour” – to mention the most popular genres – we of the Faith are as susceptible as Bible-deriding atheists to greeting Hren’s claim with surprise.
Yet no less than the great literary lion Harold Bloom also steadfastly insisted only Shakespeare rivals the King James Version of the Bible as the foundation of English literature. For Bloom, an apostate atheist Jew, the KJV was the greatest story ever told for its authoritative voice, imagination, and creativity of language.
Which brings us as believers to the incarnate beginning of that marvellous account of God becoming man born of a young woman journeying with her betrothed to pay their taxes to Augustus Caesar. Or, in the immortal words of John Lennon if those words could only be shorn of his mutton headed attempt at irony: “So this is Christmas.”
And so it is. Once again unto eternity. Shepherds in bathrobes; cardboard stars that tilt precariously above pint-sized Wise Men; and the ever-hopeful tenor in the choir who just can’t quite make all the notes in “O Night Divine” anymore; will all usher us misty-eyed into renewal of love for Jesus Christ Our Lord, Saviour of the World.
Of course, we who believe never actually stop loving Him year after year for the fullness of our time on earth. But we get, you know, busy. Distracted. If it isn’t easy being green, it’s a kabillion times harder to pay full attention to The Word when there’s, oh, say, a True Crime podcast – based on something like real events and not wholly imaginary people – crying out for our attention. Hey, we all need our stories, right?
Enter the greatest story ever told, which would qualify for that accolade if it were only a story, and which is made greater than greatest by virtue of it being absolutely, irrefutably, unimpeachably the Truth. Details may vary depending on how well the shepherds in bathrobes remember their lines, but at its core its Truth sits in our hearts and minds and souls using only three short words: God became man.
Or as the KJV puts it with gorgeous mellifluousness:
“And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David) to be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child. And so it was that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn. And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid….”
We don’t have to be brilliant academics or egg-headed Hercule Poirot addicts to want to study up the mystery of what happens after that barn-burning opener. And here it is:
“The angel said unto them, ‘Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.’ And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.’”
Man, oh, man, what merely human story teller has ever matched that?
Glory to God. Peace. Good will.
Here at the Register, that’s our story, and we’re sticking to it. We pray you’ll share it too.
A version of this story appeared in the December 21, 2025, issue of The Catholic Registerwith the headline "The greatest story".
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Like many Canadians, Mark Joseph has felt an increasing unease about the number of churches, synagogues and other places of worship being vandalized and torched over the past five years.