The ox and ass in every crib scene are interpolations of Scripture. “Ox and ass their maker know,” says Isaiah, and tradition reasonably attached this prophecy to Jesus’s birth in a manger. But the traditional casting of St Joseph as a lantern-bearing, peripheral, older foster father is not scriptural. This persona owes more to Mystery Plays, which attempt to flesh out the psychology of someone thought not to be fully in on the divine plan.
Joseph was crucial to it, though. Part of what the crib should teach us is that the action of God has to be welcomed and lived in the moment, without being able to assess the possible reasons for it or predict its outcome or even be understood by the world.
