Third Day of Christmas

THE CONTROVERSY OVER THE SONG "THE TWELVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS"

In the last 20 or so years, there has been quite a bit of controversy over the song The Twelve Days of Christmas. Some say it was a cryptic catechism song, used by the persecuted Catholics of England as a means to teach their children some rudimentary teachings of the Faith under the disguise of a seemingly harmless song. Others contest this, by saying that there is no evidence to back-up this claim and say that the alleged points of doctrine to be found hidden in the song, are ... (click here to read more)

"...Three French Hens"

Hens give us their flesh to eat as does Jesus in the most Holy Eucharist.

Incubating eggs like we should incubate virtues

Protecting the newborn, like we should protect our new-born virtues.

As the hen leads her chicks to nourishment, we should help our virtues by nourishing them on good reading and watching good examples.

The number three can symbolize many spiritual things: The Trinity, the Theological VIrtues, the Three Stages of the Spiritual Life; the Three Part of the Mystical Body and many more things.

A Trinity of Hens

A mosaic showing Jesus as the Hen, gathering souls like little chicks under His wings.

Let us follow Our Lady, for she will lead us to Heaven.

Our Lady protects us under her mantle, as the hen protects her young under her wings.

AND EVEN MORE BIRDS!
That makes it three days of birds in a row! Partridge, Turtle Doves, and, today, Hens! Is someone trying to ruffle our feathers?

MEET THE FAMILY
At first all the names can be a little confusing! Hen, chicken, rooster, cock, pullet, cockerel! Who's who? Well then, let's introduce the family to you! The family or last name of everyone is Chicken. There is daddy chicken, who has a different first name in different countries: Americans call him Rooster Chicken, but the English call him Cock Chicken. Then there's mommy chicken, who everybody calls Hen Chicken. Any chicken over 1 year of age has already "grown-up" into an adult chicken and will be given the name of Rooster (Cock) if he's a male, and Hen if she's a female. The kids or the children (birds less than one year old) of Rooster and Hen are called Cockerel if it's a he; and Pullet if it's a she! A castrated male bird is called a Capon.

CATHOLIC HENS
In a certain sense, you can't be more Catholic than a chicken. The chicken (Gallus gallus domesticus) is a domesticated fowl, a subspecies of the Red Junglefowl. They are one of the most common and widespread domestic animals in the world, with a population of more than 24 billion in 2003. There are more chickens in the world than any other species of bird. The common breeds of domesticated chicken (over 250 of them) all belong to the same species, Gallus gallus, and remain an important livestock animal in nearly every country on Earth—you could say that they are "universal" and, of course, the word "Catholic" or "Catholicus" (Latin) means "universal." Just like hens, Catholics are the single largest 'species' of religion in the whole world, with over 1.2 billion Catholics in a world population of over 6 billion people. There are 23 different kinds of 'common breeds' or 'particular churches' within the Catholic Church, but all belong to the same 'species' of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.

HENS DO A CORPORAL WORK OF MERCY BY FEEDING THE HUNGRY
Humans keep chickens primarily as a source of food, consuming both their meat and their eggs. In other words, we eat their flesh itself (the meat), or we gather and eat what they lay and leave behind (the eggs). This reminds us of Jesus, the Word of God made flesh. He told us to eat His flesh: “Except you eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood, you shall not have life in you. He that eateth My flesh, and drinketh My blood, hath everlasting life: and I will raise him up in the last day” (John 6:54-55).

But not only do we have to eat His flesh, but also the words that He laid down: “Man liveth not by bread alone, but by every word of God.” (Luke 4:4). And Jesus is that Word made Flesh: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God ... And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth" (John 1:1, 1:14). He was the Truth and His words taught the Truth. His words are eternal: "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My word shall not pass away" (Mark 13:31). "My mother and My brethren are they who hear the word of God, and do it" (Luke 8:21). So, as with the chicken or hen, we eat His flesh and we eat and chew on His words.

OUR EGGS OF FAITH, HOPE, CHARITY,
PRUDENCE, JUSTICE, FORTITUDE AND TEMPERANCE
Just as the hens lay a 'clutch' of eggs and then will sit on them during the period of incubation, until all the fertile eggs have hatched; so too do we have a 'clutch' of virtues given to us at our baptism, the theological and moral virtues listed above, which are like little seeds that we have to incubate, guard, hatch and protect as they grow.

During the incubation period, the hen will rarely leave the eggs, even forgoing food, in order to 'bring those eggs to life.' Under natural conditions, most birds lay only until a clutch is complete, and they will then incubate all the eggs. Many domestic hens will also do this–and are then said to “go broody”.

The broody hen will stop laying and instead will focus on the incubation of the eggs (a full clutch is usually about 12 eggs). She will “sit” or “set” on the nest, protesting or pecking in defense if disturbed or removed (akin to the virtue of fortitude), and she will rarely leave the nest to eat, drink, or dust-bathe (mortification). Development of the egg starts only when incubation begins, so they all hatch within a day or two of each other, despite perhaps being laid over a period of two weeks or so.

The hen will usually stay on the nest for about two days after the first egg hatches, and during this time the newly hatched chicks live off the egg yolk they absorb just before hatching. Any eggs not fertilized by a rooster will not hatch, and the hen eventually loses interest in these and leaves the nest. After hatching, the hen fiercely guards the chicks, and will brood them when necessary to keep them warm, at first often returning to the nest at night.

She leads them to food and water; she will call them to edible items, but seldom feeds them directly. She continues to care for them until they are several weeks old, then eventually she will start to lay again. Our approach to preserving, nurturing and growing our virtues should be the same, laying, nurturing and giving birth to virtues, one after another, and guarding them fiercely.

HENS ARE STRONGLY ATTACHED TO HOME
Chickens have a tough homing character, which drives them to go back to the same place and settle the moment the sun starts going down. We too should have a strong sense of home—for our true home, Heaven. Just as doves made wonderful homing-pigeons by a very strong sense of where home was, hens (and all chickens) also have a powerful instinct towards their home.

Home is where the heart is: "For where thy treasure is, there is thy heart also" (Matthew 6:21). You could have placed your heart, or all your eggs, in the basket of earthly things, or in the basket of heavenly things. Our Lord spoke about laying, not eggs but treasures, when He said: "Lay not up to yourselves treasures on earth: where the rust, and moth consume, and where thieves break through and steal. But lay up to yourselves treasures in Heaven: where neither the rust nor moth doth consume, and where thieves do not break through, nor steal" (Matthew 6:19-20). For Heaven is the home that Christ is preparing for us: “In my Father’s house there are many mansions. If not, I would have told you: because I go to prepare a place for you. And if I shall go, and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and will take you to Myself; that where I am, you also may be” (John 14:2-3).

THE NUMBER THREE
There is a whole host of things that the number three can signify, here are just a few of them:
The THREE Persons of the Holy Trinity: God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost
The THREE members of the Holy Family.
The THREE threes in Our Lord's age at the time of His death: almost 33.3 years.
The THREE Theological Virtues: Faith, Hope and Charity.
The THREE stages of the spiritual life we must all pass through to get to Heaven: Beginners, Proficient, and Perfect.
The THREE basic ways by which we either practice virtues or commit sins: Thoughts, Words and Actions.
The THREE sided Mystical Body of Christ: Church Militant (on Earth), Suffering (in Purgatory), Triumphant (in Heaven).

HEAVEN'S HENS
The Holy Trinity can be said to be "Heaven's Hens." The three hens remind us of the three Persons of the Most Holy Trinity: God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost. The little ornament, to the left, on the green background, even has a kind of a Trinitarian look to it: three separate hens, yet joined together into one whole unit, just as the three Persons of the Holy Trinity are each a separate Person but are all one and the same God.

Just as hens can be very stubborn and bossy, the Holy Trinity is the "Boss" and stubborn too! Stubborn in the sense that you cannot change God's mind, as St. Thomas Aquinas says. He adds that all we can do is to align our will to God's will, for His mind is always made up and it is always absolutely correct and just and right.

When God 'seems' to change His mind, He is not really changing His mind (as in the case of Abraham bargaining with God as to how many just men must be found in Sodom and Gomorrha for God to spare the cities), it is just that God does not always 'let-on' what He is thinking or what He has really decided.

JESUS THE HEN
Our Lord even likens Himself to a hen in Holy Scripture: "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered together thy children, as the hen doth gather her chickens under her wings, and thou wouldest not?" (Matthew 23:37). St. Luke also reports those same words of Our Lord: "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, that killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent to thee, how often would I have gathered thy children as the bird doth her brood under her wings, and thou wouldest not?" (Luke 13:34).

And just like the hen is dogged and stubborn in her task of incubation, mortifying herself so as not to lose any of the potential chicks she is trying to bring into life, so too does Our Lord do with our souls in trying to bring to them to eternal life.

At the start of His Passion in Gethsemane, when arrested, He tries to protect His Apostles: “ 'Whom seek ye?' And they said, 'Jesus of Nazareth.'  Jesus answered, 'I have told you that I am He. If therefore you seek Me, let these (the Apostles) go their way.' That the word might be fulfilled which He said: ‘Of them whom thou hast given Me, I have not lost any one’ ” (John 18:7-9).

PECKING ORDER
Father, Son and Holy Ghost. They worked in a kind of 'pecking order. Though all are united and work together, it is as though each has been assigned a time when they will be the major player in events: First God the Father creates, but He does so through His Word (Jesus) and His Spirit (the Holy Ghost).

In Scripture we read of that creation through Jesus the Word of God, through Whom all things were made: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him: and without Him was made nothing that was made” (John 1:1-2) and the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of God: “In the beginning God created Heaven, and Earth. And the Earth was void and empty, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the Spirit of God moved over the waters” (Genesis 1:1-2).

After this creation comes the Fall of mankind through Adam and Eve, which brings about the second major intervention of God in the person of the second Person of the Holy Trinity: the Redemption of fallen mankind by His Passion and Death. Though Jesus does that work, it is also the work of the Father, Who sent Him "Him that sent Me.” (John 6:38) and the work of the Holy Spirit Who guides and leads Him: “Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert, to be tempted by the devil” (Matthew 4:1).

Though they are all equally God, Our Lord, Who is God the Son, says: “The Father is greater than I” (John 14:28) and that is why Jesus obeys the Father and passes things by the Father: “I came down from Heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him that sent Me.” (John 6:38). " I will ask the Father" (John 14:16) which shows a deference to the Father, Whom He merely ASKS to do something and does not TELL Him to do something. Likewise, in His Agony in the Garden, Jesus asks and begs of the Father: “Father, all things are possible to Thee: remove this chalice from Me; but not what I will, but what Thou wilt” (Mark 14:36).

Jesus also says that God the Father will send God the Holy Ghost; usually it is the greater that sends the lesser as Jesus points out when He says: “The Father hath sent Me” (John 5:36) and Jesus says He  “came to do the will of Him that sent Me.” (John 6:38). So we see there is also a certain 'pecking order' in Heaven too!

LET US FOLLOW OUR MOTHER
Our Lady could also be said to be the supreme Hen of Holy Mother Church. St. Augustine says that, while we are in this world, we are as though in the womb of Mary, until she gives birth to us in Heaven. Let us follow our Mother and let us shelter under her mantle as chicks shelter under the wings of their mother hen. As we say in the prayer:

"We fly to thy protection, O Holy Mother of God, despise not our prayers in our necessities, but ever deliver us from all dangers, O glorious and Blessed Virgin."

Or as the Church sings in Her office of Compline every night:
"Into thy hands, O Lord I commend my spirit. For thou hast redeemed us, O Lord, God of truth. I commend my spirit. Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost.  Into thy hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit.  Keep us, Lord, as the apple of thine eye. Protect us under the shadow of thy wings."

Keep Christmas merry! Keep Christmas holy!