Without me, no crèche, the child would be too cold! I am only an animal of strength, good at pulling the plows tirelessly in the plowed land. But tonight it's rest, and instinctively I offer my tenderness and my warmth of a big beast to the newborn. This little one is a big one. I don't know, I feel it.
According to the Fathers of the Church — Origen, Ambrose — and following Isaiah, the donkey represents the Gentiles bending under the weight of idols, and the ox the Jews, for, like the latter, it bears the yoke of law.
The Franciscan tradition insists on the extreme poverty of Joseph and Mary, on the birth of Jesus in cold and hardship. In the apocryphal gospels (Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew) the animals warm the newborn child with their breath.