This Christmas season, subsequent passages from the Gospel of Matthew have troubled me. The Magi, wise foreigners, sought, and recognized the Messiah in the babe of Bethlehem. Shortly thereafter, in terror for the lives of his family, Joseph responded to God’s voice in a dream and fled with his family to the safety of Egypt. I wonder… how many wise women and men have dreamed, and sought and found God’s presence in our country? How many live here now in terror of being apprehended? How many of us recognize Jesus in the stranger and welcome him or her? (See Mt. 2:1-15, Mt. 25:35.) -Sr. Beth Fitzpatrick
Artwork: La Sagrada Familia by Kelly Latimore #kellylatimore #kellylatimoreicons
Into this world,
this demented inn in which there is absolutely no room for him at all,
Christ comes uninvited.
But because he cannot be at home in it,
because he is out of place in it, and yet he must be in it,
His place is with the others for whom there is no room.
His place is with those who do not belong,
who are rejected by power,
because they are regarded as weak,
those who are discredited,
who are denied status of persons, who are tortured,
bombed and exterminated.
With those for whom there is no room,
Christ is present in this world. – Thomas Merton