I was in charge of planning spirituality night this evening. I love Christmas for many reasons, but one is this: when you think about it, this is a holiday celebrating a newborn baby who was conceived outside of marriage, born to a teen mom. This savior, God incarnate, was born into a poor family, rejected by those around him even before he was born. For my community's spirituality night, I read this quote by Thomas Merton:
Into this world, this demented inn, in which there is absolutely no room for Him at all, Christ has come 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 those 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 the status of persons, tortured, exterminated. With those for whom there is no room, Christ is present in this world.On another Christmas-y social justice theme, this week is National Migration Week. As my friend Stephanie said, "Be nice to immigrants." Don't forget, young Jesus was a migrant too.
