no room

“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 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, who are tortured, bombed, and exterminated. He is mysteriously present in all those for whom there seems to be nothing but the world at its worst. It is in these that He hides Himself, for whom there is no room.”

                                                                        Thomas Merton

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Where is Jesus hanging out these days?

Does he hang out in the hall of power?

In the White House?

Or Congress?

Or in the hallowed halls of the Supreme Court?

Is Jesus to be found in the pulpit of great cathedrals,

or on the fog filled stage of a mega church?

Is Jesus to be found among those we consider blessed

The rich, the successful?

Among the people with three homes

And private jets

Who are, or so we think, so obviously blessed?

That is the way it works right?

When you are on God’s side you win!

Win, win, win!

So much that you get tired of winning.

That is why his birth is so puzzling

Born in a barn?  Seriously

And his parents, simple peasants

And his down, a rural backwater

That is why his ministry is so puzzling,

All those days tromping around the dusty roads of Galilee

far from the one place that really counted, Jerusalem.

And those disciples, a bunch of fishermen who couldn’t even catch fish

And the people he spent time with

Tax collectors

Women of the world

Lepers

The Demon possessed

The poor

Romans, the invaders of his country

And those beatitudes

Which turn the world upside down

Who teaches stuff like that?

Blessed are the poor!  Pfffft!

Blessed are those in pain

Those who have been humbled

Blessed are the givers

And those who are will to be people for others

This stuff is so crazy, that today’s church

Has decided to ignore most of it

But it is what Jesus taught

And he was who he was

And he did what he did

And so I suspect that Jesus is hanging out behind a chain linked fence

Under an overpass in El Paso

And with that child wrapped in a silver thermal blanket

Crying for her mother.

I suspect he is hanging out with that family living in poverty

And worrying about where the next meal will come from

And with that old woman, watching her husband of 60 years

Die of Alzheimer’s

I suspect he hangs out with frightened school children

Traumatized by seeing their friends shot down by a shooter

And with that addict, lying on a dirty mattress

or that person with mental health issues, tormented by voices only he can hear

I suspect he hangs out today

As he always has

With the poor, the ill, and the elderly

With the hurting and the lost

The frightened and the hopeless

and I suspect

that if we want to find him ourselves

we will have to find him there

as we open our hearts

our minds

our hands

and embrace those who are “the least of these”

he said it himself

not only does he hang out with them

he hangs out “in” them

“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,

who are tortured, bombed, and exterminated.

He is mysteriously present in all those for whom there seems to be nothing

but the world at its worst.

It is in these that He hides Himself,

for whom there is no room.”