the intrusion of love

““Into this world, this demented inn

in which there is absolutely no room for him at all,

Christ comes uninvited.”

                               Thomas Merton

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It has begun

That slow journey, in the darkness

Toward incarnation

Toward Love manifest

We festoon this season with color and light

With merriment and music

We offer gifts and talk of love

Our heads are filled with angels and shepherds

Kindly animals

Gathered around a child

Wise visitors

And magical stars

And we conveniently forget

that the incarnation was the intrusion of love

in an unlovely world

where rulers oppressed

and people lived in poverty

and the religious were cruel

we ignore the fact that

after the birth the first things that happen

are that Jesus’ family is forced to flee oppression

and become refugees

and children are murdered

it is almost as if the incarnation didn’t happen

almost

yet we know that love unleashed

is powerful

insidious

love leaves nothing untouched

love never dies

there is a kind of comfort

in the harsh realities of the story

for as it was

so it is

for still rulers oppress

and people live in poverty

and the religious are cruel

still families are forced to flee oppression

and become refugees

and children are murdered

Yet still Love comes

and comes

and comes again

into the mangers of our heart

the intrusion of love

into an unlovely world

incarnation continued

through us

in whom the Sacred has been born

in our compassion

our forgiving

our kindness

our welcoming

our generosity

still love comes

irresistible

shining forth

then as now

light in the darkness

and the darkness

now, as then

does not overcome it