Category Archives: Loving Strangers

No Room in the Inn for Jesus

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How ironic!  Jesus experienced rejection even before he was born. “She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.” (Luke 2:7)  There was no room for Jesus in the inn, so Mary and Joseph had to settle for a cave that was used as a stable for animals.

While these circumstances may have served God’s purpose in taking on our humanity in the humblest of settings, you have to wonder what the innkeeper might have done had he known who Mary and Joseph were and what was about to happen.

We should not be too harsh in judging the innkeeper, for how often have we failed to make room for Jesus in our lives?  There have been times in my life when I made more room for my career than I did for Jesus.  There have been other times, when, like the innkeeper, I did not recognize Jesus in a colleague looking for someone to talk to or the street person looking for help on the streets of New York.

Let me share a story to illustrate, and I apologize that it will extend the usual length of this blog.

When we lived in New York and I was commuting on the trains into Manhattan each day, I would sometimes attend daily mass at St. Matthews just a half block east of Grand Central station.  Since my train did not arrive until 7:32 and mass started at 7:30, I would always be rushing to get there by the time of the first reading.  One day as I was rushing to get into the church, there was a man standing on the church steps who asked me to help him, but because I was so programed to get into the church by the time of the first reading, I ran right by him.  

As I sat down in the pew, I thought to myself, “What did I just do?”  Here someone was asking me to help him and I ran right by him, ignoring his request so I could get into the church at a given time.  I was just like the innkeeper.  I had no room or time for this guy.   

I committed to myself that if he was still there when I walked out, I would see what he needed.  When I came out of the church, he was no longer on the steps, but leaning over the front bumper of a car on the street, vomiting.  “No way,” I thought, and started to walk across the street through a revolving door of a building that would take me to my building.

But the Spirit kept me in that revolving door and back around I went to exit where I entered to check out this guy one more time.  I walked over to him and said, “Pretty sick, uh?”  He was too sick to speak.  He just nodded his head.  I asked if he wanted some breakfast and we went into a little diner next to the church.

It turns out that his name was Richard.  He had been a trumpet player for a band, but lost his job, started drinking, got rolled, beat up, and lost everything he had.  After connecting him up with the Salvation Army, I saw him about a week later.  He was all cleaned up with new clothes and suitcase.  He said he was going to Hartford, Ct., which was his home.  I congratulated him and was delighted to see what had happened.

Then a couple of days later, there he was again, all beat up, his clothes torn, looking awful.  I asked Richard, “What happened?”  He couldn’t say.  He just looked at me with his hollow eyes and shook his head.  I told him to meet me at 10 o’clock, at 43d & Lexington; that I was going to buy him a train ticket to Hartford and put him on the train.  I bought him the ticket, went to 43rd and Lexington, but Richard never showed up and I never saw him again.

The good news is that God never ceases to give us opportunities to make room for him through his son, Jesus.  He is always inviting us to open the door of our hearts so he can reproduce himself in us through the power of the Holy Spirit.  He is always inviting us to love, to forgive, to serve — to build his Kingdom on this earth in the daily circumstances of our lives.

So let us ask ourselves, am I making room for Jesus today in how I relate to the people in my life — my spouse, my children, school friends, work colleagues and the stranger for whom there is no room in the inn?

 

 

 

Enlarge Your Tent

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Both Pope Francis and the Prophet Isaiah share a common theme that we should enlarge the tents of our lives and work.  “Enlarge the place of your tent, stretch your tent curtains wide, do not hold back; lengthen your cords, strengthen your stakes.” (Isaiah 54:2)

Whether as individuals or as a group, we tend to get comfortable with familiar people, familiar friends, familiar routines, familiar work, and even familiar forms of outreach.  Francis and Isaiah encourage us not to fall into the bed of comfort and familiarity, but rather to move the walls of our tents to include people who are not a part of our normal social patterns, people who may not necessarily share our background, beliefs and values.

I have been involved in various forms of Christian ministry for a good part of my adult life.  Much of it has been peer related – young people when I was young; business people when I was in business; people who were part of my social patterns at the time.

Last year I started volunteering in a local jail ministry.  It has challenged me.  I am not comfortable and feel like I am out of my element.  I don’t see much fruit so far, but I believe God wants me to continue.   God calls us to faithfulness, often without the benefit of a report card or feedback.  It is our presence and love that he wants regardless of what we perceive the outcome to be.

Enlarging our tents can also include how we relate to one another — family, friends and strangers.  Pope Francis encouraged us to engage in “little gestures” of love.  He cited examples for the family. “They are little signs of tenderness, affection and compassion,” he said.  “Like the warm supper we look forward to at night, the early breakfast awaiting someone who gets up early to go to work…a blessing before we go to bed.”  “Love is shown by little things,” said Francis.

On Christians in Commerce retreats when we pray with men to experience the Holy Spirit more fully in their lives, we often hear about their desire to love more.  Loving more starts with “little gestures” of love.  As the King said in the Parable of the Talents, “You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things.” (Mt. 25:21)

Loving more starts with the little things every day.  As loving in the little things becomes a habit, God increases our capacity to love and sacrifice in the larger things.  A habit of love in the little things will open the door to people familiar and unfamiliar, and enlarge our tents.