December 22, 2024 Essay: Christ Comes Uninvited
During the war in Vietnam (1965–1973) that witnessed the deaths of countless Vietnamese and 58,220 American soldiers, Thomas Merton penned a hauntingly evocative poem, No Room at the Inn, about hope for a broken world. It is a poem that seems appropriately fitting as we navigate toward an uncertain future amidst the raging tides of division, partisanship, global conflicts, and fear. There is a lesson to be learned today from what Merton wrote sixty years ago.
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.
Merton provides us with another point of entry into the Christmas story. For him, it is not a romanticized recounting of a time long ago, it is a drama that continues to unfold to this day. Merton invites his readers to take a close look at the world within the context of the Christmas narrative. It is as relevant an exercise for us today as it was at the height of the war in Vietnam.
The sobering reality of our generation is that there is no room in the inn for far too many people. The innkeepers of today’s world—the powerful, the greedy, elected officials and misguided governments, swindlers, cheats and fraudsters—acting out of petty self-interest and blind to the needs of others, have locked the doors to scores upon scores of people who seek shelter, who are forced to live in the dark shadow of fear, and who are denied the opportunity to live with dignity. The ironic tragedy to this is that by locking the doors to let no one in, they have confined themselves to a fantasy world, an equally broken world with a façade of wealth, power, and status, where the story of Christmas holds no meaning.
It was into a cold and broken world that Christ came uninvited because, as Merton wrote, “he must be in it.” That moment in time is captured beautifully in the carol, O Holy Night, with the words, A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices, for yonder breaks a new and glorious morn. That hope becomes a reality each day for all who unlock their doors to allow Jesus to reside in their hearts. Only then will Jesus be recognized in the faces of those who knock at the door seeking refuge from the buffeting winds of an indifferent world. On that day, a new morn will break through the darkness, and the “uninvited” Christ will illumine the path to a brilliant future, bathed in hope for all.
As disciples of Jesus Christ and parishioners of the Church of St. Ignatius Loyola, we are called to be heralds of hope. Let our prayer be that we welcome Jesus into our hearts, so that through us his radiant light may be a beacon of hope for a weary world. May our joy at his birth renew our fervor to be faithful to our mission to walk together with those in need and to be a source of solace for those who are burdened. By our testimony of faith, people will come to know that Christ, born on Christmas Day, is truly present in the world.
May our celebration of Christmas this year be filled with the radiant light of hope!
— Dennis J. Yesalonia, S.J., Pastor