Aflame: Advent Retreat: Recent Episodes
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The Zenith News, dated December 17, 2005 carried an article with the title, “pampered Pets, Hungry Kids.” Quoting the Scotsman newspaper of November 19, of the same year it said that animal owners in the United Kingdom were expected to spend 150 million dollars to buy Christmas gifts for their pets. That is not all. Quoting the Guardian Newspaper of December 1, 2005 it spoke of Pet Inn Royal, a 170 room, five star hotel that was opened for pets at Tokyo’s Narita International airport. Rooms were available for the pets at $34 a night to $ 140 a night. More startling was the information that Japan has around 19 million pets – more than the number of children under the age of 15 – and the pet care industry is around $8.8 billion a year. According to the New York Times of November 16, 2005, the US pet supply industry is now worth $ 37 billion and is more lucrative than the baby supply industry. Pet supply sales are increasing 7% annually, while sales of baby supplies are decreasing. Big money is also being spent in health care of pets. “We spend on our pets as if there’s no tomorrow, “commented Rachel Johnson in the October 8 issue of the British Weekly Spectator, and we lavish on them a level of care and comfort that the elderly in our care homes can only envy.”
Now compare this with the situation of the millions and millions of people in need. Unfortunately we find that many of the children and the destitute are not so well looked after. They are neither as fortunate nor have the same comforts enjoyed by the pets in developed nations. “The state of the world’s children 2006: Excluded and Invisible” was released by the UNICEF on December 16, 2005. More than a billion children according to the report suffer from one or more extreme forms of deprivation: inadequate nutrition, safe drinking water, decent sanitation facilities, health-care services, shelter, education and information.
Coming to our own times, The “State of the World’s children 2017, Children in a Digital World” states that the infant mortality rate is 41 for every thousand births. There are 56 million under five deaths and of these almost three million die of undernutrition. 22,000 children die every day due to poverty. And they die quietly in some of the poorest villages on earth, far removed from the scrutiny and the conscience of the world. Being meek and weak in life makes these dying multitudes even more invisible in death. Thirteen percent of the children live in conditions below poverty line calculated at $ 1.90 that is around Rs 150 per day per family. And according to the World Bank report of April 2018, 11 percent of the total population live below poverty line. The number of children forcibly displaced number 28 million and of these 17 million are displaced in their own countries. As far as primary education is concerned we are far from reaching the millennium goals and even today there are 61 million children deprived of primary school education.
There is no doubt we need to look after the pets. They too are God’s creatures and they deserve our kindness. But should we not have our priorities right? Can we afford to spend all that amount close to 40 billion dollars on pets, in the US alone, and around 800 billion on global military spending, when a fraction of that could go a long way to assure a better future for the children in need? According to UNICEF the additional costs to achieve universal access to basic needs, that is, basic education for all, water and sanitation for all, and basic health and nutrition for all is just 28 billion dollars.
If on the one hand we are confronted by the chasm between the haves and the have nots, on the other is the stark reality of many who literally hold that there is no place for the have nots in their world. It is not only God who does not find a place in the inn today. There is no place for a lot of human beings because they are poor, they are different, they are followers of another religion, they belong to another cast, they speak another language, they come from another culture, they have an ideology different from mine etc. We seal our borders to make ourselves more secure. The refugees they are a nuisance; they are a threat to our security; they take away our jobs. When the Philosopher Sartre said the other is my hell, we considered him strange. Yet today, although we do not say the same in as many words, our actions and attitudes, betray the same philosophy, albeit with even more passion. The other has become a threat.
This advent invites us all to make place Christ in our hearts and in our lives. If we have been able to make room for the christs of the world we will be recipients of the good news at the end of our lives: “Come blessed of my Father! Take possession of the kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the world. For I was hungry and you fed me, I was thirsty and you gave me to drink. I was a stranger and you welcomed me into your house. I was naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you visited me. I was in prison and you came to visit me.” (Mt. 25, 34-36). As Jesus himself assures us in Mathew chapter 25, verse 40 it is when we reach out to those in need that we reach out to Christ. The author of the letter to the Hebrews assures us in chapter six verse ten, God is not unjust; he will not forget the work you did, the love you have shown for his name, or the services you have rendered and are rendering to the holy people of God. Yes dear friends we are to encounter Christ in the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the migrant, the refugee, the ignorant, the naked, the sick, the prisoner etc. and open the doors of our inns to him. It is in serving such people that we serve Christ.
It is not only the other who is alive that makes me insecure. So we close not only our doors and boarders, but also the wombs. We are constantly being warned of the dangers of the population explosion. There is no place for more human beings in the world and in the families. Millions find no place in the inn today. Although the exact numbers are not available it is estimated that between two thousand ten and two thousand fourteen approximately fifty six million abortions occurred each year. The message is clear, there is no place for human beings. There is no place for Christ in the inn today.
I am sure none of us want to make the mistake made over two thousand years ago. We all want to welcome Christ into our homes, into our inns, and into hearts. But will we? The danger is that we too might repeat the mistakes of the past. For Christ continues to incarnate in the peripheries of the world and you and I might fail to recognise him in the last and the least. We might be searching for Christ in the palaces, cathedrals, holy places, and even in the deep recesses of our hearts, while he continues to manifest himself in the margins and the marginalised. Can we make room for Christ and the christs who live with us and who want to live with us, in our Christmas celebrations and in our hearts and homes?
My dear brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ welcome to this third final advent reflection for the year two thousand eighteen.
Maranatha! Come Lord Jesus is a constant refrain of the season of advent. With this prayer, we prayerfully await the advent of the Messiah. Well dear friends, we make the right prayer. But are we really serious about the prayer. Do we believe that our prayer is going to be answered? Are we sure that we want our prayers to be heard and answered? Do we really want Christ the Lord to come into our life? Probably, we might be the ones most surprised if Jesus were to answer our prayers.
A poem and a story that I came across some time ago, I thought could help us to reflect on how we need to prayerfully wait for the coming of the Lord at Christmas.
Let us begin with the poem. The poem has the title, “If Jesus were to come to your House Today.” The poem is credited to Lois Blanchard Eades.
If Jesus came to your house to spend a day or two -
If He came unexpectedly, I wonder what you'd do.
Oh, I know you'd give your nicest room to such an honoured Guest,
And all the food you'd serve to Him would be the very best,
And you would keep assuring Him you're glad to have him there -
That serving Him in your own home is joy beyond compare.
But when you saw Him coming, would you meet Him at the door
With arms outstretched in welcome to your heavenly Visitor?
Or would you have to change your clothes before you let Him in?
Or hide some magazines and put the Bible where they'd been?
Would you turn off the radio and hope He hadn't heard?
And wish you hadn't uttered that last, loud, hasty word?
Would you hide your worldly music and put some hymn books out?
Could you let Jesus walk right in, or would you rush about?
And I wonder - if the Saviour spent a day or two with you,
Would you go right on doing the things you always do?
Would you go right on saying the things you always say?
Would life for you continue as it does from day to day?
Would your family conversation keep up it's usual pace?
And would you find it hard each meal to say a table grace?
Would you sing the songs you always sing, and read the books you read,
And let Him know the things on which your mind and spirit feed?
Would you take Jesus with you everywhere you'd planned to go?
Or would you, maybe, change your plans for just a day or so?
Would you be glad to have Him meet your very closest friends?
Or would you hope they'd stay away until His visit ends?
Would you be glad to have Him stay forever on and on?
Or would you sigh with great relief when He at last was gone?
It might be interesting to know the things that you would do
If Jesus Christ in person came to spend some time with you.
Perhaps this poem might be better entitled, "If Jesus Came to My House." If He did come to my house, I wonder what I would do. How about you? Well dear friends it’s almost Christmas, am I are you ready or are we still in need of some last minute preparations? Are there somethings, or some ways of behaviour, or some ways of going about the daily tasks that need attention? Is there something that need to be done in the way we deal with those closely associated with us? Would we be comfortable taking Jesus to all the places we frequent and introducing him to our closest friends? Are we prepared to let him stay as long as he wants or better still do we want him to be a constant companion?
The story that I am going to narrate is of a man who decided to have the Lord in his house and about what happens when the Lord finally arrives his house as a guest.
One day a man decided to invite the Lord to come home and stay with him. When the Lord arrived, this young man offered him the very best room in the house. The room was upstairs and at the end of the hall, “This room is yours. Jesus! Stay as long as you like and you can do whatever you want to in this room, remember Jesus, it’s all yours.”
That evening after he had retired for the night there came a loud knocking at the front door. The young man pulled on his robe and made his way downstairs. When he opened the door he found that the devil had sent three of his demons to attack him. He quickly tried to close the door but one of the demons kept sticking his foot in.
Sometime later, after a great struggle, he managed to slam the door shut and returned to his room totally exhausted.
“Can you believe that” the man thought. Jesus is upstairs in my very best room sleeping while I am down here battling demons. Oh, well, maybe he just didn’t hear. He slept fully that night. The next day things went along as usual and, being tired as he was, the young man retired to bed early that evening. Along about midnight, there came such a terrible ruckus at the front door. The young man was sure that whatever it was, it would tear the door down. He stumbled down the stairs once again and opened the door to find that there were dozens of demons now trying to get into his beautiful home.
For more than three hours he fought and struggled against the demons from hell, and finally overpowered them enough to shut the door against their attack. All energy seemed to fail him. He really didn’t understand this at tall. Why won’t the Lord come to my rescue? Why does he allow me fight all by myself? I feel so week and alone. Troubled, he found his way to the sofa and fell into a restless sleep.
The next morning he decided to inquire of the Lord about the happenings of the last two evenings. Quietly he made his way to the elegant bedroom where he had left Jesus. “Jesus,” he called as he knocked on the door. “Lord,” I don’t understand what is happening. For the last two nights I have had to fight the demons away from my door while you were here sleeping. Don’t you care for me? Did I not give you the very best room in the house?”
He could see tears building in Jesus’ eyes but continued on, “I just don’t understand. I really thought that once I invited you in, to live with me, you would take care of me and I gave you the best room in my house and everything in it. What more can I do?”
“My precious child,” Jesus spoke so softly. “I do love and care for you. I protect all that you have released into my care. But, when you invited me to come here and stay, you brought me to this lovely room and you shut the door to the rest of your house. I am the Lord of this room but I am not the master of this house.”
I have protected this room and no demon may enter here. “Oh, Lord, please forgive me. Take all my house – It is all yours. I am so sorry that I never offered you all to begin with. I want you to have control of everything.” With this he flung open the bedroom door and knelt at the feet of Jesus. “Please forgive me Lord for being so selfish.”
Jesus smiled and told him that He had already forgiven him and that He would take care of things from now on. That night as the young man prepared for bed he thought, “I wonder if those demons will return, I am so tired of fighting them each and every night.” But, he knew that Jesus said that he would take care of thing from now on.
Along about midnight the banging on the door as frightening. The young man slipped out of his room in time to see Jesus going down the stairs. He watched in awe as Jesus swung open the door.
Satan stood at the door, this time demanding to be let in. “What do you want Satan?” the Lord asked. The devil bowed low in the presence of the Lord. “So sorry,” said the devil, “I seem to have gotten the wrong address.” And with that he and all the demons fled.
Well dear friends Jesus wants the whole of us and not just part of us. No one can serve two masters: he will either hate the first and love the second, or be attached to the first and despise the second. You cannot be the slave of both god and money as we read in Mathew chapter six, verse twenty four. In the parable of the treasure and the pearl Jesus tells us that the man who finds a treasure hidden in a field goes and sells everything he has in order to buy that field. And the merchant who finds a pearl of exceptional quality, sells everything he has to buy the pearl of immense value. (Mathew 13, 44-46). The Lord demands that we love him with total commitment as he says in Luke chapter ten verse twenty seven: “You shall love the Lord you God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength and with all your mind.” In other words the Lord wants us to love him with our whole self.
My dear brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ this advent we have been praying come Lord Jesus. He is ready to answer our prayers. He will take all that we give and nothing more. How much am I, how much are you prepared to give to the Lord? Am I, and Are you prepared to let him be the master of the entire house and not just part of the house?
Let us close with a short prayer. "Dear God, please help me to live in harmony with your will that if Jesus came in person to my house today, I would not in any way be embarrassed or ashamed. So help me God. Thank you for coming into my house, into my heart, hearing and answering my prayer. Grant Lord that I may surrender my whole life into your hands. May you be the Lord and master of my house, my life. Give me the grace and the strength to follow your teaching and do your holy will. Amen
One often hears the complaint that Christmas has been secularized. Cards without the figure of Jesus, I might dare to say, is symptomatic of the loss of the religious dimension of Christmas, and symbolic of the Christmas celebrations where there is no place for Christ. The stark reality of the Christmas more than two thousand years ago comes alive once again. Two thousand years ago in that cold winter night there was no room for Christ in the inn. History repeats we say. How true! There is still no room for Christ in the inn. There is no place for Christ in Christmas cards. There is no place for Christ at Christmas.
No room for God in my life
Reflecting on the phrase “there was no place for them in the inn” William Barclay observed that it is symbolic of what was to happen to Jesus. “The only place where there was room for Him was on the cross. He sought an entry into the overcrowded hearts of men and women: he could not find it. And still his search and rejection go on!” An Important question at this Advent should be: Is there room in my heart for God?
The inns were not five star hotels. They were places for the poor, as they are even today. The inn keepers, to be fair, we must admit, were not cruel or inhospitable. They just had no room left. All the rooms were already taken. It is not that any of them had anything against Joseph, or Mary and Jesus, the child she was about to bring forth. However much they wanted to assist, they were helpless. Believe me there was no malice involved in Jesus not getting a place to be born. The simple fact was that Bethlehem, and all her inns in particular were overcrowded. One of them is moved, probably seeing the expectant mother. Some place is better than no place, he/she must have thought. A place in the periphery is given.
The whole wide world and our large hearts are overflowing. All the available places have been occupied by riches, honour, prestige, pleasure, business affairs etc. The sign board is out, “house full”. Put plainly, it’s not always the case that we do not want him. Even if we want him, there is no place for him and if we find a place for him that can only be at the periphery, far removed from the hustle and bustle of life.
Like the innkeeper we carry on saying ‘there is no room’. Not because we hate him. It often happens, simply because our hearts are overcrowded with riches, people we love, the things we love, honour, prestige, pleasure, business affairs etc.
How do I crowd Jesus out of life?
- Do I say by my life style “no room”? I really would like to have you in my inn, but come back another day. I really would like to have you some other day when it is more convenient? Like the young man who said, Lord I want to follow you, not now but later, we show the door to Jesus.
- Do I say “no room” by my attitudes in life? Come back another day when you do not interfere with my goals, and plans I have for my life. I’m sorry but you really don’t fit into my plans; may be some time in the future. Now I have bought a piece of land, I have bought five pairs of oxen, I am newly married (Lk 14, 19-20). I will follow you but not now, rather after burying my father (Mt 8, 21-22), that is, sometime later, may be when I am old; after doing all that I have planned for me. Lord please don’t misunderstand; it is not that I do not want you. It is only that there is no time and place for you now. I shall keep the commandments, I shall be charitable, but I cannot sell all that I have acquired with my hard work. Let me enjoy them at least for some time (Lk 18, 18-23, the rich young man).
- Do I say “no room” by my behaviours? Do my actions say “no room,” you would be embarrassed if you came with me today and followed me around the office, or the class room, or my business. I won’t be able to carry on doing what I’m doing now so don’t come.
- Do I say “no room” in my thought life? Does my thinking reflect the mind of Christ? Sorry, but my mind is cluttered with a lot of conflicting philosophical ideas and new age concepts. There is no room for the ethical demands of clear thinking and submission to God. I have my own way of looking at life. I have my own philosophy of life. Sorry.
Jesus continues to find no room in many an inn today, although he stands knocking at the door as we read in the book of Revelations chapter three verse twenty, wanting to make a permanent home in our hearts as the apostle Paul tells us in Ephesians chapter three verse seventeen. He doesn’t want us to wait for some more convenient time, to open our hearts to him. It does not matter where we are and how we are, He wants to come into our hearts today, right now.