Consideration for the 8th day
Joseph and Mary arrive in Bethlehem looking for a room at one of the inns, but they find none, perhaps because there are no vacancies, perhaps because they are rejected due to their poverty. However, no one can disturb the interior peace of those who are fixed on God. If Joseph suffered sadness as he was refused from door to door for the sake of Mary and the child, he also felt a holy tranquility whenever his gaze rested on his chaste wife.
The child, still unborn, rejoiced in those contradictions, which were a prelude to the coming humiliations. Each rasping voice, the sound of each door closing before them was sweet melody to his ears. He had come in search of that. The desire for those humiliations had contributed to his takin on human form.
Oh, Divine Child of Bethlehem! These days, so many of which have been spent in parties and diversions, or resting lavishly in comfortable and wealthy mansions, have been for your parents, days of fatigue and ill-treatment of every kind. Oh, the spirit of Bethlehem is that of a world that has forgotten God. How many times has this not been our spirit, too? Don’t we, continually and with rude ignorance, close the door on God’s calling, who incites us to conversion, to sanctification or to conform ourselves to his will?
Don’t we make poor use of our sorrows, not knowing their celestial character, even though each one of us, in his own way, has it engraved within? God comes to us many times each day, but we do not recognize his face, we only recognize him when he turns to leave after our negative response.
The sun sets on the 24th of December behind the roofs of Bethlehem and its last rays gild the rocky heights that surround it.
Crude men roughly elbow Our Lord in the streets of that Mideastern village and shut their doors at the sight of his mother. The dome of the sky is noticeably violet above the hills that are frequented by shepherds. The stars are appearing one after the other. A few more hours and the Eternal Words will make himself present.