In Bethlehem they did not want to receive Christ.  Today, too, many people still do not want to receive him.

In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be enrolled.

Now we can see clearly that this decree of the Roman Emperor’s was part of God’s providence.  It is the reason why Mary and Joseph went to Bethlehem, and Jesus was born there as had been prophesied many centuries before.

Our Lady knew that Jesus’ birth was about to take place and she set out on that journey with her thoughts centered on the Child who was to be born of her in the town of David.

They came to Bethlehem, both with the joy of having reached the place of their ancestors and with the tiredness caused by traveling along badly-made roads for four or five days. 

In her condition, Our Lady must have been very tired when she arrived.  And in Bethlehem they could not find anywhere to stay. There was no place for them in the inn, says St Luke briefly. Perhaps Joseph judged that he crowded inn was not a suitable place for Our Lady, especially in those circumstances.  St. Joseph must have knocked on many doors before taking Mary to a stable on the outskirts of the town.  We can well imagine the scene: Joseph explaining time and again with growing anxiety, the same story, that they had come from …, and  Mary a few feet away seeing Joseph and hearing the refusals.  They did not let Christ in.  They shut the doors on him.  Mary feels sorry for Joseph and for those people.  How cold the world is towards its God!

Perhaps it was Our Lady who suggested to Joseph that they could stay provisionally in one of those caves, which served as stables outside the town.  She probably encouraged him, telling him not to worry, that  they would manage … Joseph would feel comforted by Mary’s words and her smile.  So they made their lodging there with the few belongings they had been able to bring from Nazareth: the swaddling clothes, some items that she herself had prepared with that joy that only mothers can experience when they prepare for their first child.

We make a resolution to live the virtues of detachment and humility.  We look at Mary and we see her filled with joy.  She knows that a new era has begun for humanity – that of the Messiah, her son.  We ask her never to let us lose the joy of being beside Jesus. # # #

With permission from Scepter UK.  Short excerpt  from IN CONVERSATION WITH GOD by Francis Fernandez.  

 
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