God is Love, right? Do we have that one down?
The message to the right says -no one made room for them- so they went someplace else. You know the story.
In the Ignatian tradition of placing yourself in the scriptures to meditate on their current reality and meaning, you can imagine yourself either as any of the parties locked out or as the townspeople or innkeeper who refues you a place inside. No room for you. We are full. Sorry-don't care if you are pregnant with the Love of the Earth. Bye Bye. Have a nice night.
Who was this Inn-Keeper? If Joseph was going home to comply with the census in his home town, there was likely a home household there. This is why the situation in the middle east is so sticky- the homes that were appropriated after WWII had been in palestinian families for generations. People had family heritage estates and they passed them down from family to family for generation after generation. They do this in Europe also. We in America tend to not appreciate this so much because we are a relatively new country, and people view real estate more for their investment value and trade them in for secure retirement residence living not passing estates so much from generation to generation. People in this country buy and sell real estate like cars- not so in other parts of the world. Thus Joseph likely went back to his home estate-something that was in the family for a long long time- possibly bequethed from David orinally himself.
So who was this Inn-keeper? He likely was a relative- possibly a cousin. Possibly someone who stayed back at the farm while Joseph went to the city of Nazareth to be a tradesman rather than tend sheep like his ancestors. This Inn-keeper, as history has told it, appears rather rude doesn't he. How dare he lock out someone with a pregnant wife right there looking exhausted and ready to pop. They didn't have a corner of a couch somewhere with a wet-nurse to help?
Did Saint Joseph kick up a fess? Huff and Puff and knock the door down? Stand on his heritage or laurels- Hey! I am family from the Royal line of David- this is MY Family House-I played here as a kid. How dare you!! Did he threaten to sue the cousin jerks? His wife was pregnant-quite obviously, and here's the kicker.
She wasn't really yet his wife. or-it was one of those shotgun weddings- and the relatives didn't get invited maybe. She was in his heart but not in the law in the proper order of things traditional. And they all knew about it. He was family. So they knew that part of the family in Nazareth had a bit of an interesting situation going on. Scandal! Imagine the rumors- imagine the ----that skank-Ho isn't coming in here with us fine folks. Let them sleep outside! How dare he try to scandalize us with that mess! Can you hear the cousin In-keeper's wife in the background yelling--- don't you dare let that thing in my house!! What a situation. The inn-keeper probably wasn't just gratuitiously cruel, maybe he was really full, and he didn't feel like he had to scandalize everyone by giving space to someone like that. This is a fine establishment. We have a reputation to uphold here. We are not that kind of an Inn. Bye Bye.
No, basically, resignedly, graciously, Joseph just said- whatever, whatever you have that will give my wife shelter I will take it-you can't be totally heartless-I beg of you-we are despirate now. I don't care if it's a barn, she needs a place to deliver. And they made do. Because Love does that- it doesn't care what other people think when you know it is the right thing to do.
Mary could have died. Literally. People died in childbirth. Imagine outside, no running water, no flushable toilet, no stove to heat up towels, nothing. Delivering a baby. No epidural. She could have died. Joseph knew it. He was despirate.
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