Nowhere To Lay His Head

“‘And while they were there [in Bethlehem], the time came for her to be delivered. And she gave birth to her first-born son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths, and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn’ (Lk 2:6f.).

...there was no room for them in the inn. Prayerful reflection over these words has highlighted an inner parallel between this saying and the profoundly moving verse from Saint John’s Prologue: ‘He came to his own home, and his own people received him not’ (1:11). For the Saviour of the world, for him in whom all things were created (cf. Col 1:16), there was no room. ‘Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man has nowhere to lay his head’ (Mt 8:20). He who was crucified outside the city (cf. Heb 13:12) also came into the world outside the city.

This should cause us to reflect—it points toward the reversal of values found in the figure of Jesus Christ and his message. From the moment of his birth, he belongs outside the realm of what is important and powerful in worldly terms. Yet it is this unimportant and powerless child that proves to be the truly powerful one, the one on whom ultimately everything depends. So one aspect of becoming a Christian is having to leave behind what everyone else thinks and wants, the prevailing standards, in order to enter the light of the truth of our being, and aided by that light to find the right path.”

~Benedict XVI