Why was there 'No Room in the Inn?"

[patrick457]

I’ve heard of several versions of what the place Jesus was born in was like.

But the one I think fits best is the one that said that the inn had a number of rooms but were taken before Joseph arrived. But the stable, or cave, which housed animals under the house, was offered to them. Like a garage in our day which is below the house.

The offer of the ‘stable’ (not so much a Western barn or a shack as a part of the house) to the holy couple is actually an act of charity. We’re talking about an honor-shame, group-oriented culture here: the host would obviously not want to ‘lose face’ by failing to provide for his guests. If the “lodging” was full/too cramped for the delivery he/she had to offer a more spacious area. The backdoor/underground (whichever it was) stable isn’t really that too bad of a place as we sometimes think it is: people lived with their animals after all. This was nothing unnatural.

St. Jerome, while working on the bible, was housed in a cave as the original place of birth in Bethlehem.

Yes, the cave where St. Jerome worked is under the Church of the Nativity. I don’t think that it’s the same cave as the Cave of the Nativity however. And yes, caves could be converted into living quarters.

A few pics:

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Manger





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http://www.welcometohosanna.com/LIFE_OF_JESUS/JESUS_LIFE_PIX/NAZARETH_VILLAGE_HOME_INT.jpg

 

[GEddie]

They are not the same cave, unless they were walled apart at a later time.

ICXC NIKA

 

[Della]

Privacy is also expressed in the Transfiguration. This was not an event to be beheld by everyone. Why not do it on a pyramid surrounded by thousands to see? Why be modest?

Jesus often went off alone with just a few people. He wanted certain persons to witness his Transfiguration because of the special mission he had for them. Peter, because he was to be the earthly head of the Church, John because he was to be the witness of Christ’s Revelation to the Church, and James because he was to be the first martyred Apostle, thus giving witness with his blood to the authenticity of his Master’s redemptive life and message. If Jesus had stood on a pyramid and been glorified before all the people they would have worshipped him because of his great power and tried to make him an earthly king. Jesus had to slip away from the crowds more than once to prevent them from crowning him king after he’d performed miracles. Being an earthly king wasn’t his mission. His mission was to redeem the world and make possible our salvation so, in God’s good time, the world can be remade.

As for the birth of Christ being private, again, God chose certain persons to be the witnesses of it to fulfill his plans. The Angel of the Lord didn’t go to everyone, but to the shepherds. Magi deduced the birth of Christ in the stars and were led by a special star. Remember Herod was the type who murdered his own family members to keep his throne. If he’d known where to find Jesus he’d have killed him, and indeed tried to do so when he orederd the killing of all boy child under age 2 when the Magi came to tell him why they’d come into Israel. God knows why he does what he does. It takes faith to discern that truth and to trust in that truth.

 

[PJM]

=Della;10179841]Jesus often went off alone with just a few people. He wanted certain persons to witness his Transfiguration because of the special mission he had for them. Peter, because he was to be the earthly head of the Church, John because he was to be the witness of Christ’s Revelation to the Church, and James because he was to be the first martyred Apostle, thus giving witness with his blood to the authenticity of his Master’s redemptive life and message. If Jesus had stood on a pyramid and been glorified before all the people they would have worshipped him because of his great power and tried to make him an earthly king. Jesus had to slip away from the crowds more than once to prevent them from crowning him king after he’d performed miracles. Being an earthly king wasn’t his mission. His mission was to redeem the world and make possible our salvation so, in God’s good time, the world can be remade.

As for the birth of Christ being private, again, God chose certain persons to be the witnesses of it to fulfill his plans. The Angel of the Lord didn’t go to everyone, but to the shepherds. Magi deduced the birth of Christ in the stars and were led by a special star. Remember Herod was the type who murdered his own family members to keep his throne. If he’d known where to find Jesus he’d have killed him, and indeed tried to do so when he orederd the killing of all boy child under age 2 when the Magi came to tell him why they’d come into Israel. God knows why he does what he does. It takes faith to discern that truth and to trust in that truth.

May I then ask another question?

Are “WE” too possibly the '“In” that Christ is seeking? And Do “WE” make room for Him in “our In?”

God Bless,

Pat/PJM

 

[Della]

May I then ask another question?

Are “WE” too possibly the '“In” that Christ is seeking? And Do “WE” make room for Him in “our In?”

God Bless,

Pat/PJM

Yes, we are and yes we should.

Of course, we can’t be too hard on the innkeeper. He probably made the best decision of his career by sending the Holy Family to those particular stables in which everything was kept ritually pure. How much better for Mary to give birth there than in a crowded room full of strangers. The movie “The Inn of the Sixth Happiness” shows the kind of inn peoples in ancient cultures used–one large room with mats on the floor where everyone slept. It would be warmer, safer (safety in numbers) and easier for the innkeeper to keep guard/watch over everyone. Mary didn’t need that–she needed privacy, and where better than a place no one would think to look for a couple of people in need than the stables in which the sacrificial lambs were birthed?

 

[PJM]

=Della;10180296]Yes, we are and yes we should.

Of course, we can’t be too hard on the innkeeper. He probably made the best decision of his career by sending the Holy Family to those particular stables in which everything was kept ritually pure. How much better for Mary to give birth there than in a crowded room full of strangers. The movie “The Inn of the Sixth Happiness” shows the kind of inn peoples in ancient cultures used–one large room with mats on the floor where everyone slept. It would be warmer, safer (safety in numbers) and easier for the innkeeper to keep guard/watch over everyone. Mary didn’t need that–she needed privacy, and where better than a place no one would think to look for a couple of people in need than the stables in which the sacrificial lambs were birthed?

AWESOME POST Della;

Continued Blessings my friend!

Pat

 

[marywarfield]

Why was their no Room at the Inn?
.

This season ought to be for all Christians one if introspection. Relating this need to the situation of Mary and Joseph, we might ask ourselves: As I myself am the “Inn” that the Christ child seeks “room in.“ Do I have room? Do I make ROOM for Christ in “My personal “In” ? Is my mind, heart, soul open for Christ as MY invited and special Guest? Have I given Jesus the Christmas present that He seeks? Have I returned “my will” in favor of His Divine will? … Both Christ and me can’t be in charge; so am I able; am I willing to allow Christ to take charge of my life?

Is there room in “My In” for Christ?; or might I, like the infamous Inn Keeper be holding out for a more lucrative self-serving tenant?

Heb.6: 10 “For God is not so unjust as to overlook your work and the love which you showed for his sake in serving the saints, as you still do.”

Continued Blessings,

Pat /PJM

It is interesting to me this question is here as I had a problem with this passage during Midnight Mass. I have heard this read so many Masses and Christmas Eves but suddenly it struck discord. Here is the possible reason: Our pastor gave what I felt was a poor analogy. He spoke of a poor peasant woman in Ireland who found an older woman standing on the doorstep of her cottage in a pouring rain storm. The stranger politely asked for an umbrella but the peasant woman only had two-one brand new that was a gift from her son and one older one, still serviceable but not as nice. She told the stranger she could have the older not newer umbrella. The woman took the older umbrella and left. Later the peasant woman discovered the stranger was Queen Victoria and she burst into tears because she had offered the Queen of the realm an older umbrella. Our pastor likened this to the innkeeper having no room for the Holy Family.

My reaction this Mass was unusual. Instead of feeling sorry for the Holy Family, I felt terribly sorry for both the innkeeper and the peasant woman. Here is this poor innkeeper, probably totally sold out, busy as anything because his place is filled with soldiers and others coming for this huge census. Just a huge census. He is attempting to accomodate everyone and run a business and probably support his own family and suddenly he is confronted by two strangers, one ready to give birth (who don’t have reservations by the way LOL) and he offers them the ONLY THING HE HAS LEFT: the stable. The stable was apparently perfectly clean, secure and safe. And by my thinking, by rights, the innkeeper did not HAVE to offer the stable. He could have just sent them packing. The poor guy was actually trying to accomodate this young couple the only way he could and ever after he has been held up as an example of what NOT to do, accused of being unfeeling and uncaring. Was he really?
The same thing occurs with this poor peasant woman. She is POOR. It is the QUEEN on her doorstep even though she doesn’t know that at the time. The poor peasant woman probably thought herself in seventh heaven because she had been given a new umbrella, something she could never afford on her own. And suddenly she is likened to the innkeeper in that she did not give this incredibly wealthy woman her best umbrella. I ask you, really,if it had not been Queen Victoria,but say another peasant from next door, who received the older umbrella, would the story have been worth telling at Mass?
I came away from Mass feeling very sorry for the innkeeper and the peasant woman, thinking the world in general is placing “burdens to heavy” on them.

 

[MarcoPolo]

I didn’t see anyone here post Pope Benedict’s Christmas Eve homily 2012 on that very phrase:
I am also repeatedly struck by the Gospel writer’s almost casual remark that there was no room for them at the inn. Inevitably the question arises, what would happen if Mary and Joseph were to knock at my door. Would there be room for them? And then it occurs to us that Saint John takes up this seemingly chance comment about the lack of room at the inn, which drove the Holy Family into the stable; he explores it more deeply and arrives at the heart of the matter when he writes: “he came to his own home, and his own people received him not” (Jn 1:11). The great moral question of our attitude towards the homeless, towards refugees and migrants, takes on a deeper dimension: do we really have room for God when he seeks to enter under our roof? Do we have time and space for him? Do we not actually turn away God himself? We begin to do so when we have no time for him. The faster we can move, the more efficient our time-saving appliances become, the less time we have. And God? The question of God never seems urgent. Our time is already completely full. But matters go deeper still. Does God actually have a place in our thinking? Our process of thinking is structured in such a way that he simply ought not to exist. Even if he seems to knock at the door of our thinking, he has to be explained away. If thinking is to be taken seriously, it must be structured in such a way that the “God hypothesis” becomes superfluous. There is no room for him. Not even in our feelings and desires is there any room for him. We want ourselves. We want what we can seize hold of, we want happiness that is within our reach, we want our plans and purposes to succeed. We are so “full” of ourselves that there is no room left for God. And that means there is no room for others either, for children, for the poor, for the stranger. By reflecting on that one simple saying about the lack of room at the inn, we have come to see how much we need to listen to Saint Paul’s exhortation: “Be transformed by the renewal of your mind” (Rom 12:2). Paul speaks of renewal, the opening up of our intellect (nous), of the whole way we view the world and ourselves. The conversion that we need must truly reach into the depths of our relationship with reality. Let us ask the Lord that we may become vigilant for his presence, that we may hear how softly yet insistently he knocks at the door of our being and willing. Let us ask that we may make room for him within ourselves, that we may recognize him also in those through whom he speaks to us: children, the suffering, the abandoned, those who are excluded and the poor of this world.

 

[Della]

While there is all sorts of spiritual riches in this particular Gospel story, it actually gives us very little information to go on. After all, the focus of the story isn’t that there was no room at the inn, but the birth of Christ. And so, that really ought to be what we give most attention to, but of course, since this account is read every Christmas some new angle is always needed so the homilist can give a fresh homily on it.

Spiritual applications of the details of the story are fine, but we can’t lose the main thrust of it–that God had it all in mind long before it happened. Each detail came about, not by accident, but by design. God knew the city would over-crowded with those coming for the census and that good inkeeper would send the Holy Family to the stable in the caves just outside of town. It was the best place for the birth and for the shepherds to come to pay him homage. The shepherds were special as was the stable–none of it was random. The deeper symbolism in that tells us that God has a plan for each of us and that we all, in our own way, can serve the Holy Family and give them homage as did the innkeeper and the shepherds.

 

[PJM]

=marywarfield;10185115]It is interesting to me this question is here as I had a problem with this passage during Midnight Mass. I have heard this read so many Masses and Christmas Eves but suddenly it struck discord. Here is the possible reason: Our pastor gave what I felt was a poor analogy. He spoke of a poor peasant woman in Ireland who found an older woman standing on the doorstep of her cottage in a pouring rain storm. The stranger politely asked for an umbrella but the peasant woman only had two-one brand new that was a gift from her son and one older one, still serviceable but not as nice. She told the stranger she could have the older not newer umbrella. The woman took the older umbrella and left. Later the peasant woman discovered the stranger was Queen Victoria and she burst into tears because she had offered the Queen of the realm an older umbrella. Our pastor likened this to the innkeeper having no room for the Holy Family.

My reaction this Mass was unusual. Instead of feeling sorry for the Holy Family, I felt terribly sorry for both the innkeeper and the peasant woman. Here is this poor innkeeper, probably totally sold out, busy as anything because his place is filled with soldiers and others coming for this huge census. Just a huge census. He is attempting to accomodate everyone and run a business and probably support his own family and suddenly he is confronted by two strangers, one ready to give birth (who don’t have reservations by the way LOL) and he offers them the ONLY THING HE HAS LEFT: the stable. The stable was apparently perfectly clean, secure and safe. And by my thinking, by rights, the innkeeper did not HAVE to offer the stable. He could have just sent them packing. The poor guy was actually trying to accomodate this young couple the only way he could and ever after he has been held up as an example of what NOT to do, accused of being unfeeling and uncaring. Was he really?
The same thing occurs with this poor peasant woman. She is POOR. It is the QUEEN on her doorstep even though she doesn’t know that at the time. The poor peasant woman probably thought herself in seventh heaven because she had been given a new umbrella, something she could never afford on her own. And suddenly she is likened to the innkeeper in that she did not give this incredibly wealthy woman her best umbrella. I ask you, really,if it had not been Queen Victoria,but say another peasant from next door, who received the older umbrella, would the story have been worth telling at Mass?
I came away from Mass feeling very sorry for the innkeeper and the peasant woman, thinking the world in general is placing “burdens to heavy” on them.

Well, he made you think about it. And freind is a very good thing

God Bless and thanks for sharring!

 

[PJM]

=MarcoPolo;10185129]I didn’t see anyone here post Pope Benedict’s Christmas Eve homily 2012 on that very phrase:
I am also repeatedly struck by the Gospel writer’s almost casual remark that there was no room for them at the inn. Inevitably the question arises, what would happen if Mary and Joseph were to knock at my door. Would there be room for them? And then it occurs to us that Saint John takes up this seemingly chance comment about the lack of room at the inn, which drove the Holy Family into the stable; he explores it more deeply and arrives at the heart of the matter when he writes: “he came to his own home, and his own people received him not” (Jn 1:11). The great moral question of our attitude towards the homeless, towards refugees and migrants, takes on a deeper dimension: do we really have room for God when he seeks to enter under our roof? Do we have time and space for him? Do we not actually turn away God himself? We begin to do so when we have no time for him. The faster we can move, the more efficient our time-saving appliances become, the less time we have. And God? The question of God never seems urgent. Our time is already completely full. But matters go deeper still. Does God actually have a place in our thinking? Our process of thinking is structured in such a way that he simply ought not to exist. Even if he seems to knock at the door of our thinking, he has to be explained away. If thinking is to be taken seriously, it must be structured in such a way that the “God hypothesis” becomes superfluous. There is no room for him. Not even in our feelings and desires is there any room for him. We want ourselves. We want what we can seize hold of, we want happiness that is within our reach, we want our plans and purposes to succeed. We are so “full” of ourselves that there is no room left for God. And that means there is no room for others either, for children, for the poor, for the stranger. By reflecting on that one simple saying about the lack of room at the inn, we have come to see how much we need to listen to Saint Paul’s exhortation: “Be transformed by the renewal of your mind” (Rom 12:2). Paul speaks of renewal, the opening up of our intellect (nous), of the whole way we view the world and ourselves. The conversion that we need must truly reach into the depths of our relationship with reality. Let us ask the Lord that we may become vigilant for his presence, that we may hear how softly yet insistently he knocks at the door of our being and willing. Let us ask that we may make room for him within ourselves, that we may recognize him also in those through whom he speaks to us: children, the suffering, the abandoned, those who are excluded and the poor of this world.

My friend,

GREAT post!

You have accomplised what I was hoping for by my OPQ

Thank you,

Pat/PJM

 

[MarcoPolo]

My friend,

GREAT post!

You have accomplised what I was hoping for by my OPQ

Thank you,

Pat/PJM

I live to fulfill hopes.