Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child.
“Foxes have their holes and birds of the air have their nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” Could there be a more poignant description of alienation? All of us want to belong somewhere. We join fraternities, sororities, sports teams, interest groups, political parties, business alliances, etcetera. One of the joys of a group is to have safety from the threat of other groups as well as the threat of a descent into a faceless oblivion.
Unlike us, foxes don’t worry about belonging, Jesus observes, because they belong to the earth. Birds are fine too, so long as there are trees on the earth. But we, The Son of Man, and by extension, all humans, are not quite sure where we belong. Houses and apartments not withstanding, we live as creatures alienated from our environment. I think Jesus is just stating a core reality principle when he tells his disciples, to be in the world but not of it. I believe this was the way he experienced his life. He stood outside the strictures and customs of this world, observing, commenting and associating with others who were similarly dispossessed.
From his position as outsider, Jesus stood with those in every generation who have fallen through the cracks in the world’s safety net. He stood with them, ate with them and helped give voice to their perspective of not fitting in. Why try to save your life, (invest in existence in this world) when it means losing your true identity as children of God? Can’t you see that this world always tramples on, subjugates and exploits and then discards the poor and the weak? As seductive as it appears, why would you want to invest in it, Jesus asks in various and sundry ways through out the gospels.
In the face of all that glitters and for all the allure of money and power and privilege, the real truth is that humans have their true residence elsewhere. In our mad attempt to quiet our knowledge that we don’t fit, we join groups that shield us from this knowledge. These groups grant us a certain power, frequently at the expense of excluding others. When we join the right group we finally sense we become mommy or daddy’s “favorite.” I think Groucho exercised considerable wisdom when he ironically averred, “Any club that would have me as a member, I wouldn’t want to be a part of.” He offers us a scathing critique of group pride, only to replace it with personal pride.
I think an even more profound wisdom comes from standing with Jesus, in the knowledge that we are a people out of joint (no room at the inn, no place to lay our heads). In so doing we always make our stand and share our voice with the poor and the persecuted. With Jesus and the prophets, we cannot neglect the stranger and the sojourner, because we know ourselves to be the same. We cannot turn our backs on our brothers and sisters in Darfur, or any other oppressed and persecuted people who are being driven from their homes, raped and murdered for the sake of the security of some other group.
As Christians we are to be universal men and women. We affirm God’s love is for everybody. For the Christian, this Everybody, means starting with those whom the world has forgotten. St. Peter says in Acts, “Surely I see that God shows no partiality.” Jesus said, “Those who are healthy have no need for a physician.” There can be no peace in our world until all the sons and daughters of all people, have a place to lay their heads. Until this becomes a reality, discipleship calls us to step outside our comfort zones and accept our alien status, as we identify with the least and the lost and the last. While we are out there, we are able to join hands with all of God’s people, the last first and the first last. Then, with Jesus and all refugees, exiles, prophets and martyrs in every generation, we too can begin our procession toward the Holy City as a single family. A family where everyone belongs and everyone has a place to lay their heads and everyone shares in the Eucharistic banquet feast. In the meantime we allow the Word and Sacraments to foreshadow and inspire us towards this vision.
Imagine, Believe, Act.
What is there to say to that? Since the expulsion from Eden, history is comprised of a succession of failed synthetic civilizations erected to facilitate and accomodate our collective imperfect visions usually predicated upon genocide and/or the establishment of some form of institutionalized slavery in the hopes of perpetuating comfort for those who rule.