Fourth Sunday of Advent: “I have been with you wherever you went…”

The Theme of the posada is evident throughout the liturgy today. I want to start our Posada reflection first with King David. David was looking for a dignified space for the Ark of the Covenant.  “Here I am living in a house of cedar, while the ark of God dwells in a tent!” God said to David,  “I have been with you wherever you went…” The Ark was kept in a tent because the Hebrew people were largely a nomadic people.  As the centuries came and wars were waged, the nomadic people began to define their presence through permanent settlements that eventually became cities. In nomadic times the Ark the Ark traveled where ever the people traveled. Where they were, the Ark was present in a typical mobile structure: a tent.  When people settled in more permanent arrangements, there needed to be a place in which God's covenant could be honored and revered. Now that David had been established as king and he established a place for himself after all the wars and violence, David realized that the Ark itself deserved a permanent place as well.  In return for David creating a place for the Ark, God granted David an eternal place in history.

Returning to the posada metaphor: David gave posada for the Ark and God gave David a posada in history in an enduring relationship with God’s people.  “Your house and your kingdom shall endure forever before me; your throne shall stand firm forever.”  This passage means that God promised that the lineage of David would continue in his people and in their struggle.  The people’s struggle would result in the conditions of justice. “I will fix a place for my people Israel; I will plant them so that they may dwell in their place without further disturbance.” Posada, then, for those in the struggle for justice isn’t necessarily real estate, but the condition of justice.

So let’s look at the ongoing journey of God’s people. God accompanied his people when they were slaves in Egypt. God followed them as they fought to establish their territory in the Promised Land. God comforted them in the midst of foreign invasions and forced deportations to Babylon. God strengthened the resolve of the rabbis who helped their people during the Roman conquest and subsequent expulsion from their own homeland.  God held the Jewish people strong enough to survive the Spanish Inquisition, pogroms and the Nazi genocide.  No matter how much the Jewish people suffered, their resilience through history is an example to all of us that no matter how much rejection we suffer, we must remember what God said to David, “I have been with you wherever you went…” As a community that is largely migrant or sons and daughters of migrants, we know that we live the Posada.  From a small ranchito in the sierras of Michoacan from poverty and violence to where we stand today, God has been with us along our journey. Our lives are one long posada.

Our immigrant posada journey, like that of Mary and Joseph, includes birth and death, sickness, well being, heart break and love.  Our posadas are also sorrowful. Our grief is never really settled because we can’t be there at the funerals of our parents. Our joy is never complete because our parents can’t walk us into the church for marriage. Our unsettled grief and incomplete joy drive us toward wanting a place that we can call our own - without fear and worry. In a sense, we as an immigrant community, are asking for posada in the place that is in effect already our own home. We work and raise families here, but ironically we find ourselves knocking on our own front door for posada!

The image of posada we have on the screen is from the annual Catholic Migrant Posada.  The first station was at Nogales. The border wall had a quote from Pope Francis, “Wherever there’s a wall, there’s a closure of the heart.”  “…donde hay un muro hay cerrazón del corazón”.  Those were the words spoken by Pope Francis on the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Ironically, the Nogales border wall was built in 1994 right after President Clinton spoke in Berlin celebrating the destruction of that wall.

The traditional words of the Posada were changed. The people representing the Mexican side of the wall sang, “In the name of justice, I ask you to let me in.  I will not cause you harm, I just want to work.” Those representing the American side sang,  “We have thousands of agents that protect our borders, and you won’t get across even through the cracks.” The second posada the people sang, “In the name of justice, I ask for your support and solidarity.  Separated from my children, my heart is broken.” The American representatives sang,  “I don’t care about what you’re going through, stop you’re crying.  The children that you left behind, you are not going to see again.”

At the third station, the people held silence to remember the thousands of people who died in the desert trying to unify with their families.  They sang, “We’re half a family, deported without pity. The children are left crying, lamenting that they are orphans.”  Representing the American side sang, “We don’t want you to come here, stay over there.  The purity of the race could become contaminated.”   

The pilgrims playing Mary and Joseph were finally welcomed at the last place, the Kino Border Initiative dining hall. The Kino Border Initiative is a place (founded by the Jesuits) that welcomes deportees and and helps them reorient themselves back to their families or gives them a rest before people decide to cross back to their families in the US.  So when Mary and Joseph entered the dinging hall, everyone sang, “Let’s celebrate without borders or barriers, people who thirst for justice.  Today we will work and struggle together for justice and dignity.” 

On a spiritual level we have Mary and Joseph looking for posada not only for themselves but most significantly, they looked for posada for the Ark within her.  They found posada in an animal shelter. They were kept warm by each other and by having barn animals surround them.  A stable, straw in a manger, and farm animals: this is the posada that humanity offered their Savior! On the other hand, were it not for this humble posada, would Jesus be able to relate to our daily posada?  Mary and Joseph’s struggle through the desert of the unknown as they journeyed to Bethlehem and the unavailability of housing once they arrived at their destination, gave Jesus the experience of understanding the struggle of others. Jesus gets what it means for a family to live together in a garage or, if they’re lucky, stay inside a house in a single room.  Jesus gets how frustrating it is to knock on the doors of agencies and public officials only to have those doors slam our our faces.  Jesus gets this because his Posada is here.

Jesus made his home with the human race and CHOOSES this humble and poor community as his posada. So…we know that in our posada of life, God does walk with us - as one of us: Emmanuel.  And so, let us too make a journey to Bethlehem and honor the one who has found his place in us: Emmanuel, GOD-with-us.