The Posada tradition is well known throughout Mexico and the southwest of the United States. "Posada" literally means "lodging" or "inn." Traditionally, it was practice for nine days, starting on December 16 and ending on the 24th. They are full of joy, celebration, food, and emotion.
There is music to sing in the Posada, that marks the journey of Joseph and Mary from house to house. There are people who sing in the outside, and people who sing in the inside. The last stanza from the people in the inside of the homes, recognize that the people looking for Posada, for lodging, are special people...
¿Eres tú José?
¿Tú esposa es María?
Entren peregrinos,
no los conocía.
Is Mary your wife?
Enter holy pilgrims
I could not recognize."
Then, the outside people become inside people, and everyone gathers in the home to sing, to eat, and to celebrate. Then, the song changes...
Entren, santos peregrinos, peregrinos,
reciban este rincón,
no de la pobre morada, de morada,
sino de mi corazón.
Oh please enter, holy pilgrims, holy pilgrims,
please enjoy this corner here,
not of this, our humble dwelling, humble dwelling,
take my heart and enter in.
An article that has been shared a lot on Facebook states that Jesus was not born on a stable. It challenges the notion of the Posada, and of our traditional understanding of how Jesus was born. It was written by Ian Paul, an English theologian. He says that there are three things that have emphasize the idea of a stable during the ages: issues of grammar and meaning; ignorance of first-century Palestinian culture; and traditional elaboration.
Beyond the issues of grammar and meaning, he mentions some interesting things:
"It would be unthinkable that Joseph, returning to his place of ancestral origins, would not have been received by family members, even if they were not close relatives. Even if he has never been there before he can appear suddenly at the home of a distant cousin, recite his genealogy, and he is among friends. Joseph had only to say, “I am Joseph, son of Jacob, son of Matthan, son of Eleazar, the son of Eliud,” and the immediate response must have been, “You are welcome. What can we do for you?”"
The homes, during that time in Bethlehem were different. The homes were very interesting. The stables were not outside, but inside the home. They had some guest rooms upstairs and the animals and the family usually stayed in the first floor. So even if Joseph’s family had no space in the guest room, they could have stayed with the family itself, in the main room of the house, and there Mary gives birth. The most natural place to lay the baby is in the straw-filled depressions at the lower end of the house where the animals are fed.
What is the meaning of all of this for Ian Paul? He says that in the Christmas story, “Jesus is not sad and lonely, some distance away in the stable, needing our sympathy. He is in the midst of the family, and all the visiting relations, right in the thick of it and demanding our attention.”
He also states that Dick France thinks that “the problem with the stable is that it distances Jesus from the rest of us. It puts even his birth in a unique setting, in some ways as remote from life as if he had been born in Caesar’s Palace. The message of the incarnation is that Jesus is one of us. He came to be what we are, and it fits well with that theology that his birth in fact took place in a normal, crowded, warm, welcoming Palestinian home, just like many another Jewish boy of his time.”
He came and demands our attention. He came to be what we are. I like this idea of Jesus being born in a normal, crowded, warm and welcoming place. I don't think this fact takes away from the specialness of angels and shepherds in the Gospel of Luke. It is still God sending a great light for the people that were walking in darkness. He came to be what we are, do that we could learn to pay attention, to see his face in every face we see.
Another piece of news that has been shared on the Internet (even newspapers in PR shared the story) is the event that happened in Jefferson Mall where a woman went off on two other women she assumed where Latinas because she thought one of them had cut in line. Beyond the profiling, prejudice and discrimination exhibited in the video, I thought about the context. This woman, an older person, shopping in the mall, probably tired from a busy day, very close to paying for her things, all of a sudden perceives that there are people cutting on the line. She probably feels that she has the right to complain about it.
But here is the thing that should have demanded her attention and ours. Here is the moment of choice and decision. Here is where we all called to recognize a son or a daughter of God in others, and think about how to say things. About how to respect others as we want to be respected. How to treat others as we want to be treated. About how to recognize Jesus' face demanding our attention and expecting the welcoming and warmth that we would have like to see for the baby Jesus that we celebrate on Christmas day.
Instead, she made a lot of assumptions: they do not speak English, they are on welfare, they are foreigners, they deserve to be judged and harassed. They are not deserving of respect, they are not deserving of grace, because they are infringing on my perceived right.
What other things could she have done in that situation?
Think about it, because part of our learning is thinking about other possibilities, where we don’t discriminate, where we think and connect with other realities, where we exercise empathy.
Jesus probably was not born on a stable. He probably was born in a home, surrounded by distant relatives that helped Mary and Joseph. That saw the shepherds as they came in looking for the savior that was announced by angels.
Then, our job as posaderos and posaderas, is to pay attention to Jesus, who is in our midst and to recognize that the people that we share our lives with, whether we know them or not, whether they speak the same language, or believe in the same things, are all distant relatives, are all connected, all are Jesus. We need to take part on the journey recognizing other sons and daughters of God, and treating them with respect and love, the same love that we celebrate tonight, because God gave God’s son, to be one of us. Let it be so. Amen.
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