This is not an inn, so keep going

Starting tonight and continuing until Christmas Eve, Christians in Hispanoamérica (including in Latino areas of the United States) will walk through neighborhoods enacting the journey of Mary and Joseph seeking shelter at Bethlehem. They go from house to house, asking if there’s room for them. House to house—until they reach the designated “manger”—they are turned away. Finally, they are allowed in.

Whereupon everyone celebrates; there’s usually a piñata, and refreshments for the adults, too.

Las Posadas (literally, “The Inns”) is a lovely tradition. I remember going to one in LA’s Olvera Street when I was in grade school. It seemed neighborly; especially as each night the welcoming house is a different one, so nobody has to be a grinch all the time.

Today’s Advent entry is “Pidiendo Posada”, which dates back at least 400 years. The sequence is that one group of singers asks for shelter as Joseph, and the second group turns them away…until the end.

The first exchange basically goes:

“In the name of heaven, I beg you for lodging
My beloved wife cannot walk”

“This is not an inn, so keep going
I can’t open the door—you may be a rogue”

You get the idea.

I wonder how the processions are going this year? ICE and CBP thugs are actually lurking around churches to kidnap worshippers on their way in or out and Catholic dioceses have relieved parishioners from the obligation of weekly Mass if they’re afraid of being snatched. How can you take your kids by the hand and walk along your neighborhood sidewalks for nine nights, singing, when you’re all in danger of being snatched up for the crime of looking brown?

Several churches—Saint Susanna in Dedham, Mass., Lake Street Church in Evanston, Ill., and one somewhere in North Carolina—have updated their nativity scenes to reflect current reality. In N.C., ICE thugs loom over all the usual participants.

In Evanston, a gas-masked Mary is flanked by masked Roman soldiers as she stands over a zip-tied baby Jesus in a silver emergency blanket.

In Dedham, Jesus is missing, replaced by a sign noting “ICE was here”. Another sign adds, "The Holy Family is safe in The Sanctuary of our Church…If You see I.C.E. Please Call LUCE At 617-370-5023.” The banner over the stable reads, “Peace on earth?”

So far, the parish priest has resisted calls from both ICE and his bishop to remove the ICE messages.

Here’s the community of Ojo Caliente, N.M., performing the tradition. It’s from 2019, in the Before Times (in so many ways). I wonder if they can do it again this year?

 

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