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Blog Author: Fr. John Jay Hughes
Related Audio Course: A Journey Through the Parables
What is a parable? What is the difference between a parable and an allegory? And why did Jesus choose parables as his favorite form of teaching? These are some of the questions discussed by Fr. John Jay Hughes in his increasingly popular series, A Journey Through the Parables
Jesus himself seems to say at one point that the purpose of his parables was to impart to his inner circle secret knowledge, not available to others. “To you has been given the secret of the Kingdom of God: but to those who are without, everything is obscure, in order that they (as it is written) may ‘see and yet not see, may hear and not understand, unless they turn and God will forgive them.’” (Mark 4:12) These words have long presented Bible commentators and readers alike with a difficulty. Fr. Hughes discusses this difficulty in his opening talk.
That talk also summarizes a homily by Pope Benedict XVI on the topic, “God never fails.” Yet God does fail, the Pope said. He failed in Adam, who was not content with being God’s friend; he wanted to be a god himself. This divine failure was only the first of countless others. In Fr. Hughes’s introductory talk you will learn how the Pope deals with this difficulty.
“I invite you,” Fr. Hughes concludes his opening talk, “to join me on a journey through Jesus’ parables. It can be life-changing. In considering the parables we shall find that the greatest thing about these timeless stories is what they reveal about the Story-teller. He is the one portrayed in the Book of Revelation, the last book of the Bible, seated on a heavenly throne saying: ‘See, I make all things new.’ He wants to make your life new. The only thing that can prevent his doing so is your own deliberate and final No.”
Filed under "Parables" by jhughes
CLICK FOR FREE CATALOG OF AUDIO COURSES
Blog Author: Fr. John Jay Hughes
Related Audio Course: A Journey Through the Parables
“NO ROOM IN THE INN.”
Christmas Midnight. Lk. 2:1-14.
AIM: To help the hearers make room for Jesus Christ.
We have less hard information about Jesus’ birth than most people suppose. We don’t even know the date: December 25th was not selected until the fourth century. Nor do we know exactly where Mary gave birth to her child, save that it was not in what then passed for an inn at Bethlehem.
The innkeeper was a busy man in those days. The roads were full of travelers, because of the Roman-imposed census, which required people to return to their native town to be placed on the tax rolls. There was much to do at the inn, and money to be made. According to the age-old law of supply and demand, guests were doubled up, and prices raised. When Mary and Joseph appeared at his door, the innkeeper saw at once that these humble travelers were not the kind of guests he was looking for. He might have said, “You can’t afford it.” Instead he told them, a bit more tactfully, “No room” — and slammed the door. The innkeeper never knew it. But with those two words, “No room,” he had missed out on the greatest opportunity life would ever offer him.
It would be unfair to portray the Bethlehem innkeeper as a bad person. His words to Mary and Joseph, “No room,” would be repeated often in the next three decades. For the world to which Jesus came had in truth no room for him, though it was his world. As we shall hear tomorrow, in our third Christmas gospel: “He came to what was his own, but his own people did not accept him” (Jn. 1:11).
The ancient world into which Jesus was born had in Rome a temple called the Pantheon, with room for a hundred gods. But for the Son of the one true God there was no room in Rome’s Pantheon. Nor was there room for him in his own country — until people finally found room for him: on a hill called Calvary.
Has the situation changed in two thousand years? Would there be room for Jesus Christ if he were to come to the world today? to St. Louis? A person would have to be bold indeed to be confident of an affirmative answer to that question. Down through the centuries, and still today, the innkeeper’s words resound: “No room, no room.” And doors are slammed at his approach.
Why is there no room for Jesus Christ? Because people are afraid — afraid that if they give him room, he will take too much room; that little by little this man will take over their lives, changing their interests, their priorities, their plans, until they are no longer recognizable.
Is this fear justified? It is. If we admit Jesus Christ, he will indeed change our lives, and us. He will take all the room there is. No wonder that people are afraid. “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God,” we read in the letter to the Hebrews (10:31).
There is, however, something even more fearful. It is this: to try to shut out this guest. For unlike other travelers, Jesus will not go away. He will continue to knock on our door, no matter how often we tell him, “No room.” The hand with which he knocks bears the print of the nails which pierced him in the place where, finally, people did find room for him. His persistence, like his patience and his love, are more than super-human. They are divine. He is the personification of the love that will never let us go.
Today, in this hour, Jesus Christ is asking for room in your life. He asks one thing, and one thing alone: that you open the door. Some verses of an old hymn, little known to Catholics, say it best.
O Jesus, you are standing, outside the fast-closed door,
In lowly patience waiting, to pass the threshold o’er.
Shame on us, Christian people, his name and sign who bear,
Shame, thrice shame upon us, to keep him standing there.
O Jesus, you are knocking, and lo, that hand is scarred,
And thorns your brow encircle, and tears your face have marred.
O love that passes knowledge, so patiently to wait.
O sin that has no equal, so fast to bar the gate!
O Jesus, you are pleading, in accents meek and low,
“I died for you, my children, and will you treat me so?”
O Lord, with shame and sorrow, we open now the door;
Dear Savior enter, enter, and leave us nevermore.
Filed under "Catholic Homilies" by jhughes
