The Uninvited Guest

Thomas Merton OCSO

16 December 2019

Into this world, this demented inn,
in which there is absolutely no room for him at all,
Christ comes uninvited.

But because he cannot be at home in it,
because he is out of place in it, and yet he must be in it,
His place is with those others for whom there is no room.

His place is with those who do not belong,
who are rejected by power because they are regarded as weak,
those who are discredited,
who are denied the status of persons, tortured,
exterminated.

With those for whom there is no room,
Christ is present in this world.

©Thomas Merton OCSO
- in Raids on the Unspeakable

Image © Abraham’s Seed, Grace Carol Bomer