The Christmas plays we did each year in school / began without exception to the rule
That we expose the Keeper of the Inn / as being heartless and beset by sin.
But Scripture lends no credence to this view / and Christmas tells us judging is taboo.
We also find the Bible did not show / that Joseph fretted over where to go.
It seems that he already had in mind / the happenings that Providence designed.
For David’s rote in sacred history / to symbolize salvation’s mystery
Had made the Birth of Christ the modeling/ of being both a shepherd and a king.
ln social status this defined how low / as well as how high anyone might go!
When Samuel said David must be found / as Judge he meant that David would be crowned
To take the place of disobedient Saul / who plainly put himself above God’s call.
Where David could be found by day or night / was minding Jesse’s sheep as his delight.
It also was the place where he displayed / the goodness that his being had portrayed.
The Bible gives us freedom to surmise / how David engineered his enterprise.
For those with urgent needs among his sheep / he doubtless made a haven for their keep.
A home for him as well, it had expressed / what hands-on-kindness is when at its best.
Some House of David members may have planned / to save this site in honor of his brand.
The story told by Luke accepts this view / in keeping with events we know as true:
The night, a manger, and the needy sheep / the angels, and the shepherds that don’t sleep,
The barn and housing at the edge of town / with access to the folks the world puts down.
Escorting Mary, Joseph took her there / where David spent his life providing care.
The likes of pleasure, power, and prestige / with all the naught of doing what we please
brings instant devastation hand-in-glove / unto the wellspring of creative love.
The only word for what this love might be / resounds with what we call divinity.
Though David lost his selfless love to sin / repenting made him more than he had been.
By Providence, no other place on earth / was better suited for our Savior’s Birth.
As David’s home and salutary keep, / it symbolized our plight tike that of sheep.
ln concept it depicted God’s design / that love is fashioned to become divine.
This portrait of compassion set the mold / for being human that we could behold.
ln concrete prose this means we must insist / that we as humans do not just exist.
For being isn’t due to what we do / the why is that which makes our being true!
Though monkeys, rocks, and trees are there to see / they won’t be doing Christmas merrily.
Yes, Christmas makes us what we are to be / but only if we wish it wittingly!
Fr. Vincent T. Freeh, MSC