Seeds of Sorrow in the Story of Joy — Thomas Merton

If we… accept God’s revelation of [God’s self] in the Infant of Bethlehem, we must realize also that this acceptance has grave consequences for our lives. It means accepting One for whom there is no room in the “inner” of an excited and distraught world….. We see this in the disturbing symbol of that census which brings “the whole world” into the books of a Roman imperial power. If we accept this Infant as our God, then we accept our own obligation to grow with Him in a world of arrogant power and travel with Him as He ascends to Jerusalem and to the Cross, which is the denial of power. —- Thomas Merton (Love and Living as found in Advent and Christmas with Thomas Merton, p. 39)