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FALL RIVER DIOCESAN NEWSPAPER FOR SOUTHEAST MASSACHUSETTS CAPE COD & THE ISLANDS
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VOL. 29, NO. 50
FALL RIVER, MASS.,' FRIDAY; DECEMBER 20; 1985
$S'Per Year
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MOTHER AND CHILD
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This Christmas, let us con sider The inconvenient Christ, The one who comes when he isn't wanted In our inns Or in our hearts. He is often, maybe always, Where we don't want to be: Not just in the big cities New York, Chicago, WashingtonBut here in the Fall River diocese: On the Cape, where retirees drink To pass the empty hours; He's in the New Bedford
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Who'd love to have coffee with a neighbor If the neighbor would come; In the family which shares
Little more than an address;
In the solitary crowd
At any Sunday Mass;
In the boring elderly
Who talk too much;
In the rebellious sons and daughters girl Who won't talk at all. Who'd like someone to share This inconvenient Christ a soda Is in the poor whose Christ Or a secret; mas comes early In the Taunton mother With turkey dinners ahead At home so much - of time, With just the baby,
teen Who's a problem to ber parents So they make her a ward of the state; In the Fall River tot Whose family has a VCR And two cars And a boat But no love; In the friendless Attleboro
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So that their hosts, con sciences appeased, Can enjoy the Day itself At home; He's in the black and Latin kids Who aren't sure they're beautiful Because no one has said it to them· Convincingly enough; He's in the little ones Who like to dress as Christ mas angels And haven't learned about prejudice and war And don't know yet About the willing teachers
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who await them. He's in you and me and everyone Who looks in a glass darkl~' And sees himself But wishes be saw Another. Even the wish is enough To get you a place at tbe table of the Lord Remember one thing, though: This inconvenient Christ Is manageable enough when he sleeps in Mary's arms; But when yOll start to love, Beware of him, beware of him. He will awake.