In recent days I met a man who made me think. He is an unashamed asylum seeker, destitute apart from the barest minimum of social provision from the UK government. He is able to work, he would like to work, but asylum seekers are not allowed to work to earn a living while awaiting a decision on their asylum application. Obviously it is right to protect the employment opportunities of UK and Irish nationals from being undercut by cheap, migrant labour, but still this man made me think.

The man I met had fled his own country, bringing his wife and children with him to secure their safety. One son has already been gunned down in his own country, his mortal remains taken away and concealed so that this father will never know where the body of his first born lies and who killed him. Nor has his family been able to bury and mourn properly for a much loved son. I believed the man when he told me that neither his son, nor any member of the family had been involved in wrong doing or illegal political activity in their own country. It was a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time and being executed without a hearing. Small wonder that he and his surviving family were prepared to suffer huge hardship and privation in search of safety.

I make no judgment, other than the superficial judgment based on impressions as to whether the application for asylum of the man I met should be granted. That is a matter for legal and judicial process. All I can say is that I believed him, and that, were I in his shoes, I hope I should find someone, somewhere who would take me seriously and help me in my mortal need.

The man and his family are not Christians and I am aware of places in the world where governments and communities, influenced by my man’s co-religionists, are persecuting Christian people for their adherence to Christ, but I cannot be influenced by that. Two wrongs never made a right, and the Christian Gospel commands me to care for and respect those in need whoever they may be, wherever they may come from and whatever their religious belief. I remember with gratitude those who came to the aid of another couple whose first born came into the world when that couple was miles from home, lodged in temporary accommodation fit only for farmyard animals. The couple, already strangers in a strange town, was forced to flee, even from their temporary accommodation, because of a real and present danger to themselves but especially to their son. They found sanctuary, we are told, in Egypt and stayed there in safety. The life of the child was preserved.

How were they received in Egypt? How were they treated? Did they suffer for being strangers, foreigners, and people of a different cultural and religious tradition? The Gospel tells us none of these things. Yet I know what I should like to think. I should like to think that our Lord and Saviour, His mother Mary, and Joseph – the man who took the decision to seek shelter in a safer land and so preserve the life of his wife’s first son – were received with sympathy, respect, generosity and understanding. I should like to think that they were not hounded, belittled or persecuted because of their need to seek help in time of crisis. I should like to think they found good neighbours among the people of Egypt and I should like to think that we should have had the grace to do likewise.

Looking towards Christmas and the celebration of the First Coming of Christ, the Advent season directs us to look forward and prepare for His Second Coming in glory to judge the world. Among the things that will weigh heavily in that judgment will be the manner in which we have treated those who come to us in time of need. Sometimes we absolve ourselves from caring for the stranger by declaring that ‘charity begins at home.’ Thank God that was not the experience of the Holy Family in Egypt. Pray God it is not our attitude now, for do we not live in a global village? Are we not all children of the same heavenly Father? Am I not commanded to be merciful, as our heavenly Father is merciful? Am I not my brother’s keeper? Might the Christmas season itself not be rescued from the desert of consumer debt and tinselled sentimentality by becoming a renewed celebration - a festival of care, concern and compassion?

I hope that Christmas will be a happy and blessed time for everyone. I know it will be immeasurably more happy and more blessed if Christ is at its heart for all the people. It will be especially so if the vulnerable and needy in our society, including the stranger in our midst, amongst whom Christ himself was numbered at His first coming, are made to feel safe, welcome and cared for. Christmas challenges Christians to make incarnate in our day the caring and compassionate Christ.

May Christmas be for all a happy, secure and joyful time: a season of peace made present and real.