Baby Jesus was much too young to travel -but they had to.  There was no choice: Life or death. His parents:  Blessed Virgin Mary & Carpenter Joseph had to run from the bad guys.  Flee or die.  The Angel jarred Joseph awake in a vivid no nonsense dream.  They are going to kill Baby Jesus, & that means you & his Mum too, because we the angels know you will give your very lives defending Infant Jesus. 

So they ran away, that very night to Egypt, ran by night, sleeping in caves by day to avoid the soldiers.   Joseph walking, Mary carrying infant Jesus, on that trusty old donkey that she rode coming to Bethlehem before Jesus was born.  Escaped safely. 

 

And we tell these Holy Sacred Legends that we cherish/believe so deary here in our slum kindergartens of Klong Toey Bangkok, and our children do cherish them also, make them it part of their lives.

 

So to continue -back then –  after they had been living some 4 – 5 years as foreigners in Egypt, the Angel again whispered to Carpenter Joseph, you can go home.  Evil Herod is dead.  But be careful. The enemies of Jesus still remember.

 

And here is where we add our the Klong Toey version of the original Christmas Story:  We tell the children how Carpenter Joseph and Blessed Virgin Mary left Egypt, stopped in Slum Klong Toey Bangkok on their long journey home.  Stayed a while here in Klong Toey. Why did they stop here? 

 

We really don’t know.  Maybe Carpenter Joseph might have had a distant living cousin here whom he knew or at least he knew someone, or that Our Blessed Mother knew someone.  Or maybe they were just tired, & had heard that Klong Toey was a friendly place; it didn’t cost too much money to stay here for a while & that Carpenter Joseph could find work.  

Also, the word was there is a kindergarten here.  And Blessed Virgin Mary wanted Her Son, Child Jesus to go to school. Yes, she had ‘home-taught’ him to read and write but wanted him in a class room. True, Jesus could read and write by him- self, & somehow because he was the Son of God, here in Klong Toey, Jesus understood Thai, and speaking Thai was not a problem for Jesus nor for His mum, Blessed Mary.  And us for our Klong Toey Slum kids, everyone they know, speaks Thai, even Fr. Joe, although he often speaks ‘funny Thai’, but forgive him.

 

And our kids never tired of asking Blessed Lady Mary to tell the story over and over of how Jesus was born – the Angels singing in High Heavens and the Magi and their Camels and the shepherds and the beautiful Star in the heavens that you could see, even through the clouds.  And how they had to run from the bad guys, and our children said ‘we don’t have bad guys that hurt kids in Klong Toey – well maybe some, but don’t worry, we kid will protect you.

 

And the schoolmates of Jesus:   there’s five-year-old Lucy, whose mum got sick & went away and Lucy says she doesn’t remember her mum very well, but what she does remember was her mum being really pretty, like mums are supposed to be, not fancy, but you know, ‘mum like’ just like Lady Mary, the Mummy of Jesus.  

 

And five-year-old Peter – who confided in Jesus (also five years old) who is his best friend in the whole world and thus the whole slum, that when he Peter dresses up in his green uniform, he is invisible and no one can see him, except for Jesus, but don’t tell anyone.  Peter (in his ordinary clothes) meets Jesus early each morning when his Mum, Holy Mary brings Him to school but before school opens and they go searching for thrown away plastic bottles to bring to their teacher to re-cycle and keep the slum clean.

 

And Miss Boey – who wears glasses.  She says that although she knows that her dear friend Jesus doesn’t need to wear glasses like she does, that if he did, that she would let him borrow her glasses till his mum Lady Mary got enough money to go to the store where they sold the glasses out in front for everyone and not to the Doctor because the Doctor is expensive, but the only time Miss Boey says she really needs her glasses is early in the morning when helps her grandmother sprinkle sugar on the toast…...

You see Granny is the official toast selling lady in that part of the slum and toasts the individual slices of bread fresh each morning at five Baht @ piece.  Boey with her glasses lives with Granny as Boey’s mum bargained to sell her daughter cheap for one thousand Baht & Granny shot at mummy with Grandpa’s old pistol, but missed and Boey’s mum ran away scared and has never come back and that’s okay.  Now Boey lives happily with Granny and can see with her glasses and tells Jesus that she wishes that her own mummy was sweet and pretty like Jesus Beautiful Mummy.

 

That Baby Jesus, and now Child Jesus and his Mum Lady Mary & Carpenter Joseph are safe here in the slums of Klong Toey and I pray and I know they are safe in your own homes and towns and cities and that you will love and Protect them. -  And that you, as our family will help us find the poorest of the poor and ask permission from them if they will allow us to serve.  Be of service according their own rules and ethics.

 

Merry Christmas with prayers & respect   Fr. Joe and all of us.