Dear Friends,
Today’s first liturgical reading, the 4th Suffering Servant Song, lays out the mystery of suffering that has been the experience of people from earliest times.
If there is any group of people who suffer, it is immigrants, who leave their homelands for a whole variety of reasons. The migration of people, which filled our newscasts in the 20th century, has carried over into this new time. Immigrants come to our own land from every direction. They come bearing the scars of war, torture, hunger, disease, the loss of spouses, children, whole extended families. Therapists, pastoral and social workers bear the sorrow of migrants as witness to their worth and dignity. It is true that some criminally-minded come, but by and large, immigrants are like you and me, ordinary people seeking to build life for themselves and their loved ones. In the words of Pope Francis, our faith calls us to “welcome them, assist them, promote them and integrate them” into their new land. Pope Paul VI said that, with them, we should work at creating a “civilization of love.” Pope John Paul II urged us to create “a culture of life.” All work to be done. All arduous. All worthwhile.
Issues of migration are ancient. In the Sacred Scriptures, Joseph, Moses and Jesus Himself were foreigners at some point in their lives. From the very beginning, the Word of God has reminded believers to “remember you were once foreigners.” (Lev.19.33)
We sometimes forget that the U.S. is a nation of immigrants from our earliest days, yet, today, we create limiting qualifications for newcomers – where they come from and who they are, what color they are, what they believe and how they get here. As a nation, we are weak in our sense of unity with all people when we think this way. But In Hebrews, our second reading today, we hear that, in Jesus, we “have a high priest who is able to sympathize with our weaknesses.” We are not alone as we seek to be more welcoming.
When we are closed to receiving others, or setting limits, our mindset is not the mind of God.
Jesus, in the gospel, is the servant of His Father and does not claim power to name those who are on his right or left. Perhaps there are no special places at God’s banquet table. Maybe the immigrants whom we reject or denigrate – or, even worse, are blind to – will be with us at the banquet. Maybe even closer to the heart of God than we are.
The liberation of many is a task that is greater than the lifetime of Jesus. It takes longer and demands more than the lifetime of any individual disciple. The community that is willing to give life and not measure the return is the community that has understood the mystery of discipleship. Migration is an opportunity to build the human community in unexpected ways. You and I are part of that community by virtue of our Baptism. Will we avail ourselves of the opportunity here and now, as we vote, reach out a hand to our neighbor, reach out our hand to God?
~ Sister Joan Sobala
*Image above is "Welcoming the Stranger" by Michael Adams
