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“I was a stranger and you did not welcome me.”
Originally a post on Father James Martin's public Facebook page, this reflection on the call to treat migrants and refugees as Christ went viral, and the accompanying video has been viewed by over 3 million people and shared over 50,000 times.
“I was a stranger and you did not welcome me.”
President Trump has announced that he will order the construction of a Mexican border wall, the first in a series of actions to crack down on immigrants, which will include slashing the number of refugees who can resettle in the United States, and blocking Syrians and others from what are called “terror-prone nations” from entering, at least temporarily.
These measures, which mean the rejection of the stranger, the rejection of the person in need, the rejection of those who suffer, are manifestly un-Christian and utterly contrary to the Gospel. Indeed, last year, Pope Francis said, "A person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges, is not Christian. This is not the Gospel."
But maybe you don’t want to listen to Pope Francis. Maybe you think that he was being too political. Or maybe you think Pope Francis is too progressive for you.
Maybe you think that you have a right to refuse a person in need. And that you have the right to protect yourself. Well, we do have the right of self-protection. But refusing the one in need because you want to protect yourself, especially when the other is in desperate need and obvious danger, is not what Christianity is about. It’s about the opposite. It’s about helping the stranger, even if it carries some risk. That’s the Parable of the Good Samaritan in a nutshell.
But if you still don’t want to listen to Pope Francis, then listen to Pope John Paul II, St. John Paul II, who wrote dozens of times about refugees and migrants. “Seek to help our brother and sister refugees in every possible way by providing a welcome…Show them an open mind and a warm heart,” he said. And as if predicting our current situation, he said, "It is necessary to guard against the rise of new forms of racism or xenophobic behavior, which attempt to make these brothers and sisters of ours scapegoats for what may be difficult local situations.”
For this is an issue of life or death. Migrants flee from profound poverty, which causes suffering and can lead to death. Refugees flee from persecution, terror and war, out of fear for their lives. This is, then, one of the church’s life issues, so dear to St. John Paul II.
But maybe you don’t want to listen to St. John Paul. Maybe you’re not Catholic. Then listen to the voice of God in the Book of Exodus, speaking to the people of Israel: “You shall not oppress the resident alien [i.e, the refugee] for you were aliens yourselves once, in the land of Egypt.” Every American heart should be stirred by that. Other than the Native Americans, all of us are descendants of immigrants. We were aliens ourselves once.
But maybe you don’t want to listen to the Old Testament. Then, in the end, listen to Jesus. In the Gospel of Matthew, he provides a litmus test for entrance into heaven. At the Last Judgment, he will say to people, “I was a stranger and you did not welcome me.” And people will say, “When were you a stranger and we did not take care of you?’ And he will say, “Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.”
Jesus himself is speaking to you from the Gospels. It is Christ whom we turn away when we build walls. It is Christ whom we reject when we slash quotas for refugees. It is Christ whom we are killing, by letting them die in poverty and war rather than opening our doors.
“Today,” St. John Paul II said, “the illegal migrant comes before us like that ‘stranger’ in whom Jesus asks to be recognized. To welcome him and to show him solidarity is a duty of hospitality and fidelity to Christian identity itself.”
So, reject these measures and welcome Christ. Call your local legislators and tell them to care for Christ. Write to the White House and ask them to protect Christ. Show up at town hall meetings and advocate for Christ. And pray for our brothers and sisters who are refugees and migrants.
Because if you do not, and you reject Christ, then it is their prayers that you will need.
We live in a time in which decent and otherwise sensible people are surrendering too easily to the hectoring of morons or extremists.
- Tarnation
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Re: “I was a stranger and you did not welcome me.”
I struggle with this; and the inner conflict is only going to intensify over the next 36 hours as that Gospel passage is the one I will hear on "The Sunday of the Last Judgement" (February 19) as the Orthodox Church prepares for the rigors of the Lenten Fast.
When Jesus spoke those words walled cities were the norm throughout the civilized world.
Inside of those walls, people dwelt in buildings which were mostly unlocked because locks as we know them had not been invented.
Now that we have locks we don't have a need for walls around cities.
So, if walls and barriers are contrary to the Gospel, shouldn't we do away with fences, gates, and locks of every kind? The food banks should never be locked so that people can just come in and take 24/7? How long would the charity last?
I'm guessing, not all that long.
So we place limits on what folks can take, to provide their need while restraining their greed.
So, by extension, nations do something similar by establishing boundaries, marking and protecting them so that their national riches and abundance are afforded some level of protection from unrestrained plunder. Is it contrary to the Gospel to protect resources so that there is enough for all, not only in the present generation but for the generations yet unborn?
I struggle.
That is what the arena of Great Lent is all about--the struggle.
Life is an Orthros.
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Re: “I was a stranger and you did not welcome me.”
The MOST powerful words in the topic at least for me were ---
Listen to the voice of God in the Book of Exodus, speaking to the people of Israel: “You shall not oppress the resident alien [i.e, the refugee] for you were aliens yourselves once, in the land of Egypt.” Every American heart should be stirred by that. Other than the Native Americans, all of us are descendants of immigrants. We were aliens ourselves once
"Do not confuse motion and progress, A rocking horse keeps moving but does not make any progress"
- Common Sense
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Re: “I was a stranger and you did not welcome me.”
So anyone from anywhere should be able to come to the United States for any reason, at any time. Our nation can't have borders, we can't have immigration laws. We as a nation can not control our own destiny?
This is suicide of a country if carried out!
How long would we be the United States of America if the law was decided on feelings.
The United States WELCOMED about 1.3 million foreign-born individuals that moved to the United States in 2014! People that came here legally!
The Statue of Liberty welcomes legal immigrants who want a better life in their new country. People who want to embrace the American ideals.
Last edited by Common Sense (2/18/2017 11:01 am)
“We hold these truths to be self-evident,” former vice president Biden said during a campaign event in Texas on Monday. "All men and women created by — you know, you know, the thing.”
- Goose
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Re: “I was a stranger and you did not welcome me.”
Common Sense wrote:
So anyone from anywhere should be able to come to the United States for any reason, at any time. Our nation can't have borders, we can't have immigration laws. We as a nation can not control our own destiny?
This is suicide of a country if carried out!
How long would we be the United States of America if the law was decided on feelings.
The United States WELCOMED about 1.3 million foreign-born individuals that moved to the United States in 2014! People that came here legally!
The Statue of Liberty welcomes legal immigrants who want a better life in their new country. People who want to embrace the American ideals.
Wow, where did That come from?
We live in a time in which decent and otherwise sensible people are surrendering too easily to the hectoring of morons or extremists.
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Thread Starter- Goose
- Cogito ergo sum
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- Posts: 13,427
Re: “I was a stranger and you did not welcome me.”
I struggle with this; and the inner conflict is only going to intensify over the next 36 hours as that Gospel passage is the one I will hear on "The Sunday of the Last Judgement" (February 19) as the Orthodox Church prepares for the rigors of the Lenten Fast.
When Jesus spoke those words walled cities were the norm throughout the civilized world.
Inside of those walls, people dwelt in buildings which were mostly unlocked because locks as we know them had not been invented.
Now that we have locks we don't have a need for walls around cities.
So, if walls and barriers are contrary to the Gospel, shouldn't we do away with fences, gates, and locks of every kind? The food banks should never be locked so that people can just come in and take 24/7? How long would the charity last?
I'm guessing, not all that long.
So we place limits on what folks can take, to provide their need while restraining their greed.
So, by extension, nations do something similar by establishing boundaries, marking and protecting them so that their national riches and abundance are afforded some level of protection from unrestrained plunder. Is it contrary to the Gospel to protect resources so that there is enough for all, not only in the present generation but for the generations yet unborn?
I struggle.
That is what the arena of Great Lent is all about--the struggle.
I think that you did a good job framing the dilemma.
Every thoughtful Christian is going to struggle with incorporating, and interpreting, the will of God into the world as it is.
We live in a time in which decent and otherwise sensible people are surrendering too easily to the hectoring of morons or extremists.
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Thread Starter- Goose
- Cogito ergo sum
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Re: “I was a stranger and you did not welcome me.”
Muslim refugee hails Pope Francis as the example of religion
By Hannah Brockhaus
Vatican City, Feb 17, 2017
/ 04:02 pm (CNA/EWTN News).-
Nur Essa, a Muslim Syrian woman whose family was brought to Rome from Lesbos by Pope Francis last April, said that the openness he has shown to those of different faiths has deeply impressed her.
“For me, I was surprised,” she told CNA. “(He is) very open to all of the cultures, all of the religions, and he sets an example for all the religious people in the world, because he uses religion to serve the human being.”
Essa, 31, has met the Pope on several occasions, most recently during the Pope's visit Feb. 17th to Roma Tre University, a public research university in Rome where she currently studies.
She was one of four students of the university to ask the Pope a question, which he answered during his visit.
Essa's question was about the integration of immigrants in Italy: what they must do to integrate into their host country, but also what the rights of the immigrant are.
Before this, Essa and her husband and their little boy met Pope Francis when he brought them to Rome April 16th, 2016, along with two other Syrian refugee families who had been staying in a camp on the Island of Lesbos. She said that the Pope greeted them and blessed her son.
Essa also had an opportunity to speak with him at length when they were invited to be guests at a lunch Aug. 11th at the Vatican, which Essa said was an “honor.”
“He's very, very modest, a very simple man, a very real human being,” she said.
Essa has both an undergraduate degree and a master's in microbiology, and is studying biology at Roma Tre.
She said that she and her husband are both from the city of Damascus in Syria and chose to flee the country because her husband had been asked to join the military service there.
They went from Damascus to Turkey, and then from Turkey to Greece, where they stayed in a refugee camp for one month before they were fortunate enough to be chosen as one of the families the Pope brought back to Rome.
Pope Francis visited Roma Tre University at the request of the Dean of the university, who wanted to invite a public figure for the university's 25th anniversary.
According to Fr. John D'Orazio, who is a Catholic chaplain assigned to the university by the Diocese of Rome, the last pope to make a formal visit was St. John Paul II for the university’s 10th anniversary in 2002.
The chaplaincy just finished constructing its first Catholic chapel for students nearby to the university, something they've been wanting to do for a long time, Fr. D'Orazio said.
He said that although students don't live on campus, they still try “to create opportunities for students to meet together” and to reflect on their Catholic faith and “what it means for them in their own studies and in being citizens in today’s world and in society.”
It's a very diverse campus, he said, with students of no faith or of different religions, including Muslim students. “I think it's very interesting and beautiful to be a chaplain inside of a state university,” he said, “because it means creating dialogue, creating collaboration.”
“It's almost like mission work, because you're working in a place where there are all kinds of different people, different backgrounds, different points of view. So it's a good place to create bridges,” he said.
“Pope Francis talks a lot about creating bridges and not walls. And I think that also the chaplaincy in a state university is all about creating bridges of dialogue and collaboration.”
We live in a time in which decent and otherwise sensible people are surrendering too easily to the hectoring of morons or extremists.
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Thread Starter