I came across this poster in Washington, D.C. at a rally in
support of Muslims, back in January. Six months later, the irony and its
significance hits us like a ton of bricks, as instead of the United States
welcoming the immigrant, children are being stripped away from their parents’
arms and separated at the border.
This week, a
church in Indiana put a statue of the Holy Family inside a cage,
representing an ICE detention center. Much
like Jesus crying out at the end of his life, “forgive them Lord, for they know
not what they do” – it is a wake-up call to those who do not see the
similarities between the life and family of Jesus Christ and those being turned away and treated as less than human today. If
Christianity does not show us how to act in the face of such injustice, surely
we will continue to live in a land of separation and lack of community. As Michael Moore said on The Late Show
with Stephen Colbert, “if we started acting the way we were taught, in
Catholic school, or in Bible school, wherever you went, we will have a
different country, but not until then.”
As with the image of Lady Liberty holding the immigrant
child in her arms in a time of separation of children from families at the
border, a caged Holy Family shows the stark contrast between the principles that
the U.S. was founded upon, and the Biblical call to welcome the stranger and
the immigrant, and the reality of what the U.S. government and immigration
officials are currently doing. Instead
of such hypocrisy, I believe we need to take a deeper look at Mary, the mother
of Jesus. As a woman who brought Christ
into the world who continues to show us how to love and how to live, we would
do much better than to dismiss her importance as many Protestants do. As a willing participant in the co-creation
of life with God, Mary represents a generative capacity of love and abundance we desperately
need to reestablish. Most of the
immigrants crossing borders are doing so because they feel their lives are in
danger, and/or they cannot live off their native lands any longer. Corrupt governments allow corporations to
plunder land and threaten, destroy and contaminate food and water sources in
the name of profit or the fighting over natural resources. But the life-giving
image of Mary, and the generative capacity of Mother Earth, provide us with an
alternative of abundance, nurturing and welcoming.
This 4th of July, as we mourn the failure of U.S.
to stand true to the words holding up Lady Liberty - “Give me your tired, your
poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,” – may we reflect on how
different the world would be if we took the example of Mary seriously, valuing the
love and generative capacity of the feminine to give, nourish, and sustain
life.
We can all do something.
Seek out a group near you to support that is working in support of
keeping families together. Cayuga Centers has an Amazon Wish List for the children in its care. And the Franciscan
Action Network is asking Franciscan churches around the country to send in
their photos from local Keeping Families Together marches so we can start to build
more unity and momentum. As St. Francis
of Assisi said, “Let us begin again, for up to now we have done little or
nothing.”
THIS IS MY SONG
This is my
song, O God of all the nations,
A song of
peace for lands afar and mine.
This is my
home, the country where my heart is,
Here are my
hopes, my dreams, my holy shrine.
But other
hearts in other lands are beating,
With hopes
and dreams as true and high as mine.
My country's
skies are bluer than the ocean,
And sunlight
beams on clover leaf and pine.
But other
lands have sunlight too, and clover,
And skies
are everywhere as blue as mine.
O hear my
song, thou God of all the nations,
A song of
peace for their land and for mine.
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