The Crisis Before Us
Following is the prepared text from Bishop Olmsted’s homily for the Prayer Vigil for Migrant Justice.
October 11, 2021
I am grateful for the opportunity to spend this evening united with you in prayer. I am also thankful for the Catholic Coalition for Migrant Justice who organized this prayer vigil and especially for the charitable works you have undertaken to reach out with love and solicitude to migrants in our state and nation.
In many Latin American countries and across the US, there is a beautiful Catholic tradition called “Las Posadas” that was introduced by the Franciscan missionaries in the 16th century to help new Christians to prepare to welcome Jesus Christ into their lives at Christmas and beyond. Each night from December 16th to the 23rd, people depicting the Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Joseph, or statues representing them, are taken in procession from house to house begging for a place to stay. A ritual of singing takes place between those asking for shelter and those who are inside. The hymn begins with St. Joseph knocking and asking, “In the name of Heaven please give us some shelter.” The immediate reply to St. Joseph gives reasons why they will not open their home, telling the weary couple, “You need to move along!” St. Joseph, then counters their rejection: “We are very tired. I came from Nazareth, Joseph is my name, carpenter by trade”. A voice from within answers back, “I don’t care for the name: let me go to sleep, because as I told you, I won’t open to you”. However, after St. Joseph identifies his wife as “the Queen of Heaven” and “Mother of God’s Holy Word”, the owner of the house then has a change of heart and confesses “I was not aware!” and he bids them to enter. From then on, the real “fiesta” begins.
The hymn and the whole “posadas” tradition help those who participate to experience what it must have been like for the pregnant Mary and Saint Joseph to repeatedly hear that there was no place for them. It makes us wonder under what conditions would most of us be moved to open our doors and lives to strangers. Notice that the change of attitude of the owner occurs when he recognizes that among those who were asking to be admitted was – despite all appearances – “Someone special and worthy of respect”.
“Las Posadas” is not only a powerful allegory for the current crisis of immigration in our nation but also a palpable reminder of the Christ-centered truth behind the social teaching of the Church, especially the Catholic Principles of Migration, above all this: Every human person has inherent dignity and is created in the image and likeness of God and therefore possesses infinite value and worth. As a result, in every suffering person we are challenged to see “someone special and worthy of respect” – to see the face of Jesus.
We have all heard of the record numbers of immigrants at the Southern U. S. border – tens of thousands have been detained while crossing and the bodies of hundreds more have been recovered from the desert; we have all seen the images on the news. These facts cry out for a response. However, the current system is broken. Our immigration laws are chaotic, and, when they are selectively enforced, they create a dangerous situation for immigrants as well as Americans.
There is no denying that we have an immigration crisis. But the real issues are more than just border security and undocumented immigrants. For this reason, for our time together this evening, it is my hope – it is my prayer – that we can turn our minds and hearts to consider the crisis before us in a different light. In this moment of prayer and reflection, I invite you to enter a deep, intimate, and personal encounter with Jesus, where we might focus not only on the human crisis before us, but also on the crisis of faith within and around us.
The crisis before us is not just about migrants. It’s about us. On the World Day of Migrants and Refugees of 2019, Pope Francis gave such a fitting title to his message: “It is not just about migrants”. In it he states:
“it is not only the cause of migrants that is at stake; it is not just about them, but about us, and about the present and future of the human family. Through [the migrant] the Lord invites us to embrace fully our Christian life and to contribute, each according to his or her proper vocation, to the building up of a world that is more and more in accord with God’s plan”.
The immigration crisis has its roots in the crisis of faith, the crisis of failing to recognize our Lord Jesus in the suffering and needy. You won’t see this crisis of faith acknowledged on the evening news nor splashed across the internet. It is a crisis that concerns what America was, is, and will become. Our nation is changing on the inside. We have a legal structure that allows and even pays for the killing of babies in the womb. Our courts and legislatures are redefining the natural institutions of marriage and the family. We have a culture in which segments of government, media, and academia are openly hostile to religious faith. Because of this vast array of opinions on the dignity of every human person and the value of marriage and family, there is an enormous division over what to do with illegal immigration. The crisis before us is not just about migrants.
Born of all this, then, is a crisis within, characterized by division, fear, and suspicion that dominate our discourse on immigration. There has been a lamentable rise in anger towards migrants that is unbecoming of a nation of immigrants with such a clear and defined Christian heritage. If we are honest with ourselves, we can recognize that prejudice is a driving factor behind much of our political discourse. The most troubling aspect behind the debate on immigration is that we, as Catholics, no longer see the strangers among us as our brothers and sisters in Christ, but only as thieves or criminals or a means to an end. This is our “crisis within.”
Like “Las Posadas” tradition, many immigrants asking for shelter in our country often find closed doors and closed hearts. The most common responses to undocumented immigrants are dehumanizing – labeling them “criminal aliens” and ignoring the real and essential human needs, including poverty and lack of work, that led them to journey far from home, often at great risks. Without a doubt, like in “Las Posadas,” the response from many Christians would change if the weary and desperate face before us was Jesus Christ Himself. For this reason, at the heart of the immigration crisis – for us Christians – is our failure to recognize the face of Christ in those who are suffering and in need. Jesus told us that we would be judged by how we respond to Him in others when He said: “I was a stranger and you welcomed Me” (Mt 25:35). This is Jesus’ clear teaching: the way we treat the least of our brothers and sisters is the way we treat Him. Thus, the Catholic response always begins with Jesus Christ and our recognition that the immigrant is, in fact, “someone special who is worthy of respect”.
It is our vocation to contribute to the whole conversation on immigration with the light of the Gospel and the Church’s teaching, taking it out of the arena of politics and seeing it through the lens of our Faith – focused on the face of Christ – often in almost unrecognizable forms. In this sense, it is the face of the Suffering Christ that we encounter in the migrants who are seeking safety, shelter, food and work.
Pope Benedict XVI, in his message for the World Day of Migrants and Refugees in 2013, reiterated that our social contribution to this issue can never neglect the religious dimension when he said: “It is to this dimension that the Church, by virtue of the mission entrusted to her by Christ, must devote special attention and care: this is her most important and specific task”. The Church does this in Christ, in solidarity with the least among us, with the goals of helping our neighbors as well as evangelizing our own culture. The goal of the Church is always communion in a society marked by division; sadly, the political divisions are also being felt in the Church.
Nevertheless, the vocation of the Church requires her to be a sign and servant of unity. Therefore, the Church must avoid involvement in party politics, since this would divide the community. More importantly, all Catholics must keep carefully in mind that no political party in our nation fully expresses Catholic Social and Moral teaching. It is the work of every member of the Body of Christ to take care that the demands of political parties and the unique points of view of the media do not guide our discussion on any issue, much less the important issue of immigration today. The Church has something to say to every party, and no member of the faithful should find himself or herself directed by the political views of society without first being informed and empowered by the Gospel mandate to care for our brothers and sisters and especially, for the least among us.
For the Church to work as leaven in society, healing from within must come through the difficult work of dialogue. This involves patient listening to those with whom we disagree. We are called to accept those we disagree with as persons, while striving to lead them to value human dignity, solidarity, and a conscience formed by Scripture and Tradition. Many speak of the common good, but that necessarily includes the moral and spiritual good, not simply a material one. As Christians, we need to take the lead in the work of comprehensive immigration reform that embraces both justice and the right application of the law – especially Christian hospitality, love and mercy.
To conclude, I wish to echo our Holy Father’s words for Migrant Day 2014:
“Every human being is a child of God! He or she bears the image of Christ! We ourselves need to see, and then to enable others to see, that migrants and refugees do not only represent a problem to be solved, but are brothers and sisters to be welcomed, respected and loved. They are an occasion that Providence gives us to help build a more just society, a more perfect democracy, a more united country, a more fraternal world and a more open and evangelical Christian community.”
We are all involved in a daily real-life posada, on one side of the door or the other. Will we decide to reject or to embrace “the Joseph, Mary and Baby Jesus” that come to us?
Let me close with these Words of Christ from the Book of Revelation: “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me” (Rev 3:20).
