Editor’s Note

Our celebration of Migrant Sunday as we like to call it, should motivate us to encounter and identify with those in our community, who are in need of strength and consolation, who often experience a deep sense of loneliness, anxiety and fear.

Sep 23, 2022



By Patricia Pereira
The Church has been celebrating World Day of Migrants and Refugees since 1914. As we know, today more than ever, migration is growing worldwide and we hear everyday heart rending stories of people fleeing their homes to escape violence, war and starvation.

Our celebration of Migrant Sunday as we like to call it, should motivate us to encounter and identify with those in our community, who are in need of strength and consolation, who often experience a deep sense of loneliness, anxiety and fear.


The photographs and stories of families and individuals — including women and children — literally running for their lives has many of us extremely troubled, praying for their situations, and wondering if and when their lives will ever be the same.


There are also the undocumented ones, those who have come into the country illegally and who hide in fear from the authorities but need to eke out a living to support their families.


We see and encounter them in our midst on a daily basis. They are our domestic helpers, the cleaners, restaurant workers, those who work on construction sites and the many others who offer some form of service to us.

In a time when chaos, danger and uncertainty are the norm for so many of our brothers and sisters in Christ, Pope Francis has made numerous appeals to promote a culture of encounter in an effort to combat a culture of indifference that is all too familiar in the world today.

It means seeing through the eyes of others rather than turning a blind eye. “Not just to see, but to look,” the Pope said. “Not just to hear, but to listen. Not just to meet and pass by, but to stop. And don’t just say ‘what a shame, poor people,’ but allow ourselves to be moved by pity.”

Open, inclusive and welcoming are words that should not only be familiar to Catholics, but to all people of faith committed to living out the charge to see the face of Jesus in others, and be His face to others — especially when darkness has enveloped their life with uncertainty.

In his message for this year’s World Day of Migrants and Refugees, the Holy Father once again reiterates that no one must be excluded and that God’s plan is essentially inclusive and gives priority to those living on the existential peripheries.

For people who come in as refugees, the contrast between joy and pain, acceptance and rejection, and generosity and meanness have been particularly marked. They are often not treated as persons like us, worthy of respect, but like parcels that can be allowed to be moved from place to place, discarded, never delivered, never allowed to live ordinary lives and never to be accepted as members of our community.

Our challenge today is to hear in their cry for help the voice of Jesus Himself who says: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock” and to open the door of our heart in welcome.

Our challenge is to proclaim in our words and deeds that migrants and refugees are our brothers and sisters and that it is our responsibility to be their keepers wherever they live. The words of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew, “Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me” should linger in our ears always.

Total Comments:0

Name
Email
Comments