Reflections

A space for reflections on Scripture texts on immigration.  E-mail yours to supportir@churchworldservice.org

Matthew 2 13-15

When they had departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I tell you.  Herod is going to search for the child to destroy him.  Joseph rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed for Egypt.  He stayed there until the death of Herod, that what the Lord had said through the prophet might be fulfilled, “Out of Egypt I called my son.”

How very much Jesus’ earthly parents must have wanted to protect Him.  Under the guidance of the One who had entrusted Jesus to their care, they obediently fled and waited together until told to come home.  One assumes that they found refuge during their wait.  At the very least, we would hope they had reached a place of tolerance and respect in which they could at least work to support themselves.  Even better for them, if rather than tolerated,  they had actually been made to feel welcome! 

What happens to those families who flee to our homeland?  Do we value and protect the unity of their families? Is it refuge our exhausted strangers find?   Or, do they discover themselves in a land where only immigrants of wealth and formal education are deemed worthy of tolerance, let alone a kind welcome?   What would Joseph, a tradesman of modest means, his teenage wife, and baby have found if their only option had been to flee to our land in our time?  Would they have had to live in constant fear of discovery? Relegated to a dehumanizing existence in the shadows?

 Thank God the Holy Family found safe refuge so many thousands of years ago!  Through the story of the flight of Joseph, Mary, and Jesus, God shows us the indispensability of basic human hospitality.  Should our policies not welcome families seeking refuge with the same graciousness we would have wished the Holy Family in their time of need?

By Katherine Crothers, Educator
Undocumented/Mixed-status Family Child Advocate
Parishioner, All Saint’s Catholic Church Lakeville, MN
Interfaith Coalition on Immigration volunteer

Genesis 12:10

“Now there was a famine in the land. So Abram went down to Egypt to reside there as an alien, for the famine was severe in the land.”
 
What if our actions, our corn, our trade policies are one of the reasons for the famine?   What then?
 
On vacation this summer with my brother-in-law and his family, the subject of immigration came up.  It was clear to him.  “They’ve come into this country illegally, it’s just that simple.  They shouldn’t be able to stay.  They are illegal.  Period.”
 
But, based on what I’d heard, I said, “Being a Nebraska boy, you know how much our government subsidizes the growing of corn.  When the trade policies changed during the Clinton administration, our cheap corn was shipped to places in Mexico that had been growing their own corn for centuries.  Those farmers couldn’t compete with our cheap corn and had to give up farming.  Many of them moved to the cities looking for work.  And when they found no work there, “for the famine was severe in the land” they “went up to the US” to reside there.  They crossed the border where we’ve legislated free trade in products, but not free trade in labor.  Of course, it’s not that simple either, but our sacred story does remind us that when you’re hungry and needing food and work, you’ll go where you need to go to eat.
 
My brother-in-law responded, “I’d never heard that. That changes the equation”.  Amen to that!      
 
By the Rev. Don Portwood, Pastor of Lyndale United Church of Christ, Minneapolis, Minn.
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