• Isaiah 66:18-21. Distant foreigners will not only be converted to the Lord but they will even be chosen as priests and levites.
• Hebrews 12:5-7, 11-13. God disciplines us by trials, at first a source of grief, later of joy. Parents discipline the children they love.
• Luke 13:22-30. Enter by narrow gate. People will come from distant corners of the earth to feast at the kingdom of God. The last will be first, the first will be last.

Thoughts for your Reflection: By John Gonzalez

This Sunday’s lectionary readings give us two related challenges. The first challenge is to our attitude of self-righteousness. Many of us, including this author, can identify many moments where we are so sure of our own moral positions and religious tenets that we consciously or unconsciously form judgments on the moral and religious perspectives of others. Our Christian scripture warns us consistently against the sins of self-righteousness and the resulting sin of casting judgment. It is a message that bears repetition because our human condition, regardless of creed, will move us to be inclined to control our religious perspective with a false sense of understanding. The second challenge tells us that foreigners and outsiders will not only share in the Kingdom of God but they will often times show us the correct path especially when we are blinded by our own false sense of righteousness and social complacency.

There is a fine line that is being walked throughout scripture and we must continuously struggle with this. Scripture offers us a spiritual reality centered on a divine relationship. Based on this metaphysics scripture also gathers a moral teaching to guide us in developing this divine relationship which we humans share not only with God but also with each other. Jesus is a teacher of the law and he follows the prophetic tradition of those like Isaiah. But Jesus and Isaiah are teaching about divine mysteries. Our limited human understanding cannot hope to fully comprehend the divine mysteries so Jesus reverts to teaching in the form of parables so that we learn by way of analogy what we cannot hope to fully comprehend by reason alone. The fine line is that Jesus and the prophets teach about a spiritual reality accompanied by a moral framework, but they also warn us against self-righteousness and uncharitable judgment since we must also be open to the universal mystery that is beyond our human experience and understanding.  

In the Gospel reading Jesus is tackling the self-righteous by repeating the mantra “some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.” People will be waiting by the narrow gate assuming that they will be privileged to enter because they “ate and drank in your company and you taught in our street.” But Jesus will tell them “I do not know where you are from.” This challenges us not to be complacent. Just because we are part of a Christian community and we attend Mass and Church services does not give us an automatic green light to pass through “the narrow door.” A share in the divine union is not gained because of who we are but because of what we do. It is when we are humble and at the service of one another that we gain access towards a fuller and more meaningful life.

In the second reading Paul identifies our suffering as a path towards redemption.  It is part of the human condition that when we are comfortable and at peace that we tend to have a false sense of control and security. We no longer become appreciative of our blessings but instead we begin to think that we alone are responsible for our fortune.  It is when we lose everything however and when we feel at our lowest that we again are reminded of the blessings that come from outside of us. That is why Jesus and Isaiah refer to the foreigners and outsiders in this week’s reading as heralds of the divine vision. Through their marginal perspective and painful experience we will be able to humbly appreciate the struggles and blessings that we take for granted and the social programs that serve us all.

Isaiah and Jesus celebrate foreigners and outsiders in their participation with the Kingdom of God. The second challenge that we are offered is to look towards them and their valuable perspective regarding how we should discern the divine vision, independent of our own social status or dominance. The social program that many of us in the United States take for granted came through a righteous struggle that many of our immigrant descendants fought for. This includes social security, education, unions and a variety of labor laws. But now many of us take it for granted and we look down upon the new immigrants whom we feel do not deserve these same rights and benefits. The social program that had been put into place in the 30’s through the 70’s were hard fought victories of a social vision that was based on Christian values and developed after a difficult period of national suffering during the early half of the 20^th century.

We have forgotten this period of national pain and now these same social programs have lost any value to us. We ought to listen to the value and perspective of the foreigner and outsider in our midst with regard to a renewed national agenda in light of the contemporary suffering that we are facing, but instead we further marginalize them and create conspiracy theories regarding the new immigrant population and their “anchor” or “terror” babies. We have become so self-righteous with our own Judeo-Christian and national identities that we are even willing to change the fundamental laws of our nation to enhance our own position and dominance while further marginalizing foreigners and outsiders. As we hear the Gospel reading this week let us keep in mind and reflect on who Jesus say will be “reclining at the table of the kingdom of God”?

One of the hot issues our Nation has to deal with at present is a comprehensive immigration reform. No doubt this is badly needed as our present system is truly broken and lends to all sorts of abuse to take place in the meantime.

I recall Mathew 25: 31-46, where we are told that when the Lord returns in glory, we will be separated as sheep and goats. The “sheep” will be welcomed into the Kingdom because of their compassion towards others in reaching out to their basic needs. Among other things we hear: “For I a stranger and you welcomed me” (Mat 25: 38) One of the reasons the non caring “goats” will be condemned is because “For I was a stranger and you gave me no welcome” (Mat.25:43)

Each of us will be held accountable one day before the Lord for the way we treated others and that includes our immigrants, legal or not.

The Holy Family themselves from the start, began their life together as immigrants in Egypt. I wonder how the Egyptians treated them? I doubt whether they were rounded up roughly and put in a prison with common criminals, nor was Jesus kept in Egypt while Mary and /or Joseph deported back to Israel separated from their son. Of course they were probably legally in that country, but illegal presence does not justify abusive behavior.

I wonder at times, what right we have to tell other countries to respect human rights when we can’t respect them ourselves.  We are like those trying to take a splinter out of someone’s eye while we have a beam in our own.

The Holy Family fled to Egypt as a way to survive. A good percentage of immigrants to the US have come for the same reason: to survive from hunger and poverty; the alternative would have been to populate the slums of their large cities. As the Bishops of the US said recently, the first principle of immigrants is to have the right to not to have to immigrate in the first place. No doubt then, the key problem to address is the causes of desperate immigration in the first place. Survival leads to desperate measures even illegal when the legal way does not solve the problem.

Hugo Esparza’s ministry experience

March 10, 2010, a group of 8 undocumented students, member of the Immigrant Youth Justice League (www.iyjl.org), decided that political inaction was not only going to limit their future but that its dangerous for their present. On that day an even was organized in Chicago and our message was plain and straightforward:

We undocumented youth, who are most affected by political inaction or inhuman, incomprehensive legislation and who are always muted and left in the shadows, invited President Obama, Mrs. Napolitano (Director of Homeland Security) and Senator Durbin (D-IL) to come and sit out table where we will discuss solutions to our broken immigration system, but they did not show up.

This message was heard by a crowd of about 1,000 people in Chicago’s Federal Plaza. These young men and women, after weeks of preparation and coalition building with local grass-roots organizations, decided to break their silence and put their safety on the line in order to bring attention to the Nation’s broken Immigration System. This came about after immigrant rights organizers from around the nation have felt that the Obama Administration has turn its back and their promise on a Comprehensive Immigration Reform this year. On top of this, in Obama’s first year in office there has been an intensification of deportations with the disguise of targeting only criminals,  and the issue of immigration only received thirty-eight words in the President’s State of the Union this past February. 

My work with the Immigrant Youth Justice League has been that of solidarity and accompaniment. My witness as a Passionist has been very much at the forefront of my work and commitment with this group of young men and women as they seek ways to find liberation from the heavy cross that has been imposed on them.

Sr. Angeles Benevides Ministry Experience

The Passionist Sisters in Mexico have a ministry site in Agua Prieta, which is located in the state of Sonora in Mexico. Agua Prieta share a border with Arizona and many migrants who try to cross the desert or who get deported from this area of the southwest end up in this town. The sisters work with an immigrant resource center to supply the migrant community food, medical services and other basic necessities free of charge.

The sisters operate two resource sharing organizations: the CRM (Center for Migrant Resources) and the CAME (Center for attention to migrants in Exodus.) Through a network of volunteers and local donations these organizations provide a myriad of services to the migrant population. These migrants are often tired, hungry and very depressed for having failed in seeking opportunities for themselves and their families. Besides basic necessities they often require someone to talk with and to help them find any hope in this desperate moment. The donations of food and basic supplies are offered by local groups and businesses who cherish this meaningful ministry of service and presence.

Another project that the Sisters run in Agua Prieta is an IECC (Immigrants in Exodus Care Center). This is a basic overnight shelter that welcomes the immigrant population. In this shelter the Passionist Sisters come after work hours to offer hospitality, support and consolation and to also cook meals for these tired and hungry travelers.

The Passionist community of Sisters in Mexico have accepted this activity as a way to accompanying. Jesus in those who are suffering today and to offer hope and meaning to a desperate population whose cries and frustrations are constantly present even as it seeks into our hearts.