Tears for Those Who Suffer
This past month, we lost one of our Iraqi elders, grandmother Najat. Grandmother Najat was a small woman dressed in her best white lace who scandalized our private piety with her public tradition of devotion. She was a refugee of the warlords who ravage the lives of so many in our world. Reduced to a life reclaimed in a foreign land, she worshiped her God, our God. Universal truth expressed in a foreign tongue but the same adoration and belief in the one God – Love. “Faith, hope, and love. And the greatest of these is Love” (1 Corinthians 13:13). Her faith and devotion defied the suffering inflicted by ideological wars that claimed property but not the hearts of the faithful, the hopeful. Najat was a beacon of Hope that walked without shame before us as a witness of what she believed was good and true and beautiful. She reflected that as good, and true, and beautiful and her presence will be missed but her passion and devotion will be remembered and call us to be so openly faithful and adoring of the God of life and love to whom we owe everything that we are that is good, and true, and beautiful. May we see this in one another, in our spouses and children, in our neighbors, fellow parishioners, co-workers, strangers, immigrants and outcasts. May perpetual light shine on Najat and all the faithful departed who through the mercy of God rest in peace!
Our immigrant sisters and brothers are our neighbors in community and our partners in faith to whom we owe much. Our lives and community are supported and enriched by their presence.
On a blustery, cold, icy winter afternoon, a community of support and solidarity gathered at Assisi Heights for an Interfaith Immigration Prayer Service. This event is a calling together, and in the presence of God who asks us to “Welcome the stranger”. We all have the history of being “the stranger” as we are all immigrants to this country unless we have indigenous background. Our ancestors came for many reasons that included seeking asylum from life threatening powers, hope for a better future for their (our) children, hunger and thirst for a new beginning with justice and peace. These were the very words that flowed from the experience of a migrant father as we listened to the prayerful reflection of the symbols of immigration: walking shoes, backpack, walking stick, toys/wedding rings, sunglasses, pillow, law book, keys, dove. He experienced all these symbols in his journey to freedom from violence, oppression, and poverty. And why? So his children would not have to pursue the dangerous path that he did. And his daughter is going to graduate with a nursing degree!
Sitting side by side, praying for the same hopes, we merge our realities as neighbors together. What do we do? Educate ourselves as privileged residents of this country to the brokenness of an immigration system that has not been revised since 1986. Think how this country and the world have changed in that time. How can we, from our position of comfort and privilege, stand in solidarity with our sisters and brothers who find themselves “strangers” in a foreign land as the Holy Family did when they fled Herod’s persecution into Egypt? How can we as one of our Hispanic community leaders put it: “Stand in solidarity…Stand up…stand behind…stand in communion…stand against…stand down…stand aside…stand together…stand fast”.
As the concluding prayer voiced, “May we be blessed with anger at injustice, oppression and exploitation of people and the earth, so that we will work for justice, equality and peace. May we be blessed with tears for those who suffer and reach out our hands to comfort them and change their pain to joy.”