When I was a stranger, you welcomed me. Or, you didn't!

Right now there is a nationwide effort made to address the need for immigration reform. I’d like to address this as a social justice issue.

 

When we meet our Maker at the end of our days, He tells us in Matthew 25 that He will comment on a number of social justice items, like feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting the sick and the imprisoned, and, most poignantly for our time: welcoming the stranger. ―When I was a stranger, you welcomed me, or conversely for those deserving eternal punishment: ―When I was a stranger, you gave me no welcome.

 

It’s easy to slide into a politically driven answer to the question of immigration and get tied into knots about legal immigration versus illegal immigration. My answer to that knotty issue is that Jesus won’t be asking us about that distinction when the issue in the judgment of us will be welcoming (or not) the stranger.

 

The reality is that we have a gazillion immigrants in our midst, all over this country. Yet they are in the shadows, fearful of being found to be undocumented, like Jews hiding in Nazi-controlled Europe before ―the final solution was employed. The undocumented ones cannot be legally employed, they cannot open bank accounts, they cannot legally get a driver’s license, and their children, if not born in this country, cannot go to college. They also cannot rectify their status without seriously endangering their families. The predicament they are in is a grave social injustice that must be addressed.

 

I have come to the conclusion that, by this present status of how we are dealing with these immigrants, we are setting ourselves up to be judged badly by the Lord, especially if we leave things as they are. In the weeks ahead in this space I will look with you into what our Church’s teachings on Catholic Social Justice have to teach us, to help us think rightly about this immigration issue.

 

Lord, help us see things as You do.