OFFICE FOR SOCIAL MINISTRY
The burning sands will become pools, and the thirsty ground, springs of water. And the ransomed of the Lord shall enter Zion singing, crowned with everlasting joy. They meet with joy and gladness … sorrow and mourning flee away. (Isaiah 35: 7, 10)
“Families Belong Together and Free.” We recently saw this bold, joyful message emblazoned on a banner carried by Bishop Mark Seitz of El Paso, Texas, and other religious leaders at an El Paso border procession and inter-faith prayer service. (See photo on page 21.) This event took place in the burning 100 degrees of a summer evening with nearly a thousand people of multiple ethnicities expressing their solidarity with millions of migrants and refugees throughout the world. The participants were asked to generate creative images and moving music, to “see and hear the heroic perseverance in all those who have made this journey before us, and the hope in all those who will make this journey after us.”
Bishop Seitz proclaimed that accompanying migrants and refugee is not abstract issue: “It’s something that touches upon our daily living. I believe it touches upon what kind of Christian we’re going to be, how much you are like Christ and recognize Christ in the vulnerable and the weak.”
The procession and prayer service coincided with the one-year anniversary of Bishop Seitz’s inspiring pastoral letter on immigration, “Sorrow and Mourning Flee Away,” which began with these words:
“Four years ago, I came to the Chihuahuan Desert to take up the responsibility given to me by Pope Francis to steward the Church of God in El Paso. I came as a migrant to a community of migrants. Since then, I have seen your works, your faith, your charity and your endurance. I have shared in your challenges: the difficulties of raising a family today, anxieties about the future that tempt our young people, and the loneliness that burdens the old. Even in the midst of these struggles, with the burning sands and thirsty ground of summer, in the faith of the people of El Paso I have seen sorrow and mourning flee.”
This message of hope and fleeing sorrow echoed throughout this summer event as speakers talked story about how to accompany migrants and refugees. All were reminded of Pope Francis’ call to look at migrants with “the contemplative gaze of faith” and to recognize that “every stranger who knocks at our door is an opportunity for an encounter with God.”
Encountering God through the most vulnerable helps us recognize the dignity of every person and his and her basic right to migrate and seek refuge or asylum. The overflow crowd was called to challenge any efforts that criminalize migration and separate families and instead to embrace the blessing of being on the border to experience God with the marginalized. The celebration and talk lasted late into the hot summer night.
The spirit of the event echoed the message Pope Francis delivered in 2016 on the Juarez/El Paso border: “We belong to a church without frontiers, a church which considers herself mother to all.
“Every year, the faithful of Ciudad Juárez, Las Cruces and El Paso come together to celebrate the Border Mass. We find ourselves divided by a fence or a river, by an economy of exclusion or unjust migration policies. Yet, even in the midst of all that divides us, our border faith celebrations are a joyful reminder that the eucharistic Christ is building a new humanity, leading all of us together to the New Jerusalem.
“Our Lady of Guadalupe inspires in us a vision of the Americas as a great Temple for God’s people, where the ransomed of the Lord shall enter Zion singing, crowned with everlasting joy. May these bonds of charity continue to grow and inflame our hearts. May we take up new and prophetic actions to bring about the Kingdom of justice, truth and reconciliation in order to transform this desert, so that the burning sands will become pools, and the thirsty ground, springs of water.”
For the full inspiring text of “Sorrow and Mourning Flee Away,” go to bordermigrant.org
Mahalo,
Your friends at the Office for Social Ministry