Refugees

Refugees live in that awkward space of not being in control of their life, but needing to move forward. Many of us have had the experience of moving from a place of comfort to one of challenge and adjustment. Perhaps it’s moving to a new town or a new house, changing jobs or retirement, a change in our health status, changes in our family situation, young people going off to college.

We too are a people on the move, in one way or another, and God walks with us, as God walked with Moses, the disciples, the saints, and the not-so-saintly, and with all people of faith.

A corollary of this is that we meet God on the road, in the people and in the situations on our own journey through life. The question becomes, how do we make room for the other? It might be the immigrant or refugee, but for most of us it could be anyone who is different from us in how they look, or where they come from, or their economic status, or any of the categories we use to separate and define people. God walks with all of us and calls us to be of one mind and heart.

In a letter written for the World Day of Migrants and Refugees, Pope Francis says, “God not only walks with his people, but also within them, in the sense that he identifies himself with men and women on their journey through history, particularly in the least, the poor and the marginalized. In this we see an extension of the mystery of the Incarnation. For this reason, the encounter with the migrant, as with every brother and sister in need, is also an encounter with Christ.”

“Anyone who gives you a cup of water to drink because you belong to Christ, amen, I say to you, will surely not lose his reward.” (Mark 9:41)