Daybreaks: Daily Reflections for Lent & Easterby Ron Rolheiser, OMI

“Shepherd your people with your staff, the flock of your heritage,that lives apart in a woodland,in the midst of an orchard.Let them feed in Bashan and Gilead,as in the days of old;as in the days when you came from the land of Egypt, show us wonderful signs”.

(MICAH 7:14-15)

Orphans, widows, and strangers! That’s scriptural code for who, at any given time, are the three most vulnerable groups in society.

Today, without doubt, we are facing the biggest humanitarian crisis since the end of the Second World War. Millions upon millions of people, under unjust persecution and the threat of death, are being driven from their homes and homelands with no place to go and no country or community to receive them.

As Christians, we may not turn our backs on them or turn them away. If Jesus is to be believed, we will be judged spiritually more by how we treat refugees than by whether or not we are going to church. When we stand before God in judgment and ask in protest, “When did I see a stranger and not welcome him?” Our generation may hear God reply, “I was a Syrian refugee, and you did no welcome me.”  

The issue of refugees and immigrants is highly sensitive and complex. But as we – our churches and our governments – address them, we must remain clear on what the Scriptures, Jesus, and the social teachings of the Church uncompromisingly teach: we are to welcome the stranger, even when it’s inconvenient and even if there are dangers” (21).