stop producing them”( www. humanrightsatsea-news. org / 2016 / 05 /).
Should we turn away our faces from this horror? Even if we did, could we deny that the ground beneath tens of thousands of displaced persons runs bloody red throughout the world? Are there not“ innocents” being martyred today? Though God is surely walking with them in their suffering and death, what is our humanitarian response to this tragic situation?
We must turn our eyes to these refugees, hear their stories and cry with their anguished families. The children in our very midst are being slaughtered, yes, by tyrannical regimes, but also by the apathy, ignorance and even absolute bigotry and intolerance that pervades predominantly Western nations and their people.
By records kept by the United Nations, 65.3 million people were displaced in 2015. One in every 113 persons of the world’ s 7 billion people are refugees – displaced and fleeing to find safety.
As we listen to the proclamation of Matthew’ s familiar Christmas story this year, what will resonate in our hearts? Will we hear the passage as just a story? Or, will we see this as part of our shared story, one where we have a pivotal role in caring for those in danger and without homes?
Aliens in a Strange Land
Recently while taking a cab in Chicago I spoke with a driver who was born in Palestine. In the context of our fascinating conversation, he told me about the hospitality offered to the pilgrims who had gathered in Bethlehem when Pope John Paul II visited in 2000. The sheer number overwhelmed the hotels. He said that the people living in Bethlehem opened their homes to travelers out of pure hospitality, mostly free of charge, because the townspeople believed it was the right thing to do. He said that the concept of Bethlehem being a sacred place“ is still running in the veins of the people there.”
He also recounted the story of his father, a Palestinian refugee, who was received into Brazil in 1948. He expressed deep gratitude for the Brazilians and the countries at that time who were willing to welcome persons displaced by the war with Israel. He said his family is eternally indebted, and even as he has found a home in the United States with his own family, that gratitude runs deep in his approach to all refugees today.
His story confirmed that having a first-hand experience of being displaced – as difficult and desperate as that ordeal might be – can lead to heart-filled gratefulness. But his gratitude to Brazil and her people made me wonder. What countries will be remembered with gratitude in twenty years by the desperate refugees uprooted by the war in Syria, or by those caught in inescapable violence in Central America, or by those trapped by vicious gangs in some Mexican cities, or even by those from today’ s Palestine, still torn by conflict and genocide?
When further exploring this topic, I turned to the dictionary to look up the words migrant and refugee. It led me further to the word alien and its definition. This exploration brought to mind a mandate that informs our Judeo-Christian tradition and code of conduct:
You shall treat the alien who resides with you no differently than the natives born among you; you shall love the alien as yourself; for you too were once aliens in the land of Egypt. I, the LORD, am your God( Leviticus 19:34).
Were not Mary, Joseph and the child Jesus foreigners, strangers, migrants, refugees, aliens? As we acknowledge the plight of the Holy Family during this Christmas season, can we also see the face of God in the undocumented, the refugee, the stranger in our midst?
Compassionate Response
During a visit in 2016 to the Greek island of Lesbos, Pope Francis knew it was a place of great pain for refugees. On his flight from Rome to Greece, he told reporters that“ This is a trip marked by sadness and that’ s important. It’ s a sad trip. We are going to meet so many people who suffer, who don’ t know where to go, who were forced to flee, and we are also going to a cemetery – the sea, where so many have drowned.”
While in Greece, Francis, along with the Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople and Archbishop Ieronymos ii of Athens, reportedly spent more time greeting refugees individually than they did giving speeches. Through their compassionate example, they demonstrated to the citizens of world that actions speak louder than words.
Patriarch Bartholomew, the spiritual leader of the world’ s Orthodox Christians, told the refugees,“ We have wept as we watched the Mediterranean Sea becoming a burial ground for your loved ones. We have wept as we witnessed the sympathy and sensitivity of the people of Lesbos and other islands. But we have also wept as we saw the hard-heartedness of our fellow brothers and sisters – your fellow brothers and sisters
8 • The New Wine Press • January 2017