BY CARLOS RODRIGUEZ | March 29, 2017
Readings

Today’s reading during the fourth week of Lent sets a challenge: To those in darkness: Show yourselves!”

As an Undocumented immigrant, I have felt the loneliness, fear, and sadness that this status has placed on my person. Many of us have used this darkness as a tool for our own protection, but during these unpredictable times, we, immigrants and refugees, must act and face the light.

For the privileged: step out of the obscurity of idleness and use your power and resources to aid those asking for assistance. I must ask that we all recognize that this is a country of immigrants that has displaced our indigenous communities.

In today’s Gospel reading Jesus proclaimed, “I cannot do anything on my own.” In reflection, I have found that uncertain times call us to act, but during urgent, tumultuous times, we tend to act alone. We must, however, move and gather in community in order ensure the inclusion of those most in need.

With bravery and courage, speak out and help those in fear.

Extend your open arms to those fleeing war and poverty or those deserting political turmoil, even in this country.

Shelter and feed those seeking a new life and nurture their dreams and eagerness to begin a new life in a new country.

Help those hiding in the shadows, and you will see how you have adopted the teachings of Christ through these acts.

Only together can we move to make the teachings of Christ come alive and make meaningful change.

Editor’s Note: This piece was originally published as part of the Ignatian Solidarity Network Rise Up: A Lenten Call to Solidarity series.

POR SOR NORMA PIMENTEL, M.J. | 26 de marzo de 2017
Lecturas
English Reflection

En todo el mundo, muchos están luchando con la forma de responder a los refugiados que llegan dentro de sus fronteras.

Diariamente, veo el sufrimiento de las familias inmigrantes que huyen de la violencia y la pobreza.

Al igual que el hombre nacido ciego en el Evangelio de Juan, estas personas nacieron en dificultades económicas y sociales que no eligieron.  Al igual que el ciego, buscan una vida mejor en la que puedan alimentar a sus familias y vivir sin temor ni discriminación.

Aunque muchas personas y organizaciones buscan brindar atención humanitaria al extraño entre nosotros, los refugiados están a menudo en peligro de no recibir la protección y dignidad humana que merecen como hijos y hijas de Dios.

Los zapatos de Fernando, niño guatemalteco de cuatro años. Él y su madre fueron servidos por Caridades Católicas del Valle del Río Grande después de llegar McAllen, Texas. Foto cortesía de Verónica Cárdenas y parte de “Traveling Soles,” una serie de imágenes diseñadas para explicar la historia de los inmigrantes que llegan a Estados Unidos.

En la lectura del Evangelio de hoy, los fariseos critican a Jesús por trabajar el día santo, mientras que ellos ignoran el sufrimiento profundo del hombre ciego y el milagro de sanación de Jesús.

Por lo tanto, podemos preguntarnos: ¿Quién es realmente ciego? ¿Es el hombre que no pudo ver desde su nacimiento o los líderes y los poderosos que no tienen visión, ni compasión?

En la tradición espiritual de San Ignacio de Loyola, ruega por la gracia de la vista divina – la vista que le permitiría ser testigo y sentir empatía con aquellos que experimentan desigualdades.

Que su obra caritativa esta temporada cuaresmal incluya abogar por los más necesitados de misericordia y sanación.  Invoca a los líderes de tu ciudad, estado y nación.  Pídales “ver” la injusticia de las leyes que causan o perpetúan el sufrimiento.

 Que la gracia de Dios sea visible a través de ustedes mientras se levantan en apoyo de los más vulnerables entre nosotros. 

BY SR. NORMA PIMENTEL, M.J. | March 26, 2017
Readings
Reflexión en español

Across the globe, many are struggling with how to respond to the refugees arriving within their borders.

Daily, I see the suffering of immigrant families fleeing violence and poverty.

Much like the man born blind in John’s Gospel, these people were born into economic and social hardships they did not choose. Like the blind man, they seek a better life in which they can feed their families and live without fear or discrimination.

Although many people and organizations seek to provide humanitarian care to the stranger among us, refugees are often in danger of not receiving the protection and human dignity they deserve as God’s children.

The shoes of Fernando, a four-year-old Guatemalan boy. He and his mother were served by Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley after arriving McAllen, Texas. Photo courtesy of Verónica Cárdenas and part of Traveling Soles, a series of images designed to tell the story of immigrants arriving in the U.S.

In today’s Gospel reading the Pharisees criticize Jesus for working on the Sabbath while, at the same time, ignoring the blind man’s deep suffering and Jesus’ healing miracle.

So, we may ask ourselves: Who is truly blind? Is it the man who was not able to see since his birth or the leaders of the establishment who have no vision, no compassion?

In the spiritual tradition of St. Ignatius of Loyola, pray for the grace of divine sight — sight that would allow you to witness and empathize with those who experience gross inequality.

May your charitable work this Lenten season include advocating for those in most need of mercy and healing. Call upon the leaders of your city, state and nation. Beg them “to see” the injustice of laws that cause or perpetuate suffering.

May God’s grace be visible through you as you rise up in support of the most vulnerable in our midst.

Editor’s Note: This piece was originally published as part of the Ignatian Solidarity Network Rise Up: A Lenten Call to Solidarity series.

BY ERIN CANNING | March 24, 2017
Readings

They heard him. They heard him years ago and continue to hear him today. These people have been listening to Jesus since Day One, ever since he said:

You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

The concept of neighbor may seem strange or foreign to those who grew up in this societal bubble of individualism currently consuming the United States.   Who is my neighbor? What is a neighbor?

Jesus intentionally uses this somewhat-vague word to make a point: we are all neighbors. Our neighbors are all around us – living right next door; sleeping on the streets without food and shelter; working two jobs to support family; laughing on the outside but struggling on the inside; working in the warehouse down the street; fleeing violence overseas for a safer home here.

I’ve met some of these people, and I aspire to reflect their radical love in my life. I work with many of them now – they are the people of the Dolores Mission community. They house the homeless and feed the hungry despite threats of losing their own homes to gentrification; they welcome the stranger, despite anxieties over immigration raids. They are determined to empower students and families through education, from a history class to homeowner rights workshops.

They love their neighbors.

And this love brings the Gospel to life. Our poor neighbor, our refugee neighbor, our homeless neighbor – they are our teachers. Take time to hear their stories, to accompany each other. It is from ‘them’ that all will learn to become ‘us’ – to become better neighbors.

Reflection Questions:

  • Who are your neighbors? Can you name them? Learn the face and name of one of your neighbors this week.
  • Are there moments in your everyday life where you can be a better neighbor to others (e.g. opt into conversation instead of headphones)?  

Editor’s Note: This piece was originally published as part of the Ignatian Solidarity Network Rise Up: A Lenten Call to Solidarity series.

BY MARY BAUDOUIN | March 16, 2017
Readings

“Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.”

Oh me of little faith….that’s the phrase that goes through my head when I think about my friend Zoila.  

Zoila with the author and her family.

By all accounts, Zoila should be hopeless. She is an 82 year old tiny undocumented Filipina, trafficked to the US 35 years ago by an unscrupulous “employer”. She only knows 100 English words, is nearly deaf, had no family, no money, and no source of support. She lived on the generosity of families who took her in and took care of her while she took care of them. When she showed up at our house after being told that she could no longer live with the family that had housed her for 10 years, we took her in for a year.

Although she was unfailingly kind, living with Zoila wasn’t easy, especially when she took over our garden. She would wander our neighborhood and take cuttings out of strangers’ yards and plant them all over our yard. She was absolutely convinced that God would grow these spindly plants—and amazingly, with Zoila’s tender care some of them grew! Zoila was also always convinced that God would take care of her—and God did.  Zoila bloomed with hope, and she nurtured hope and faith in me.

Zoila would have withered and died years ago without her hope. There are so many refugees and undocumented people like Zoila who live only on the hope of creating better, safer, less violent lives for themselves and those they care for, and the belief that God will deliver them to security. Right now, our country seems to be depriving them even of that last vestige of their human dignity—their hope.

Shouldn’t everyone have a right to hope, a right to believe that God will take care of them in the places where they try to plant themselves anew?

PS:  This story has a happy ending.  Zoila is now back in the Philippines, taken in by a large community who love her. She is known to that community as “Nanay Zoila”, which means Mama. She has finally found her forever family.

Reflection questions:

  • How can we nurture hope in others, especially migrants and refugees whose hope is diminishing in these difficult times?
  • How can we remain a hopeful people even when times seem dark?

Editor’s Note: This piece was originally published as part of the Ignatian Solidarity Network Rise Up: A Lenten Call to Solidarity series.

BY KRISTIN HEYER | March 13, 2017
Readings

Politicians dominating our airwaves cast “sinners” as easy to identify, quarantine, and exclude. Yet such claims divert attention from the fact that we are all complicit in injustice. The mercy today’s gospel promises can break through our haze of indifference or protective armor of self-righteousness, softening our hearts and inviting us to conversion.

Bishop Gerald Kicanas of Tucson offers communion to those gathered on the Mexican side of the fence during a special border mass to honor migrants who have died in the desert. April 2014. Image cr. Kino Border Initiative

Addressing Congress, Pope Francis echoed today’s passage from Luke, reminding us we shall be measured by the yardstick we use for others: If we want security let us give security. If we want life let us give life. Sin is not a private transaction: we are all part of webs of interdependence that push and pull migrants across borders or degrade the planet, leaving none of us with clean hands.

In response, he offers us models of lament and repentance, whether amidst the graveyard of wrecks on Lampedusa or planted on the border in Ciudad Juárez. Naming and mourning the human costs of injustice—refugees washed ashore, mothers abruptly deported—enables us to more clearly see the webs of sin which ensnare us.

Sin obscures by its very nature. Our faith calls us to denounce injustice and consider where our own complicity remains hidden even from ourselves: selective indifference to others’ suffering; cowardice in the face of new threats; profiting from the exploitation of labor.

Through the noise of efforts to scapegoat outsiders, today’s gospel declares that the sinner may be the one looking to cast the first stone. And in the end Jesus assures his disciples of the “overflowing gifts” that await if we turn from rebellious complicity to imitate God’s generosity and forgiveness.

Reflection questions:

  • What can I do to pop my “soap bubbles of indifference” or resist feeling overwhelmed and tuning out?
  • To whom was I called to show mercy today? Where did I run up against limits to my hospitality and compassion?

Editor’s Note: This piece was originally published as part of the Ignatian Solidarity Network Rise Up: A Lenten Call to Solidarity series.

BY JORGE PALACIOS, JR. | March 7, 2017
Readings

Our Father who art in Heaven,
hallowed be thy name

Our Father, Father to all the peoples of the Earth, to the most destitute and the most powerful,
Father to those who condemn us and those who welcome us,
Father who protects us, who gives us life and strength to leave the only place we know as home,
may your name be always cherished by our lips, chapped and broken as they may be.

thy kingdom come,
thy will be done,

Though we do not feign to understand your will, we pray that it may be done.
Though we do not pretend to know what this new land holds for us, we pray that it may begin to look like home.

on earth as it is in heaven

May our outlook of heaven begin to take form here on earth,
and that our material poverty and struggle may begin to dissipate, making room for our heavenly home.

Give us this day our daily bread;

You, Father, are the source that provides for us, completely.
We rely on you, our rock and our salvation, for hope and for our physical needs.

and forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us

Many will despise us for the languages we speak, for the color of our skin, and for the lands from which we come.
They will call us trespassers.
Forgive us for seeking worlds for ourselves, as we forgive those who despise us.

and lead us not into temptation

Do not let us forget who we are, where we come from, and how we got here.
Do not let us, Lord, forget you.

but deliver us from evil.
Amen.

Editor’s Note: This piece was originally published as part of the Ignatian Solidarity Network Rise Up: A Lenten Call to Solidarity series.