6Abraham hurried into the tent
to Sarah and said, “Quick, three measures of bran flour! Knead it
and make bread.” 7He ran to the herd, picked out a tender, choice calf, and gave it
to a servant, who quickly prepared it. 8Then he got some curds and milk, as
well as the calf that had been prepared, and set these before them, waiting on
them under the tree while they ate.
---Genesis 18
This
story of Abraham’s visitors is the first example of hospitality in the Bible
and sets the tone for all believers for the rest of time. Hospitality is a key element in our ‘love of
neighbor’ that Jesus says is the second commandment. Hospitality is “the
friendly and generous reception and entertainment of guests, visitors, or
strangers.” (on-line
dictionary)
Throughout
the Bible, we see many references to hospitality:
33When an alien resides with you in your land, do not mistreat such
a one. 34You 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)
22You shall have but one rule, for alien and native-born alike. I, the LORD, am your God. (Leviticus 24)
9You shall not oppress a resident alien; you well know how it feels
to be an alien, since you were once aliens yourselves in the land of Egypt. (Exodus 23)
2Do not neglect hospitality, for through it some have unknowingly
entertained angels. (Hebrews 13)
Now, skipping down a few hundred
years, our Declaration of Independence
(1776) holds these words
We hold these truths to
be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their
Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and
the pursuit of Happiness.
Although there has been some
debate about the word “men” in this text, when one considers the sources and
times when it was written, we understand that it means “humanity,” thus
including all people who inhabit the earth.
In
describing The New Colossus, the Mother of Exiles, Emma Lazarus writes these
words as the last few lines of this memorable poem:
Your
huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The
wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send
these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
For
decades, this poem inscribed on the Statue of Liberty has welcomed countless
strangers, perhaps even your ancestors, into the United States. In keeping with the hospitality of Abraham,
the United States has been a welcoming nation opening our arms to the refugees
from oppression, fear, and death and those seeking a better economic life.
The
USCCB writes,
Although
Catholic theology has always promoted human rights rooted in natural law and
God's revelation, it was the encyclical Rerum Novarum (On the Condition of Labor) in 1891 that
developed a systematic presentation of principles of the rights and
responsibilities of people. Rerum Novarum commented on the situation of
immigrants; in later documents, popes and bishops' conferences have synthesized
the Catholic theological tradition to articulate three basic principles on
immigration.
·
First Principle: People have
the right to migrate to sustain their lives and the lives of their families.
·
Second Principle: A country has the right to regulate its borders
and to control immigration.
·
Third
Principle: A country must regulate its borders with justice and mercy.
Read the full document on the Bishops’
website
All of this brings us around to our Franciscan
charism. Article 13 of our Rule states,
As the Father sees in every person the
features of his Son, the firstborn of many brothers and sisters, so the Secular
Franciscans with a gentle and courteous spirit accept all people as a gift of
the Lord and an image of Christ.
A sense of community will make them joyful
and ready to place themselves on an equal basis with all people, especially
with the lowly for whom they shall strive to create conditions of life worthy
of people redeemed by Christ.
In
his piece from #FriarFriday—Welcoming the
Stranger (23 FEB 2018) Christian Seno writes
Just as Francis’ embrace of the leper turned what seemed bitter “into sweetness of soul and body,” the embrace of our migrant and refugee brothers and sisters will turn the bitterness of xenophobia and fear into the sweetness of justice and peace. For in welcoming and embracing those whom we consider the stranger and the least among us, we will be welcoming and embracing [Jesus].
Pope Francis encourages us “to overcome indifference and to
counter fears with a generous approach of welcoming those who knock at our
doors.”
In the debate of today’s environment, we are
challenged to remember these important principles as we formulate and express
our views. We must not cooperate with
the xenophobic paranoia that has clutched much of our population in its
grasp. We remember that we have brother
and sister Franciscans all over the globe:
66 established fraternities from Angola to Ukraine and 46 emerging
fraternities from Albania to Uganda. (CIOFS, 2014) [NOTE:
Clearly, in the last four years, these numbers have increased.]
So, as Franciscans, we continue to pray for our
brothers and sisters throughout the world who find themselves in desperate
situations. We contribute to
organizations like Catholic Relief Services.
We offer our friendship and services to new members of our community—all
who have moved whether from another state or country are the “stranger in our
midst” and could be/are Christ. We advocate for reasonable rules for safe
immigration into our country from other lands. We remember that the Holy Family
were migrants. We understand that, if we
have moved during our lifetime, we were migrants and remember what it felt like
to move into a new community and remember Abraham’s hospitality to the three
strangers.
On his deathbed, St. Francis freed his brothers by
saying, “I have done what was mine to do, may Christ now teach you what you are
to do.” (Life of Saint Francis, Bonaventure) May we learn from his example and welcome the strangers
in our midst.
Pace e bene
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