Readings (Year C):
Sirach 3:17 – 18, 20, 28 – 29
Psalm 68:4 – 5, 6 – 7, 10 – 11
Hebrews 12:18 – 19, 22 – 24a
Luke 14:1, 7 – 14
Reflection: We are called to make a home for the poor
God, in your goodness, you have made a home for the poor.
Today’s headlines, on the other hand, suggest that our country is not making a home for the poor, but is actively targeting those who, out of desperation, are coming here for a better life—and further demonizing them for being undocumented immigrants.
I live in the city of Torrance, just outside of Los Angeles. In my city, men in masks ostensibly representing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents raided a local car wash to potentially detain people of Hispanic origin. Also in my city, ICE detained a fourth grade student and his father, and went so far as to separate the child from his father during an immigration hearing.
Today’s scriptures are calling us to listen and learn whom God is calling us to defend and uphold in these troubling times. We must imitate God’s goodness by making a home for the poor, rather than denying them a home here.
The responsorial Psalm for this Sunday is a call to justice: The father of orphans and the defender of widows is God in his holy dwelling. God gives a home to the forsaken; he leads forth prisoners to prosperity.
A child and his father are taken from their home, separated, and detained. God is calling us to lead these people to the land God gives. The current notion of who deserves to be in this country is not aligned with the God whose priority is the oppressed. The creator of the land we live on prioritizes this land for the ones who are being detained and deported.
I believe today’s Gospel supports this theme: when you hold a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind . . . Jesus exhorts us to prioritize the outcast in our homes and in our lands.
The racist rhetoric that falsely stereotypes undocumented immigrants as criminals and a drain to our society is counter to the gospel. Even if immigrants were draining our country’s financial resources, Jesus makes it clear in today’s gospel that we must give to those who cannot repay us. But the truth is, those who come from other countries repay us and enrich us far beyond what they receive from being here. They bring their culture, values, love and support for family, work ethic, food, traditions, and especially their love for God.
Moreover, and this must be said: this is stolen land. We have no intrinsic right to declare who belongs here and who doesn’t. Those who stole the land never belonged here in the first place. In light of this, our country needs to submit to the call for humility the scriptures speak of today, by desisting from these harsh and invasive immigration practices.
Thus, we follow the example of God: giving to the poor a place they can safely dwell, and defending them against those who deny them their God-given right.
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