Called to Be Good Samaritans to Migrants
Submitted by Marguerite Thompson
(excerpt from Cardinal McElroy World Day of Migrants and Refugees Homily on Sep 28)
The Parable of the Good Samaritan is the greatest parable that Jesus gave to the formation of our moral lives and our understanding of bonds of community and sacrifice and embrace in this world. The most striking element of the Parable is not that the Samaritan took notice of the man who had been robbed, or that he was willing to sacrifice on his behalf or that he placed his own life at risk by stopping in a very dangerous location to see if help was needed. No, the most striking element of the Parable is that the Samaritan was willing to reject the norms of society which said that because of his birth and status he had no obligation to the victim, who was a Jew. The piercing insight and glory of the Samaritan was that he rejected the narrowness and myopia of the law to understand that the victim he was passing by was truly his neighbor and that both God and the moral law obligated him to treat him as neighbor.
In the very same way, for us as believers and citizens, our obligation regarding undocumented women and men is to ask ourselves: Are they truly our neighbor? Is the mother who sacrifices in every dimension of her life to nurture children who will live rightly, productively and caringly our neighbor? Is the man being deported despite the fact that he has three sons who serve in the marines because of the values he taught them our neighbor? Is the woman who works to provide home care for our sick and elderly parents our neighbor? Is the young adult who came here as a child and loves this nation as the only country he has ever known our neighbor? Is the undocumented woman who contributes tirelessly to our parish, caring for the church, leading the daily rosary our neighbor?