We cannot turn our backs on people fleeing violence, abysmal poverty, and hopeless circumstances who come to our shores and our borders “with anguish and hope.” We are called to be living witnesses of the Gospel to them, instruments of the mercy of God who “proclaim Christ through hospitality and welcome, compassion and solidarity.”
The Apostolic Exhortation that the Pope signed yesterday and that will be released on October 9 will, no doubt, exhort us in similar ways and in greater depth:
“Brothers and sisters, today a new missionary age opens up in the history of the Church.“If for a long time we have associated with mission the word ‘depart,’ the going out to distant lands that did not know the Gospel or were experiencing poverty, today the frontiers of the missions are no longer geographical, because poverty, suffering and the desire for a greater hope have made their way to us. The story of so many of our migrant brothers and sisters bears witnesses to this: the tragedy of their flight from violence, the suffering which accompanies it, the fear of not succeeding, the perilous risk of traveling along the coastline, their cry of sorrow and desperation. Brothers and sisters, those boats which hope to catch sight of a safe port, and those eyes filled with anguish and hope seeking to reach the shore, cannot and must not find the coldness of indifference or the stigma of discrimination!
“Mission is not so much about ‘departing,’ but instead ‘remaining’ in order to proclaim Christ through hospitality and welcome, compassion and solidarity. We are to remain without fleeing to the comforts of our individualism; to remain so as to look upon those who arrive from lands that are distant and violent; to remain and open our arms and hearts to them, welcoming them as brothers and sisters, and being for them a presence of consolation and hope.”
