From the Pastor's Desk | February 8

Gospel Reflection

Our Gospel today begins near the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount immediately following the Beatitudes (blessings) that we heard last week.  Jesus calls us to be salt and light.  What is up with these metaphors?  What do they mean?  Both have significant meaning.  

Obviously salt is used for preservation and flavoring.  We Christians are to resist moral and spiritual decay in the world around us thereby preserving what is good, true, and beautiful.  Our faith in Jesus Christ gives meaning and depth to human life thus giving flavor to our lives and the lives around us.  But, salt is also indicative of a covenant relationship with God (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit).  Salt would have been used in various Old Testament sacrifices.  In fact, salt was required in all grain and animal offerings (Leviticus 2:13).  Salt, therefore, also signifies the covenant we share with God.  It signifies its permanence and our fidelity to the covenant relationship.

Light also carries significant meaning.  Obviously light illuminates the unseen.  Jesus Christ is the light of the world illuminating all truth.  We Christians share this light by virtue of our baptism.  In the baptismal rite, the godparents receive the child’s baptismal candle lit from the Paschal candle which itself was blessed by the Easter fire.  Upon receiving the lit candle, the priest says, “Receive the light of Christ.  Parents and godparents, this light is entrusted to you to be kept burning brightly, so that your child, enlightened by Christ, may walk always as a child of the light and, persevering in the faith, may run to meet the Lord when he comes with all the saints in the heavenly court.”  As Christians, we are called to reflect the light of Christ - to be mirrors of Christ’s light in the darkness and ugliness of the world around us.  

Our first reading, taken from the fifty eighth chapter of the prophet Isaiah, expounds on these metaphors of salt and light.  How can we, as Christians, be salt and light for the world?  Sharing bread with the hungry, sheltering the oppressed and the homeless, clothing the naked when we see them, and by not turning our backs on our brothers and sisters.  

We live in strange times.  One of the important issues of the day is immigration.  That word, ‘immigration,’ has become a loaded word taking on various meanings, perhaps depending upon what side of the issue we fall on politically.  I hate that word “issue.”  I hate calling people issues because people are not issues and they are not problems to be fixed or solved.  Rather, they are human beings who, like all of us, long to be seen, known, heard, and loved.  

Jesus calls us to be salt and light for everyone, not just those close to us.  Perhaps, right now, there are two ways in which we can salt and light to the world around us.  First, I think we can begin by seeing people as people - immigrants, our law enforcement officers, Renee Good, Alex Pretti, our President and Vice President, those on the left, and those on the right…everyone!  It has become far too common, I think, for us to view everything and everyone through the lenses of our politics rather than with the mind of Christ and His Church.  It is so easy for us to put people into camps or categories - liberal, conservative, democrat, republican, immigrant, native, agitator, racist, murderer, criminal.  We’ve heard these words a lot lately.  God sees us all only as his sons and daughters.  Can we see everyone as our brothers and sisters?

Second, to be salt and light for the world around us means that we are people of hope! We just concluded a great Jubilee Year with the theme Pilgrims of Hope.  Are we those pilgrims of hope?  Or, when we watch the news, listen to our favorite pundits, or hear our elected officials speak do we fall into fear, anger, anxiety, and despair?  Jesus Christ has conquered this world.  He is not only the victor but our victor.  When I was working at Father Gabriel Richard High School, Sr. Sarah Burdick was one of the theology teachers.  She was always so positive, upbeat, and funny - even in the midst of tragedy and suffering.  She reminded me constantly, “God always wins.”  That’s the truth and that is our hope - God always wins!  Jesus is victorious over sin and suffering.  People of hope are not burdened by the news of the day.  Rather, they are uplifted because of the faithfulness of God.  Can we be those Pilgrims of Hope to those around us?  Or, do we drag those around us down by our fear, anxiety, anger, and despair?           

In light of the readings today, I thought it prudent to reprint here, with permission, an article that was first published in the spring 2025 issue of Focus - the publication of the Michigan Catholic Conference: 

The Catholic approach to immigration flows directly from Our Lord, who identifies Himself among the “least brothers of mine.” Jesus includes “welcoming the stranger” as a work of mercy He asks us to perform for the poor and the vulnerable — and in turn, for Him.

“It’s a basic thing about solidarity,” said Susana Chapa Vargas, coordinator for Hispanic ministry for the Diocese of Lansing and an immigrant from Mexico herself. “When we don’t show solidarity towards our brothers and sisters, that shows … the moral values that we really have. Are we really embracing the Catholic values, or not?”

Human dignity is not conditional on a person’s individual circumstances. All persons, including immigrants, possess God-given dignity regardless of their legal status within a country.

In recognizing the human dignity of the migrant, the Church is not offering support for illegal immigration. Rather, the Church calls on Catholics, and all people of goodwill, to respond to the needs of the individual person regardless of how he or she arrived. This is reflected in the Church’s work through its charitable agencies — including those in Michigan — to meet the humanitarian needs of migrants.

It also is important to recognize that immigrants and refugees are among the most vulnerable members of society, and that Catholic social doctrine places emphasis on caring for the most vulnerable.

“In the case of pregnancy, who’s the most vulnerable? Well, the pregnant woman is vulnerable, and her unborn child even more vulnerable,” said Fr. Wayne Dziekan, vicar for Hispanic ministry for the Diocese of Gaylord. “Okay, so we look at immigration, who’s the vulnerable? … The vulnerable is going to be the immigrant, the person who is seeking to come in or has come in.”

In Dignitas Infinita, a recent Vatican document on human dignity, it is noted that migrants “are among the first victims of multiple forms of poverty,” as their dignity is first “denied in their home countries.” The Church teaches that individuals have a natural right to migrate when the conditions for dignified living are absent in their place of origin. For Carmen and her family, their lives were at risk. For many others, poor economic conditions make it impossible to support themselves. In either case, many migrants have no choice but to find refuge elsewhere.

“They’ve come to the United States, not because they thought, ‘Oh, this is something I’ve always wanted to do.’ They were forced out of the place where they lived,” said Lesley Glennon, who since 1997 has led the immigration law clinic for Catholic Charities of Ingham, Eaton and Clinton counties within the Diocese of Lansing. “If they had the chance — everything being equal — of course they would stay where they grew up.”

Daris, who migrated here with her two daughters from Guatemala, listed several factors for why she had to leave. Not only did she escape from a domestic violence situation that was threatening her family, but the poor economic conditions also made it challenging to lead a stable life, exacerbated by the medical expenses incurred by one of her daughters, who suffers from Rickets disease.

Since coming to the U.S., Daris’ daughter has undergone one surgery and is awaiting a second procedure. Because of that, the authorities have allowed Daris and her family to stay in Detroit, where she lives and works. Her initial request for asylum was denied and she at one point was facing deportation.

“We go every year and have to sign papers with immigration so that they’ll let us stay for another year,” she said through a translator.

The uncertainty that Daris lives with is one reason why the Church’s support of providing immigration legal services has a charitable dimension to it.

“They’re here trying to survive, and one of the things that helps them to survive is to assist them to at least know that whatever else may be going on with employment [or] schooling for their kids, they don’t have to worry about, ‘Am I going to have to leave next month and be shipped back where I came from, where people want to kill me?” Glennon said.

While migrants attest to the better conditions they find in the U.S., the challenges they face do not end upon arrival. Dignitas Infinita notes that in their new home, migrants’ lives are “put at risk because they no longer have the means to start a family, to work, or to feed themselves.”

Undocumented individuals are among the most vulnerable of society, often forced to live in the shadows because of the fear of deportation and having to return to the dangers or hardships they were trying to escape.

“We do have a lot of people coming here for safety reasons, so they’d rather live in a country with nothing, and no documents, and no way to get legal employment … than staying in their country where they could potentially come across harm or death,” said Samantha Lindberg, program director of the Immigration Assistance Program for Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Kalamazoo.

This is not something most Americans can fathom, though imagine having to flee to another country to protect your family and trying to establish a new life — finding housing, a job to afford food and necessities, schooling and healthcare for children — without knowing the language or the laws. This is where the Church, through the members of the Body of Christ, has proved crucial in the lives of immigrants who needed the help of others to find their footing here.

“I think it’s really important to have the Church help because we come without knowing our rights, without knowing the laws, and really without knowing where to turn,” Daris said.

One example of the Church’s support for migrants is through the work of Strangers No Longer, a Catholic-affiliated group in Michigan that helps immigrants through its “circles of support” that form in parishes and other communities.

For Daris, the group has connected her with legal resources, provided transportation to her daughter’s medical appointments, and found her a psychologist to work through the various traumas she’s faced.

Carmen attributes Strangers No Longer — named for the joint pastoral letter authored by the U.S. and Mexican bishops in 2003 — for helping her family plug into their parish and finding an apartment for them.

“It’s really nice to have these circles of support, because it’s people who are organized and are [helping] someone in need,” she said.

Another individual who has benefited from the group’s assistance is Felipe, who left Mexico to escape the violence of the cartels and to seek better healthcare after his wife suffered a miscarriage.

Felipe found work in Michigan, but was injured on the job, leaving him unable to support himself for several months. To make matters worse, his wife’s tourist visa expired, forcing her return to Mexico and leaving him alone in Michigan as he awaits surgery.

“I reached a point where I hit bottom and I didn’t know what to do,” he said through a translator. He eventually found Strangers No Longer, which is trying to get his surgery arranged in addition to connecting him to their community of support.

“Thanks to Strangers No Longer, I’ve been able to survive all this,” he said.

By encouraging care for migrants, the Church is not calling on Catholics to support illegal immigration or open borders. Church teaching has been clear for decades that nations have the right to regulate migration, and that migrants should obey the laws of the country they enter.

As with any other cultural or public policy issue, the call to the faithful is to form their consciences and beliefs based on the social teachings of Christ.

“Our opinions … as Catholics should not be based on political ideology,” Fr. Dziekan said. “It should be based on our faith. It should be based on finding Christ in the other.”

The job of the people of faith is to lift others up, Fr. Dziekan said. Believers are called to first recognize “Christ in front of me” rather than labeling immigrants based on their status, and that starts within each individual’s heart.

“If we’re serious about seeing Christ in our neighbor, if we really believe that, but we find that we are angry at a person who does not have legal status … then we don’t know Jesus Christ,” Fr. Dziekan said.

The experiences of migrants forced to leave their homes to find refuge here is an invitation to Catholics — particularly amidst the national dialogue around immigration — to first empathize with their migrant brothers and sisters.

“The people we serve, they’re just like you,” Glennon said of her immigrant clients. “The things that you want in your life, it’s the same thing, what they want … so it’s not some ‘other.’ It’s us.”