ALL lives do matter, as every Christ-loving, God-fearing Christian knows.
Gregory of Nazianzen, a 4th century Saint and Doctor of the Church, wrote the following in his think piece titled “On love for the poor”:
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The basis for our responsibility to help others is our shared human nature, the identity as created in the image of God: “We must, then, open the doors to all the poor and all those who are victims of disasters, whatever the causes may be, since we have been told to rejoice with those who rejoice and to weep with those who weep” (Rom 12:12).
And since we are human beings, we must pay our debt of goodness to our fellow human beings, whatever the cause of their plight: orphanhood, exile, cruelty of the master, rashness of those who govern, inhumanity of tax-collectors, brutality of blood-thirsty bandits, greediness of thieves, confiscation or shipwreck.
“exile . . . orphanhood…”
“cruelty of the master…”
“the rashness of those who govern…”
What prophetic words given the ongoing, cruel treatment of poor and vulnerable people in the custody of the U.S. government.
Lord in your mercy,
Open the hearts, minds and hands of those American leaders too blind to see what their political leadership has wrought.
Open their ears that they might hear the cries of innocent, unarmed men, women and children, they who so fear the loss of life in their own countries that they are willing to risk the loss of life in long and dangerous journeys for the mere possibility of safety.
Open the eyes of these leaders that they might see how tearing loving families apart and caging even infants runs so utterly counter to your will, God, for love, mercy, fair and equitable justice, and peace on earth, good will to all.
Open their minds to working for creative, imaginative, humane solutions to a national immigration problem that can be worked out in accordance to your will, God, your over-arching will being love, peace, mercy and justice for all.
In the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,
Hear our prayer.
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