Make Our Dwelling with Him

Make Our Dwelling with Him

Monday of the Fifth Week of Easter

"Men, why are you doing this? We are of the same nature as you, human beings. We proclaim to you good news that you should turn from these idols to the living God, who made heaven and earth and sea and all that is in them. In past generations he allowed all Gentiles to go their own ways; yet, in bestowing his goodness, he did not leave himself without witness, for he gave you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons and filled you with nourishment and gladness for your hearts." Acts 14:15-17

"Master, then what happened that you will reveal yourself to us and not to the world?" Jesus answered and said to him, "Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words; yet the word you hear is not mine but that of the Father who sent me. John 14:22-24

Piety

Study

Jesus unlocks the door of inclusiveness. Paul and Barnabas hold it open for the Gentiles. For that, the First One gets crucified and the other two almost stoned to death.

The disciples assume that Jesus is revealed only to them and not to the world. Au contraire, says Jesus. Revelation is not the path to savior. Instead, Jesus announces that salvation belongs to “whoever loves me and will keep my word.” Jew. Gentile. Greek. Roman. Nationality does not matter. Race does not matter. Gender does not matter.

Paul picks up on that instruction. When he is chased out of Iconium by an angry mob, he heads over to Lystra and Derbe where he continues preaching and healing. Even the miracle of the lame man walking does little to bring new members into the young Church. First, they want to see Paul as the messenger from Zeus. When he refuses the accolade, Paul faces rejection (again).

The notes to the New American Bible explain that part of the first reading is from Paul’s earliest speech to the Gentiles. “Rather than showing how Christianity is the logical outgrowth of Judaism, as he does in speeches before Jews, Luke says that God excuses past Gentile ignorance and then presents a natural theology arguing for the recognition of God’s existence and presence through his activity in natural phenomena.” Faith, then, does not demand that a person passes through Judaism. It only requires that you love God and keep God’s commandments.

God has overlooked the times of ignorance, but now the Lord demands that all people everywhere repent. God established a day on which he will ‘judge the world with justice’ through a man he has appointed, and he has confirmed all by raising him from the dead.” Acts 17:30-31

This position also is supported in the Wisdom literature in the Hebrew Bible. “Foolish by nature were all who were in ignorance of God, and who from the good things seen did not succeed in knowing the one who is, and from studying the works did not discern the artisan.” (Wisdom 13:1). We overcome our ignorance through our piety, study, and action.

Action

A confrontation between people from different backgrounds was not new to Jesus, Paul or Barnabas…and it is not new to us.

In this CNS photo, women from Central America chat after arriving at a migrant shelter in Tijuana, Mexico, April 25. They are part of a caravan of legal migrants from Central American who crossed through Mexico to the border with the U.S., where they will present themselves to U.S. immigration and seek asylum because of increased violence in Central America. (CNS photo/David Maung). These families are fleeing violence in Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and elsewhere and are legally seeking entry to the US.

The USCCB website reminds us:

The Catholic Church in the United States is an immigrant Church with a long history of embracing diverse newcomers and providing assistance and pastoral care to immigrants, migrants, refugees, and people on the move. Our Church has responded to Christ’s call for us to “welcome the stranger among us,” for, in this encounter with the immigrant, the migrant, and the refugee in our midst, we encounter Christ.

A rich body of Church teaching, including Papal encyclicals, Bishops’ statements, and pastoral letters, has consistently reinforced our moral obligation to treat the stranger as we would treat Christ himself. In the 2001 pastoral statement, Welcoming the Stranger Among Us: Unity in Diversity, the Bishops of the United States called upon the Catholic faithful to a conversion of minds and hearts, imploring us to communion and solidarity with diverse newcomers, and entreating us to find new and meaningful ways to welcome our immigrant sisters and brothers into our parishes, schools and communities. In 2003, the Bishops of the United States, together with the Bishops of Mexico, in the pastoral statement, “Strangers No Longer: Together on the Journey of Hope” / “Juntos en el Camino de la Esperanza Ya no Somos Extranjeros” acknowledged that the current immigration system is badly in need of reform and offered a comprehensive set of recommendations for changing U.S. laws and policies to bring about a more humane and just immigration system in the United States.

The Catholic Church believes that current immigration laws must be reformed to meet our country's need for low-skilled labor and facilitate the reunification of families.

The Catholic Church believes that immigrants should come to the United States lawfully, but it also understands that the current immigration legal framework does not adequately reunify families and is non-responsive to our country's need for labor. Our country must pass immigration reform laws to ensure the rule of law in the United States, while simultaneously ensuring that the laws that rule are responsive to our economy's demand for labor, rooted in the reunification of the family, and respectful of the humanity of the immigrants in our midst. The Church supports immigration reform that would increase the number of visas available for low-skilled workers and facilitate family reunification.