Make Justice Your Aim

Make Justice Your Aim

Monday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time

When you spread out your hands, I close my eyes to you; Though you pray the more, I will not listen. Your hands are full of blood! Wash yourselves clean! Put away your misdeeds from before my eyes; cease doing evil; learn to do good. Make justice your aim: redress the wronged, hear the orphan’s plea, defend the widow.  Isaiah 1:15-17

“Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me. Whoever receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and whoever receives a righteous man because he is righteous will receive a righteous man’s reward. And whoever gives only a cup of cold water to one of these little ones to drink because he is a disciple – amen, I say to you, he will surely not lose his reward.”   Matthew 10:40-42

Piety

A Prayer for Immigrant Children

Loving Father, in your infinite compassion, we seek your divine protection for refugee children who are often alone and afraid. Provide solace to those who have been witnesses to violence and destruction, who have lost parents, family, friends, home, and all they cherish due to war or persecution. Comfort them in their sorrow and bring help in their time of need. Show mercy to unaccompanied migrant children, too, Lord. Reunite them with their families and loved ones.

Guide those children who are strangers in a foreign land to a place of peace and safety. Comfort them in their sorrow and bring help in their time of need. Show us how we might reach out to these precious and vulnerable children.

Open our hearts to migrant and refugee children in need, so that we might see in them your own migrant Son. Give us the courage to stand up in their defense against those who would do them harm. For this, we pray through our Lord Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen.

Study

Whoa!  Isaiah pulls no punches in taking on the hypocrisy of the people.  Early on in his book (which is among the longest of the Hebrew Bible), the prophet Isaiah delivers a powerful indictment of the religious hypocrisy of rulers and others who neglect just judgment and oppress the weaker members yet believe they can please God with sacrifices and other external forms of worship. We should heed such words today.  The list goes on and on my friend.  For such sacrifices, the Lord has no tolerance.

We do not need physical blood on our hands. Oppression of the poor is likened to violence that bloodies the hands, which explains why the hands spread out in prayer might be ignored by the Lord.

All is not lost.  The prophet also offers some positive suggestions for reversing the status quo.

Cease doing evil.

Learn to do good.

Make justice your aim.

Redress the wronged.

If Isaiah delivers the stick, Matthew delivers the carrot with his focus on the rewards for doing good.  Again, Matthew has moved far away from burnt offerings as the sign of God’s reward. The path the reward is rooted in action.

Whoever receives you

Whoever receives me

Whoever receives a prophet

Whoever receives a righteous man

Whoever gives only a cup of cold water to one of these little ones to drink

Action

Whoever receives you, receives me.  Yet how prepared are we (really) to welcome the stranger in word and deed?  Or might we face the same charge of hypocrisy that Isaiah leveled?   

Although current events have pushed the plight of Central American refugees off the front pages and the TV news, thousands of children remain separated from their parents despite a judicial order and long past the court-imposed deadline for the government to grant relief. 

"As we have long done, CCUSA and Migration and Refugee Services of USCCB are lending our experience and expertise to support Catholic Charities agencies in their efforts to reunite families and care for immigrant children during this sensitive time. While we strongly oppose the policies that led to these families being separated, we remain committed to working to ensure their safe reunification. Protection of families is a foundational element of Catholic Social Teaching and this moment calls on all people of good will to lend a hand to reunite these children with their parents."

To learn more about how you can help visit: Justice for Immigrants and Catholic Charities USA. . .

Five Ways To Help Stop Family Separation

(1) Pray: You can find a prayer for migrant children in the Piety section above.  This is from the Justice for Immigrants website.  

(2) Speak Up: Sign our Action Alert and share with your networks. Also consider contacting your senators and representative directly by phone to voice your concern. You can find the number for your representative here and your senators here.

(3) Take Action: Contact your local Catholic Charities affiliate to learn about their material/volunteer needs, consider fostering an unaccompanied child, or join the Share the Journey global solidarity campaign with migrants and refugees.

(4) Give: To support agencies that are helping families and children impacted by the crisis. (100% of your donation will go to the 21 Catholic Charities agencies assisting unaccompanied children)

(5) Learn More: To learn more about Family Separation, visit the Justice For Immigrants (JFI) “Family Separation Web page” to review backgrounders, educational material, and a webinar.

All families are Holy.  

Families belong wholly together.