Last week, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the end of a program known as DACA, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, which could impact the future of nearly 800,000 young residents in our country. These young adults, collectively known as “Dreamers,” face the possibility of being deported back to their native countries. This prompted much protest across the country even from some Catholic bishops. It isn’t often that the bishops of our archdiocese issue letters, but this time they did and you will find their letter in this week’s bulletin.
Contrary to what many, including the Attorney General, assume, because they are undocumented, these young adults do not qualify for welfare or a green card, which is needed for citizenship yet they pay their share of taxes and serve in our armed forces. Nor can they stay in the program if they have a criminal record. In short, they are outstanding residents who seek to make a difference in our country.
I am not surprised to hear that some support this decision, claiming that these young adults have no legal right to be in our country, yet as Archbishop Jose Gomez of Los Angeles said, “It is not right to hold these young people accountable for decisions they did not make and could not make.”
The reaction of some is to criticize the President for being heartless for threatening to end this program yet what he is doing is responding to an issue that Congress has been neglecting for decades, the overdue humane and fair reform of our immigration policy. The failure of Congress to do so is what prompted President Obama to create DACA in the first place. His executive order provided a temporary solution to a problem that still needs to be resolved by those who have the sole responsibility to do so; for only Congress, not the President, writes the law in our land.
Moments ago, we sang, “If today you hear God’s voice, harden not your hearts.” Instead of hardening our hearts in reaction to the issue of immigrants, keep in mind one of the corporal works of mercy featured in our stained glass windows: soften your heart and welcome the stranger.
A hardened heart can’t feel, can’t respond, and can’t love. A hardened heart can’t experience sorrow, but neither can it experience joy. A hardened heart is a closed heart, so it can’t receive. A hardened heart is a barren heart. From a spiritual point of view a hardened heart is one of the worst things that can happen to anyone. We may have good reasons to harden our heart against one person, but we harm ourselves spiritually when we do so. A soft heart, on the other hand, is a blessing. Granted, being soft hearted makes us vulnerable but those who are soft hearted can respond with love and joy; bursting into life like a garden in the springtime.
One of my favorite comic strips has long been Peanuts. One episode made a lasting impression on me years ago. It concerned Linus and his big sister, Lucy Van Pelt. Linus had just told her that he would like to be a doctor when he grows up. ”You a doctor! Ha, that’s a big laugh,” complains his loud-mouthed sister. “You could never be a doctor. You know why? Because you don’t love mankind, that’s why!” As she walks away, Linus yells after her, “I do love mankind … it’s people I can’t stand.”
However you may feel about immigrants, if they are here legally or not, bear in mind the lesson we heard from Paul. “Brothers and sisters, owe nothing to anyone, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law…Love does no evil to the neighbor; hence, love is the fulfillment of the law.” Paul concludes that there is really only one commandment; it is universal and covers every situation we find ourselves in: the commandment of love. The other separate commandments of the law are simply illustrations of what love may mean in particular situations.
Notice that Paul is talking about love of neighbor. He is speaking of people with whom we are personally involved, those whom we meet and relate to in our daily lives. Our neighbor is anyone who needs us here and now from the panhandler on the street corner to the ill friend, from the young adult whose future is threatened by the repeal of DACA to the clerks you find in the local store, from the parishioner sitting alongside you to others in the ferry line.
Paul then makes the point that we are to love our neighbor as ourselves. We know well what we owe ourselves. We tend quite naturally to understand ourselves; being sensitive to our feelings; caring for our physical needs; protecting and respecting ourselves. What we mustn’t forget is that is the norm for loving others; to understand them, to be sensitive to their feelings, to care for their needs, to protect and respect them as well. Loving our neighbor as much as we love ourselves makes Christian love very clear and concrete.
Genuine love of neighbor refuses to collude with wrongdoing through silence or inaction. Dietrich Bonheoffer, a Lutheran minister executed by the Nazis, noted, “Silence in the face of evil is itself evil. God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.” Whether that means opposing individuals or governments, a society’s values or sinful economic structures, the challenge of these readings means Christians need to love enough to humbly speak difficult truths with courage. When we do that, we know Christ promises to be in our midst with us.