The Catholic Standard & Times - Guest Columnist - In Advent, called to something profound, Christ-centered

In Advent, called to something profound, Christ-centered

Guest Columnist
By MSGR. Hugh J. Shields

No room in the inn. These words are closely associated with the culmination of the Advent season — when Christ crossed the border, or frontier, that separated Divinity and humanity, and became the God-man dwelling among us.

Christ’s redeeming birth into poverty, racial discrimination, into a lack of social status, into a world that had trouble making room and space for Him from the very beginning, is the celebration for which Advent directs and harnesses our energies.

How is our world different from the time of Christ’s birth? How different are we from the inn-keepers of Christ’s time? How welcoming are we to the stranger among us?

It is appropriate and crucial during this season of Advent, amid the public debate on immigration reform, to question ourselves — as we prepare to receive into our hearts and homes (and country) the Holy Family — to ask if we are preparing, as well, to extend a faith-filled welcome to our immigrant population, documented or undocumented.

The Catholic Bishops of Maryland in their November 2007 statement on immigration rightly state, “As Catholics, we must move past divisions and remain focused on the dignity of the human person and the welfare of families.”

They go on to say, “Illegal entry is not condoned, but undocumented immigrants are embraced.” To support that teaching, they cite the late Pope John Paul II’s World Migration Day message of 1996, wherein he emphasizes: “In the Church no one is a stranger, and the Church is not foreign to anyone, anywhere … the Church is the place where illegal immigrants are also recognized and accepted as brothers and sisters.”

Our society is repeating the refrain “no room in the inn” with raids on work places, deportation of parents (leaving children behind) accusatory vocabulary that inflames and foments prejudices, and re-emerging attempts to make giving food, water or shelter to an undocumented person, or taking them to a hospital, a crime. Our faith calls us during this Advent season to something much more profound and Christ-centered. Catholic homes, hearts, advocacy — not church buildings — need to be the sanctuary for our immigrant population.

Truly want to enter the spirit of Advent? Then log onto: www.justiceforimmigrants.org or www.justiciaparalosinmigrantes.org and you will find some challenging Advent season invitations.

Msgr. Hugh Shields is the Vicar for Hispanic Catholics of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.