The Gospel reading at Mass today (Monday, first week in
Lent) is the Last Judgment passage from Matthew: whatsoever you do to the least
of my family, you do to me. It’s the passage that led me into an exploration of
Scripture and immigration. When Jesus said that we will welcome strangers and
meet the Father, or turn them away and go to hell, what did he mean by
“stranger”? We can figure that out.
According to an Australian scholar, Raymond Canning, this
passage was of the two passages that St. Augustine used as the take-off point
for understanding all of Scripture. (The other was the story of Paul on the
road to Damascus: “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” There too, Jesus
identified with people in trouble: what you do to them, you do to the Lord,
personally.)
Augustine spoke specifically about refugees pouring across
the Mediterranean: if you want to meet Jesus, invite a refugee into your life.
And Jerome also spoke about refugees on the shore of the
Mediterranean. Addressing the idea that we can sort them out, and welcome some
refugees while rejecting others, Jerome reached out for a rhetorical boost from
his favorite pagan writer, Virgil, who wrote about secure and snug citizens –
who watched human being drag themselves out of the savage sea into the hands of
worse savagery ashore, the savagery of smug and smiling self-righteous
rejectniks. The passage bursts with anger and contempt: Virgil can’t think of a
crime lower than inhospitality.
Jesus, Augustine, Jerome, and the Pope. Listen up!
