Friday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time

Lectionary: 393

Or have you not read in the law that on the sabbath
the priests serving in the temple violate the sabbath
and are innocent?
I say to you, something greater than the temple is here.
If you knew what this meant, I desire mercy, not sacrifice,
you would not have condemned these innocent men.
For the Son of Man is Lord of the sabbath."


Despite the their understanding of a "wall" between religious and secular affairs, many Americans suppose that breaking the law is a sin; and conversely, if it's not against the law it's not a sin. This is at least part of the Catholic resistance to divorce, abortion and gay marriage. When the Supreme Court describes them as "rights," and they are widely accepted as normal, it's very difficult to insist they are sinful. I suppose this is the logic people use to oppose "illegal immigration." But human beings have been moving about the Earth since they first appeared in Africa. Clever and highly adaptable to every sort of climate, from polar cold to equatorial heat, from swamps, plains, deserts, and valleys to mountains, human beings move readily to safer, more promising locales where they might raise their children and pass their final years in peace. 
Perhaps it is predictable that our Christian religion with its Jewish roots, teaches us to welcome immigrants even when we fear shortages. Our history begins with migrations, especially the Exodus from Egypt and the Jewish diaspora. The Christmas story echoes those events with the Holy Family's escape into Egypt; and their return, not to Bethlehem but to Nazareth. 
And then Jesus sends us to make disciples of all nations, a commission to migrate! It's in our spiritual genes. When I had the chance to speak to a Catholic congregation in Ireland I thanked them for sending their sons and daughters, both clerical and lay to America. They built our Church despite the opposition of American nativists. (Louisvillian Catholics remember the anti-Irish, Know-nothing riots.) 
Nativists will always oppose migrants; and, like the Pharisees, they'll appeal to their religious beliefs for support. That comes with the concupiscence of original sin. That's no surprise. 
But their Bible verses will always be trumped by Jesus' word: I desire mercy! 
Illegal immigration might be a sin when it's not necessary, as some people and corporations migrate to avoid paying taxes. But the poor and oppressed will always find Jesus, Mary and Joseph travelling with them.