Caring for the widow, orphan, immigrants, and strangers. This is the Church's primal obligation and her claim to be obeying Christ's teachings. To use a more modern paradigm, it's the absolute minimum one must do to claim any spiritual benefits when it comes to calling oneself a Christian come the time we all come under Christ's eyes for judgment.
Yet people opposing the initiative of these two parishes and still think of themselves as being in good standing, exemplars perhaps of what God expects of his redeemed. Personally, I wish them luck come that day, for it's going to tough making an argument in that holds up and reconciles the differing dictates of God and Ceasar convincingly enough as the teaching in Matthew 25 to welcome the stranger into our community and homes imho.
Besides, how could one think themselves American and hold that the lesser dictates of a state supersede such a foundational Divine obligation as 'love thy neighbor' and 'love others as you love yourself'. To deny aid and sanctuary to needy migrants, widows, and orphans is pretty unrepresentative of the what's considered the best of American history?
I am not a Jesuit, nor do I claim to have been intelligent enough to have become one. But imho, those who argue that national immigration laws trumps (no pun intended) such a fundamental Christian duty as is offered to these migrants in San Fransico by the two Jesuit led parishes are wrong. (But being the Canuck that I am I repeat again... imho.) They would seem to have a poor understanding of what has historically been understood what it means to be the 'C'hurch, a.k.a., the 'Body of Christ on earth' to paraphrase St. Paul in his various Letters and Epistles. That's worrisome to as it belies that hey hold to an inflated opinion of the dictates and proclamations of princes, powers, and kings in lieu of divine commands. Clearly biblical teaching as understood for two millennia has proven the wrong place to be, in their humble opinion, of course. It seems to me that Jesus told his apostles and disciples that to believe and act in such a way as that was to stand on some pretty mealy foundations that would surely be washed away whenever a stiff enough storm passes by.
San Francisco's two Jesuit parishes declared immigrant sanctuaries | National Catholic Reporter
Besides, how could one think themselves American and hold that the lesser dictates of a state supersede such a foundational Divine obligation as 'love thy neighbor' and 'love others as you love yourself'. To deny aid and sanctuary to needy migrants, widows, and orphans is pretty unrepresentative of the what's considered the best of American history?
I am not a Jesuit, nor do I claim to have been intelligent enough to have become one. But imho, those who argue that national immigration laws trumps (no pun intended) such a fundamental Christian duty as is offered to these migrants in San Fransico by the two Jesuit led parishes are wrong. (But being the Canuck that I am I repeat again... imho.) They would seem to have a poor understanding of what has historically been understood what it means to be the 'C'hurch, a.k.a., the 'Body of Christ on earth' to paraphrase St. Paul in his various Letters and Epistles. That's worrisome to as it belies that hey hold to an inflated opinion of the dictates and proclamations of princes, powers, and kings in lieu of divine commands. Clearly biblical teaching as understood for two millennia has proven the wrong place to be, in their humble opinion, of course. It seems to me that Jesus told his apostles and disciples that to believe and act in such a way as that was to stand on some pretty mealy foundations that would surely be washed away whenever a stiff enough storm passes by.
San Francisco's two Jesuit parishes declared immigrant sanctuaries | National Catholic Reporter
Just as Christ's helping and healing some people on the earth in their suffering was not an attempt to end all human suffering, but as a sign of God's love for us and a demonstration of how we show love for each other, so are these two very Christ-like churches a beautiful sign of God's love for man and what our love for love one another should look like.
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