We are all immigrants,
we are all His Children

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Alfredo E. Cárdenas is Editor of the South Texas Catholic.

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The New World was discovered, settled, developed, organized, built, sustained, maintained and replenished by immigrants. The first immigrants, which we later called Indians and later still Native Americans, were in fact not Indians nor native to this area but were part of the world's first diaspora that came across the Bearing Straits. They had no nationality, they were not illegals, they were not aliens; they were simply known to the Creator as His Children.

Later came the Spanish, the British, the French, the Dutch, the Scandinavians and others. None of them had "papers"," none came into any "port of entry" and none were turned away by border patrols. Some of His Children that were already here opened their arms of welcome, others raised their arms in defense and others still resisted their advances with anger and anguish. But still they came and we are all glad they did for otherwise none of us would be here.

Other immigrants would come later-the Irish, the Italians, the Polish, the Chinese, the Japanese, the Germans, the Czechoslovakians, and many others. Many of these were greeted at the New York port of entry known as Ellis Island with the Statute of Liberty-the Mother of Exiles-offering her opened arms to other nations to "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

Too many of us have forgotten those prescient words. Why? Because we, His Children, have forgotten God's own words of love, in our greed and our fear we have strayed from his love.

God said to His Children, "When an alien resides with you in your land, do not mistreat such a one. You shall treat the alien who resides with you no differently than the natives born among you; you shall love the alien as yourself; for you too were once aliens ...(Lv 19:33-34)." Later he said to them, "Judge with true justice, and show kindness and compassion toward each other. Do not oppress the widow or the orphan, the resident alien or the poor; do not plot evil against one another in your hearts." But His Children " ... refused to listen; they stubbornly turned their backs and stopped their ears so as not to hear. And they made their hearts as hard as diamond ...(Zec 7:9-12)."

When the Son of God came to renew His Father's covenant with His Children he too became an immigrant, as his earthly father Joseph took him and his mother Mary and emigrated to Egypt for his safety.

When he returned and began his ministry he told a crowd that at the Judgment of the Nations his Heavenly Father would remind them that when he " ...was hungry ...you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me ... (Mt 25:35)," but to those who failed to provide for him he would say, " ...depart from me, you accursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, a stranger and you gave me no welcome ...you did not care for me...(Mt 25:41-43)."

None of us want to be in that latter group who failed to love God at the time of His Children's greatest need. None of us want to stand accused at the Last Judgment of having ignored his greatest of commandments, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength [and] You shall love your neighbor as yourself (Mk 12:30-31)."

Let us be a nation like the natives of Malta during that cold winter in the first century when they showed Paul and his followers of Christ "...extraordinary hospitality; they lit a fire and welcomed all of us ...(Acts 28:2)." That is what the Mother of Exiles proclaims on our shores.

That is what the Creator wants from His Children.