Although it’s not the way many people think, being a people in hope requires work because hope just doesn’t pop into our lives. Hope is actually something we offer to people when we live the Gospel seriously. How do we offer hope to persons fleeing violence and persecution in their home countries?
Sometimes the violence they flee doesn’t fit the narrow confines of asylum law, and the best they can hope for is a limited form of protection. Others, like many Afghan refugees who entered the United States under a classification called humanitarian parole, hope for some action by Congress that will give them permanent protection.
Living the Gospel seriously means more than offering the gesture of hope. It means taking the time even during this holiday season to contact Members of Congress and Senators urging them to live up to the promise of America as the beacon of hope in a world that sometimes seems so hopeless.
Prayer for the Day
In this Advent Season, O God, you offer us hope
That the world we inhabit can change or the better;
But we know, O Lord, that it will not be transformed
Without our dedication to the life you call us to live.
Move us beyond the tinsel and lights we see around us,
And empower us to share your hope of freedom and peace.
In the name of the One who transforms lives,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.
Thoughts for the Day
A refugee is someone who survived and can create the future.
- Amela Koluder, Bosnian refugee, Norwegian innovator
The world wil not be destroyed by those who do evil, but those who watch them without doing anything.
- Albert Einstein, German refugee, physicist (1879-1955)
When an alien lives in your land, do not mistreat him. The stranger who lives as a foreigner shall be as the native-born among you, and you shall love him as yourself; for you lived as foreigners in the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.
Leviticus 19: 33-34