Anathema!

Thus says the LORD: "You shall not molest or oppress an alien, for you were once aliens yourselves in the land of Egypt. You shall not wrong any widow or orphan. If ever you wrong them and they cry out to me, I will surely hear their cry.  My wrath will flare up, and I will kill you with the sword; then your own wives will be widows, and your children orphans.

"If you lend money to one of your poor neighbors among my people, you shall not act like an extortioner toward him by demanding interest from him. If you take your neighbor's cloak as a pledge, you shall return it to him before sunset; for this cloak of his is the only covering he has for his body. What else has he to sleep in? If he cries out to me, I will hear him; for I am compassionate." (Exodus 22:20-26)

The LORD tells us: "You shall not molest or oppress an alien, for you were once aliens yourselves in the land of Egypt.” The LORD emphasizes: “You shall not wrong any widow or orphan.”  If we molest, oppress, or wrong, the LORD’s wrath will flare up and the LORD will kill us.  Strong words during these times when immigrants cry out to the LORD especially at our southern border.  Consider the following description: 

Under the El Paso program, begun in mid-2017, adults who crossed the border without permission – a misdemeanor for a first-time offender – were detained and criminally charged. No exceptions were made for parents arriving with young children. The children were taken from them, and parents were unable to track or reunite with their children because the government failed to create a system to facilitate reunification. By late 2017, the government was separating families along the length of the U.S.-Mexico border, including families arriving through official ports of entry.

On May 7, 2018, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced it had implemented a “zero tolerance” policy, dictating that all migrants who cross the border without permission, including those seeking asylum, be referred to the DOJ for prosecution. Undocumented asylum seekers were imprisoned, and any accompanying children under the age of 18 were handed over to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which shipped them miles away from their parents and scattered them among 100 Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) shelters and other care arrangements across the country. Hundreds of these children, including infants and toddlers, were under the age of 5.

Prior to the Trump administration, families were generally paroled into the country to await their immigration cases or detained together. (Southern Poverty Law Center: Family Separation Under the Trump Administration June 17, 2020)

The LORD’s command continues to fall on governmental deaf ears and on the consciences of all of us who stay silent.  Some might say these immigrants knew the risk; therefore, they reaped what they sowed.  Many of us would say this forced separation of children and infants from their parents flies in the face of our pro-life beliefs that go well beyond opposition to abortion. Separating infants and children from mothers with no assurance they will be together again, ever?!  Anathema!!  Whose cloak is covering the bodies of these children?  Where are they sleeping!?   They cry out for their mommas!  Do we hear them; are we compassionate?  Do we support politicians and government policies that cause this pain and suffering?

Our Gospel reads: When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them, a scholar of the law tested him by asking, "Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?" He said to him, "You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments." (Matthew 22:34-40)

If we support politicians' oppressive and cruel policies, then we do not love the Lord, our God with all our hearts, with all our souls, and with all our minds.  If we do not love our neighbor as ourselves, then Jesus was right.  We are hypocrites!  We must change our ways, and those policies.

Deacon David Pierce