For those of us whose daily tool is no longer a badza or an axe but a laptop, the
first word that pops up when we turn it on is ‘Welcome’! There is a wide
spectrum in which that word occurs. At one extreme, like with the laptop, it is a
function of a business relationship – the equivalent of saying, ‘thank you for
buying our product. Come again!’ But it is the other extreme that we can
explore.
When does saying ‘welcome’ pass from being a pleasant thing to being one
which is extremely demanding? In holiday time, it is a joy to welcome family
and friends to our home. We prepare a nice room, design pleasant meals and
plan some entertainment for our visitor. We enjoy their enjoyment of our efforts.
There are, inevitably, some visitors we would rather not receive as they are
prickly or difficult in some way and demand huge patience from us. But still,
we rouse ourselves to make the best of it and hope they do not notice our
irritation. But let us get to the point; there are people who come into our lives
who are going to upset us, not just for a few days, but permanently.
Immigrants in the past have often been welcomed as they provided labour and
initiative. The United States of America was built on welcoming people fleeing
hardship and persecution in their own countries. Britain’s railways and bridges
were often built by Irish people fleeing hunger and poverty in their own land. It
is a sensitive thing to say, but Zimbabwe too benefited economically for a while
from the ‘know-how’ of people from Europe.
But all these examples carried a downside where the immigrant could be
oppressed – or become an oppressor – in their new country. That was the past.
Now we have a new situation where immigrants the world over are by and large
unwelcome. Countries claim they cannot absorb them and some go to
extraordinary lengths to discourage them. Britain wants to export ‘illegal’
immigrants to Rwanda.
The crisis points to the huge disparity between rich countries and poor. It also
calls for a leap in imagination and an open heart; a recognition that to welcome
another may change my whole life AND the recognition that this change will
benefit ALL of us in the end. How? It is not obvious. The gospels do not go into
details. They simply say, ‘anyone who looses his life for my sake will find it.’
The rest is up to us. My own little experience was when I was led to understand that people living with mental disabilities had desires just like all of us and had their own gifts to share with any one who would welcome them.
2 July 2023 Sunday 14 A Zech 9:9-10 Rom 8:9-13 Mt 11: 25-30
By Fr David Harold-Barry SJ
English