A FUTURE OF JUSTICE AND PEACE

Photo: January 2020

The Pope had in 2019 declared that the World Day of Migrants and Refugees (WDMR) would be celebrated on the last Sunday of September. Initially, the Universal Church celebrated WDMR in January, a week after the feast of the Epiphany. The celebration of WDMR expresses of our concern for the many challenges faced by migrants and refugees and we continue to pray for them as we place them at the core of our hearts and Church.

This year we celebrate the 107^th WDMR which falls on 26 September 2021. The Holy Father, Pope Francis, has chosen a theme: Towards an Ever Wider, ‘WE’”. The Pope says “that we are all in the same boat and called to work together so that there will be no more walls that separate us, no longer others, in terms of ‘them’, ‘those’, but only ‘us’ – in a single ‘we’ – (Fratelli Tutti, no. 35). They are no longer others but they part of our families and communities, co-workers and buddies. Their children are studying together with our own children. Some of them are looking after our elderly and sick, and they also work with us in our farms, factories, offices, etc. The Holy Father encourages us to walk together with them without creating any wall or separation with them and “grow stronger and healthier together” as one “Body of Christ,” (1 Cor 12:27). 

Some of these immigrants, refugees and asylum-seekers have entered our country with proper documentation while others have arrived here without any. They left their countries due poverty, violence, wars, natural disasters, political chaos, and some others came looking for opportunities to survive, to get shelter, and for a better life. That is why the Holy Father appeals to us to build a single “we” as we journey together and build together one human family with a better future ensuring that no one is left behind. He desires us “to cultivate communion in diversity” and “to learn to live together” as one home, one family and one Church, the Body of Christ.

 

In his letter on the occasion of WDMR, the Holy Father addressed the Catholic faithful and all people in the world, he made a plea for everyone to “walk together an ever wider ‘WE’” to embrace everyone and everything,” “to heal the wounded and seek out the lost.” The Holy Father encourages us to be “aware of the interconnectedness of our lives” and “our responsibility to respond to them as good neighbours”. It is a time for us to dream together, “as a single human family” and together we pray the prayer below as we “build together a future of justice and peace,” without leaving anyone behind.

Photo: January 2020

Prayer

Holy, beloved Father, 
your Son Jesus taught us 
that there is great rejoicing in heaven 
whenever someone lost is found,
whenever someone excluded, rejected or discarded 
is gathered into our “we”,
which thus becomes ever wider.

We ask you to grant the followers of Jesus, 
and all people of good will,
the grace to do your will on earth.
Bless each act of welcome and outreach
that draws those in exile
into the “we” of community and of the Church,
so that our earth may truly become
what you yourself created it to be:
the common home of all our brothers and sisters. Amen.

(An Extract from the message of Pope Francis for the 107^th World Day of Migrants and Refugees 2021)