OFFICE FOR SOCIAL MINISTRY
By Father Robert Stark
Hawaii Catholic Herald
“For I was a stranger and you took me in … when you did it for the least, you did it to me. (Matthew 25:35)
When the young Jesus Christ spoke these words 2000 years ago, he gave us a simple template of what social justice looks like, and what it means to be missionary disciples of God’s tenderness and love. Currently, thousands of migrants continue to move in an organized caravan from Central America to Mexico and the U.S. border. Many of them are vulnerable young people, fleeing the violence, poverty and corruption in their hometowns of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.
How can we as a church accompany these — and millions of other vulnerable youth on the move — who are traumatized migrants, refugees, internally displaced persons, and human trafficking victims? The focus of this question has been sharpened at the Bishops’ Synod on young people, the faith and vocational discernment that just ended at the Vatican.
In recent presentations before Pope Francis, cardinals and bishops, two synod participants from the Pacific Islands shared their perspectives of how the above Gospel verse can be lived and shared. The first, quoted below, hopes for a church that “acts like Jesus.”
“In our work we see firsthand the commitment of young people who have found their vocation in serving and advocating for vulnerable communities around the world. It is our firm belief that our engagement with social justice issues is more than just a humanitarian function of the church, but is the very nature of Jesus, who both preached from the mountaintop and healed and fed and cried with his followers. This is a genuine affirmation of the vocational calling of many young people, and what we hope for in a church that looks, sounds, acts like Jesus: ‘When you did it for the least, you did it for me.’
“For thousands of years, my ancestors would sail from island to island across the great vastness of the Pacific Ocean. We relied on our elders, who read the stars and currents, steering us in the right direction. But to get the canoe moving required strong paddlers — our young people — who would power the canoe and eventually get us to our destination. On the journey, our elders needed to be sensitive to the concerns of their young crew, and our young people needed to trust our elders to navigate the high seas safely.
Central American migrants trying to reach the U.S. wait on a bridge Oct. 22 in Ciudad Hidalgo, Mexico. (CNS photo/Edgard Garrido, Reuters)
“Both understood the importance of this relationship because they were in the same canoe. So are we today. Whether it is sailing across the Pacific Ocean or navigating the great sea of challenges we are confronted with today — until we start paddling together by way of listening and equipping our young people with the tools to navigate the inevitable storms, our canoe will only float into irrelevance.”
The second Pacific participant focused on how the church can accompany vulnerable young people on the move:
“Pope Francis urges us all to respond to Christ’s call to ‘take the stranger in’ through four pastoral verbs: to welcome, protect, promote and integrate. We need practical ways of activating these four verbs to effectively accompany vulnerable youth on the move, at every phase of their journey.
“Before they migrate, we can listen to youth deciding to leave; discuss the dangers of migration with them; promote youth participation and leadership in church networks challenging policies that force migration; help youth prevent other youth from falling victims to human and drug traffickers.
“When youth are in transit, we can provide them shelter so they feel safe and not judged, involve local youth in support, such as meals with migrants. We need to limit the risks of all youth, and defend the vulnerable at our own risk, as the recently canonized St. Oscar Romero did.
“At each phase of their journey, young migrants pass through different dioceses but, from beginning to end, they can be in the same loving, caring church. Vulnerable youth on the move, who have been welcomed, protected, promoted and integrated by compassionate communities, can vitally contribute to pastoral ministries with other vulnerable persons, where we all can encounter Christ together. In accompanying migrating youth, we can encounter God’s loving presence through sharing vulnerabilities and transforming trauma, so every youth can hear Christ’s personal invitation to build with him a future full of hope and joy. ‘Whatever you did with the least, you did with Me.’”
More from the Bishops’ Synod on young people, the faith and vocational discernment in our next Talk Story column.
Mahalo,
From your friends in the Office for Social Ministry
Father Robert Stark, director of the diocesan Office for Social Ministry, is a voting member of the Synod of Bishops in Rome, Oct. 3-28.
A privileged laboratory
Here are excerpts from presentation at the Synod on Youth, Faith and Discernment of Vocation, October 2018, by Jesuit Father Michael Czerny, undersecretary to the Vatican Section on Migrants and Refugees.
“Vulnerable young people on the move may serve as paradigmatic for this synod and provide an important key to the church’s mission from now on. Why? Being young, youth are in a ‘not-yet’ state: they are not yet settled in adult roles. Being migrants, their situation is in flux. They face huge and unsettling changes in this world, changing at an accelerating rate, as do all youth; but being migrants and vulnerable, their situation is more acute.
“Dealing with the many challenges which vulnerable youth on the move face is a pastoral opportunity for the church. The church should be of help to them. But they can also help the church to discover and better understand the insecurities and aspirations of young people generally. This ministry can be a privileged laboratory in which the whole church learns to accompany the people of God who are undergoing rapid transformations today and probably even more so in the future.
“Young migrants who have been welcomed, protected, promoted and integrated by compassionate and passionate churches are likelier to see the church through the practical prism of the works of mercy (the church who offered me food and shelter and reassurance along the way, Mt 25: 35). They will discern acutely what Christian service or ministry means. Having experienced it very deeply — for many migrants, in life-or-death seriousness — they will hear the call of God to do likewise. This will be a special source of vocations, which will serve the people of God everywhere.”
