By Deacon Marlowe Sabater
Special to the Herald
“For I was a stranger and you welcomed me” (Mt 25:35). This verse from the Gospel of Matthew is at the core of the mission of the Apostleship of the Sea-Hawaii Ministry.
If you study the origin of the word “stranger,” it comes from Old French, “estrangier,” meaning “foreigner” or “outsider.” Indeed, during Jesus’ time, foreigners were considered outsiders to Jewish society and therefore deemed to be at the margins.
One of the modern-day “strangers” in our midst is the seafarer. Seafarers are those who spend countless hours working on the ocean: on cargo vessels, tankers, cruise ships and fishing vessels, in our case from our local longline fleet.
The majority of seafarers are foreign-born and therefore subject to issues related to migrant workers. Take our Hawaii longline fishermen working in the tuna industry, who are predominantly from the Philippines, Vietnam and Indonesia: They are legally working under contract with the owners of the longline vessels. However, current immigration policies do not grant them status; thus, they cannot go beyond the piers.
This limits their ability to form communities beyond their circle of foreign fishers, rendering them invisible to broader society and thus leaving them as “outsiders.”
Seafarers sacrifice a lot to earn a decent wage to raise their families back home. They endure being away from their families, which tests the limits of familial relationships, by being physically absent for extended periods. Although they are connected through digital media, that is not enough to fill their need to be in communion with their family back home.
They also face hard labor and the dangers of the open ocean in order to bring commodities to our doorstep, fish to our plates and entertainment for our vacations.
Sense of time becomes relative when you spend countless hours deploying and hauling fishing gear, maintaining and fixing equipment at the hulls of cargo ships or keeping the ship experience a memorable one. That is the toll they pay by the nature of their work.
Our seafarers in the longline fishery have very basic access to goods and services. They cannot just walk freely to the nearby store or drop by the nearest clinic — this must be mediated by the boat owners, who are primarily responsible for their care, and by local immigration authorities. Some foreign citizens have the benefit of a local consular office, such as those from the Philippines, while others have their nearest consulate in San Francisco, California.
As Matthew 25:40 says, “Whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.” As Catholics, we are called to encounter Jesus in the poor, vulnerable, marginalized and, yes, to the outsiders-strangers-foreigners.
Through the Apostleship of the Sea-Hawaii Ministry, we welcome the seafarers to become part of the family. We bring a sense of community by connecting them to their fellow countrymen. We build a community that cares for each other by ministering to their physical, emotional and spiritual well-being. We bring a listening ear to hear their stories; generous hands to provide for their material needs; affirming lips to give advice, offer prayers and support; and a heart to extend the love of Christ.
In the New American Standard Bible translation, Matthew 25:35 reads: “I was a stranger, and you invited me in.” We invited seafarers to join a larger family of faith and a community of love. And as members of that family, we ensure that they are called to recognize and respect their human dignity and the dignity of their work. When one part of the body of Christ is hurting, the entire body experiences that hurt.
We not only encounter them at the pier, but we accompany them in their journey, in their struggles and victory, in their sorrow and joy. We experience with them a community of encounter by meeting them where they are, at the pier and on their boats.
We celebrate the sacrament of the Eucharist with them, partaking of the body of Christ and being nourished as a community. We accompany them by sitting down in fellowship to partake of an earthly meal, strengthening our bonds as a community and developing a deep sense of belonging to one another.
We share the graces we received with seafarers, such as fresh fruits, vegetables or canned products, and they generously share what they have as well.
We worship together, but the ministry is what we do before, during and after the celebration of the holy Mass — because once we receive Christ in holy Communion, we are called to mission.
That mission is one of social justice, community building and integral human development. We are there to make the invisible parts of the body of Christ visible and acknowledged. We not only welcome “strangers” but recognize them as integral to the life of the Church and acknowledge them as an important part of society and Hawaii’s economy.
This is why Apostleship of the Sea-Hawaii is a diocesan ministry under the Office for Social Ministry. OSM ministers with people at the margins — in fact, all the people mentioned in Matthew 25:31-39 are vital to the mission of OSM: the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the ill and those in prison.
By accompanying them and sharing gifts and vulnerabilities, we discover how to be the body of Christ in communion with one another through caring for each other through emphatic compassion, by building the kingdom of God, of justice, peace and love.
Just as seafarers have a mission, Apostleship of the Sea-Hawaii accompanies them in theirs. Do you want to come aboard and join or support the mission? Contact Deacon Marlowe Sabater at mgsabater@rcchawaii.org or (808) 729-7053.
Deacon Marlowe Sabater is co-coordinator of the Apostleship of the Sea-Hawaii Ministry.