In the Beatitudes, Jesus himself gives us the blueprint of how God desires to co-create the world with us. "Blessed are those who hunger for justice," he says,"for they shall be satisfied." Franciscan Fr. Richard Rohr explains,
"The Jesus of John’s gospel says, “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.” (13:34). The symmetry between the message of Jesus and the testimony of the post-Easter community is striking: love one another because the character of God as known in Jesus is love.
"We move from how Jesus saw the character of God to how he saw the passion of God. God’s character and passion are not separate, but closely related, just as they are in people. Our passion—our dedicated devotion, our consuming interest, our concentrated commitment—is a major indicator of our character, indeed, flows out of our character. So it is in Jesus’s teaching about God. God’s character and passion, what God is like and God’s will for the world, go hand in hand.
"God’s passion is justice. . . . As the social form of compassion, justice is about politics [the word “politics” comes from the Greek polis for “city”]. . . . Politics is about the shape and shaping, the structure and structuring, of the city and, by extension, of human communities more generally, ranging from the family to society as a whole. . . . Justice is the political form of compassion, the social form of love, a compassionate justice grounded in God as compassionate. . . .
"The way of Jesus was both personal and political. It was about personal transformation. And it was political, a path of [nonviolent] resistance to the domination system and advocacy of an alternative vision of life together under God. His counter advocacy, his passion for God’s passion, led to his execution."
John Dear, who has spent his life in a struggle against injustice, personalizes this for us:
" . . Jesus instructs us to be passionate for social, economic, and racial justice. That’s the real meaning of the Hebrew word for justice and the Jewish insistence on it. Resist systemic, structured, institutionalized injustice with every bone in your body, with all your might, with your very soul, he teaches. Seek justice as if it were your food and drink, your bread and water, as if it were a matter of life and death, which it is. . . . Within our relationship to the God of justice and peace, those who give their lives to that struggle, Jesus promises, will be satisfied. . . .
"How do we hunger and thirst for justice? By making global justice a priority in our lives. This Beatitude requires us to join a grassroots movement that fights one or two issues of injustice and to get deeply involved in the struggle. Since all issues of injustice are connected, fighting one injustice puts us squarely in the struggle against every injustice. As Martin Luther King Jr. said over and over again, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” Befriend the victims of systemic injustice, side with them, listen to their stories, let their pain break your heart, join the movements to end injustice, tithe your money to the cause, and commit yourself to the struggle. . . ."
On February 15, Jim Wallis, President of "Sojourners" magazine, brought a current unjust situation to our eyes - as well as the potential for a further miscarriage of justice if America does not speak out:
"For many years, the main parameters of the debate around a path to citizenship for Dreamers specifically, and undocumented immigrants in general, has been that it should be possible to hammer out a political compromise where some amount of undocumented immigrants, who have lived in America for decades, are granted legal status and a path to citizenship in exchange for additional funding and other measures that would focus on border security. This type of deal would in theory achieve a compassionate solution that removes the threat of deportation from currently undocumented immigrants, who have actually become Americans, and allows them to come out of the shadows and participate fully in society. In exchange, those whose main concern is preventing future illegal immigration could point to improvements in border security as the concession they won in exchange for compassion for undocumented people who are already here. The focus has been on the “Dreamers,” who came to America with their parents when they were only children and who already have made enormous contributions to the only country they have ever known. Their dream to join this nation is now up for a vote in the Senate.
"When President Trump ended DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) in September, setting up a deadline that is now only a couple of weeks away, many in Congress and the public felt that the move set the stage for this type of “DACA for border security” compromise legislation, which would have comfortable bipartisan majorities in both chambers. But every time such a deal has seemed close (which has happened multiple times in recent months), the most hardline immigration opponents, who also want to sharply limit future legal immigration, have flexed their political muscle, causing Trump to side with them and the xenophobic, and indeed racist, elements of his base over the overwhelming opinion of the majority of the American people.
"In his first State of the Union address, Trump made his support for DACA legislation officially contingent on not just funding for his border wall, but also on making deep cuts to legal immigration based on a rationale of putting “America First” and keeping Americans safe from terrorism and other crime, which this president falsely attributes to immigrants who are actually more safe and law-abiding than average American citizens. A closer look at the actual effect of Trump’s proposed policies, however, reveals that the changes he wants to make to legal immigration have nothing to do with keeping Americans safe, and instead aim to slash legal immigration levels by 30 to 50 percent. Such a cut would prolong a white demographic majority in the United States by up to 5 years compared to changing demographic trends under current law. That is not a coincidence; it is direct and deliberate racism turned into public policy, which is a core commitment of Trump’s administration. That is a fact that must be named and held accountable to Christian faith.
"A closer look at what the actual policy changes are that Trump is proposing reveals them to be profoundly at odds with American ideals, family values, and most importantly, our convictions as Christians. First, let’s look at the issue of family reunification, which Trump and his allies derisively call “chain migration.” The language Trump used in the State of the Union was positively Orwellian:
"'The fourth and final pillar protects the nuclear family by ending chain migration. Under the current broken system, a single immigrant can bring in virtually unlimited numbers of distant relatives. Under our plan, we focus on the immediate family by limiting sponsorships to spouses and minor children. This vital reform is necessary, not just for our economy, but for our security, and our future'
"To understand the context, current law allows U.S. citizens (including newly naturalized citizens) to petition to obtain green cards for their spouses, children, siblings, and parents — that’s immediate family. There is a quota for how many family reunification green cards can be issued in any given year, and as a result the wait under current law can already be quite long. Trump’s absurd attempt to redefine the nuclear family by calling parents, siblings, and adult children “distant relatives” is a direct attack to the institution of family. The American story is one of immigrants arriving to the United States, establishing themselves, and later bringing their families to join them. This story is true for many of the politicians debating this issue in Congress this week. It’s also the primary mechanism of current legal immigration.
"The other “pillar” of Trump’s assault on legal immigration is ending the diversity visa lottery, which provides 50,000 green cards annually to people of countries that have been underrepresented in immigration to the U.S. in previous years. About 14.5 million people apply for these 50,000 visas each year, so the odds of selection are poor to begin with. In addition, in stark contrast to Trump’s rhetoric, which implies that these immigrants are admitted without regard to security or skill requirements, those who “win” the lottery must still meet various educational and skilled work experience criteria, as well as undergo a rigorous vetting process that typically takes months to complete. Giving a chance for a select few immigrants to come to America from areas of the world that are poorly represented in the United States today makes our country a more diverse place, which we should see as a source of strength and a gift from God, not a danger to be eliminated.
"Trump’s moves in recent months to end the Temporary Protected Status of people from nations like El Salvador, Haiti, and Nicaragua means these people, who we admitted due to humanitarian disasters in their nations, will be forced to leave the United States in the coming months — again, many who have lived in and made enormous contributions to the U.S. with their families for many years. A bipartisan compromise that would have reallocated the diversity lottery visas to people who were formerly protected by the TPS program is what sparked Trump’s infamous, racist, and vulgar comments about people from “S-hole countries.” Instead, Trump said, he would prefer immigrant from “Norway” making his racial bias completely clear. The moral travesty of Trump’s words was not just their profanity, but their clear commitment for white preference in America.
"It’s undeniably true that our immigration system is broken, and both parties bear responsibility for that. That broken system is very complex, and making changes to the legal system would necessarily involve various trade-offs. Yet exploiting the urgency of the need for a permanent solution for the 800,000 Dreamers by using them as a bargaining chip to fulfill a Trump campaign promise and commitment to a white nationalist agenda is an insult to our Christian values and reverence for the family as an institution. Trump’s immigration policies are anti-family, anti-American, and anti-Christ. And it is time for all of us Christians so say so."
God's dream, God's passion, to create with us a world of love, justice, compassion, mercy, peace, and unity, surely includes the Dreamers and others like them. Please contact your representatives in Congress and speak up for them as Jesus would. Please hunger for justice! Seek justice as if it were a matter of life and death - because in this case, for so many of these brothers and sisters without a voice - it is.