Aliens – Homily for Oct 26
In the Exodus reading today we hear God telling his people:
“You shall not molest or oppress an alien,
for you were once aliens yourselves in the land of Egypt.
You shall not wrong any widow or orphan.
If you ever wrong them and they cry out to me,
I will surely hear their cry.
My wrath will flare up, and I will kill you with the sword,
Then your own wives will be widows
And your children orphans………….”
I think God means business. I think God is talking to us.
I know that God means this message for us in El Cerrito, 2008.
This fits in perfectly with the Gospel of Today:
“You shall love the Lord, your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the greatest and first commandment.
The second is like it:
You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.”
I think God means business. I think God is talking to us.
I know that God means this message for us in El Cerrito, 2008.
When you come down to it the “alien and the widow and the orphan” of the Exodus lesson is the exact same person as the “neighbor” that Jesus was talking about.
We do not have to go far to see some local aliens. Yesterday I was driving down San Pablo Avenue to get some gas and I counted over 40 men standing outside Home Depot waiting to be hired and anxious to work – any kind of work. These men do not want welfare or even social security. They want to work to support their families just like you and me need to work to pay our bills. Are some of them illegal???? Probably yes. However, when Jesus, Mary and Joseph left Palestine and fled into Egypt, they were probably illegal aliens in a strange country with a strange language. Joseph needed to work to support the Holy Family, in just the same way these men on San Pablo Avenue need to work to support their families in Mexico, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Peru and Colombia.
I went shopping in Safeway and wanted to pick up some fresh vegetables. I bought two artichokes from Castro Valley near Watsonville. I remember seeing Mexican farm workers picking these wonderful delicacies in the fields and I thank God for their hard work. Maybe these were the aliens of Exodus and we simply must not mistreat them and we must pay them just wages with medical benefits. We like what they do for us and we must be sure that we do not exploit their hard work.
I bought a bottle of Pinot Grigio wine and remembered how Latin America workers pruned the vines, tilled the soil and picked the grapes in Napa Valley. Without their hard work we would not have our tasty California wine to savor and enjoy. These too are our alien sisters and brothers.
I went to the hospital to visit one of our members and as I walked thru the emergency room I saw lots of sick people, mothers and fathers with sick children, the elderly and infirm. Many of these sick folks are here in the emergency because they cannot afford to pay for health insurance and this is their last resort. I think that if Jesus was here he would call these sick folks our neighbors, our brothers and sisters.
I went out to a restaurant in Berkeley, had a fine dinner and when we were finished eating the table was cleaned by an Asian bus boy. He did not make the salary that the cooks and waiters made, but he was trying to make ends meet. He was working to survive in a very expensive state.
What does all this mean????? I really believe that we Americans have to open our eyes and see who is providing our staples and our necessities. Our economy depends of the labor of millions of little people, Exodus calls them “aliens” and Jesus calls them our ‘neighbors.” Jesus loved the little people. Jesus was at home with the poor and sick and lepers.
The point of this homily is simply: Let’s open our eyes and see the poor around us. These are our neighbors. We must respect them. We must guarantee that they receive just wages and just benefits. We must really see them as our family, our sisters and brothers.
“You shall not molest or oppress an alien,
for you were once aliens yourselves in the land of Egypt.
You shall not wrong any widow or orphan.
If you ever wrong them and they cry out to me,
I will surely hear their cry.
My wrath will flare up, and I will kill you with the sword,
Then your own wives will be widows
And your children orphans………….”
I think God means business. I think God is talking to us.
I know that God means this message for us in El Cerrito, 2008.
This fits in perfectly with the Gospel of Today:
“You shall love the Lord, your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the greatest and first commandment.
The second is like it:
You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.”
