Fr. Ferdinando Colombo: Housing the Pilgrims
Actualizing the works of mercy through the eyes of Fr. Ferdinando Colombo
Migrants, refugees, economic migrants, refugees
The phenomenon we are witnessing is like a tidal wave, uncontrollable, starting from the South and East Mediterranean and crashing on European shores. There are those who advocate the need to erect walls and barbed wires, hiding behind economic alarmism and unfounded phobias. Those, on the other hand, work to welcome more human beings. The ruling classes, of course it would come to be said, appear not very united on the issue. Citizens, generalizing, are divided into two opposing factions. This drama will occupy the rest of our lives. It must therefore be handled, with special urgency and care. But without deluding ourselves that we will solve it by force. If we tried to do so, we would make it unmanageable. We would achieve to multiply casualties, not reduce them. There are no military shortcuts – naval, air or land blockades. (Lucio Caracciolo)
The drama of refugees
“The dramatic situation of refugees, marked by fear hardship and uncertainty is a sad reality. Refugees every day flee hunger and war in search of a dignified life for themselves and their families. They go to distant lands and when they find work, they do not always encounter true welcome, respect and appreciation for the values they hold. Their legitimate expectations clash with complex situations and difficulties that at times seem insurmountable, so we think of the drama of refugees who are victims of rejection and exploitation, victims of human trafficking and slave labor” (Pope Francis).
The poor, the homeless, the wanderer, the stranger, the bum, the one whose humanity is humiliated by the weight of lack and deprivation, of rejection and abandonment, of disinterest and estrangement, begins to be welcomed when I begin to feel his humiliation as mine, his shame as mine, when I begin to feel that the mortification of his humanity is my own mortification.
Then, without unnecessary guilt and without hypocritical good feelings, the relationship of hospitality can begin that leads me to do everything within my power for the other.
But it must be clear that hospitality first of all humanizes the one who exercises it because as Pierangelo Sequeri says: “he has not yet begun to be a true man who has not experienced pity for the wounded and debased humanity in the other.” (Trento Lungaretti)
One does not have to be a believer or even a Catholic to feel admiration for a man who kneels before other men and washes their feet. Pope Francis decided, again this year, to counter the sad “spirit of the times” and go to the reception center for asylum seekers in Castelnuovo di Porto, Rome. Here are “hosted” more than 900 people who have fled wars, terrorism, torture.
Many of them have a different skin color, pray to a different God, and the majority belong to the Muslim community. Those feet to be washed represent the geography of despair, social exclusion, the erasure of all rights and hope for the future. Francis’ “radicality” lies precisely in having chosen this place and these feet and to have done so while all around resound the winds of war, terror, and racism. (Beppe Giulietti)
In Jesus, God came to ask men for hospitality
Therefore, he posits as a characteristic virtue of the believer the disposition to welcome the other in love. He wanted to be born into a family that did not find lodging in Bethlehem (cf. Lk 2:7) and experienced exile in Egypt (cf. Mt 2:14). Jesus, who “had nowhere to lay his head” (Mt 8:20), asked for hospitality from those he met. By sending his disciples on mission, he makes hospitality, from which they will benefit, a gesture that concerns him personally: “Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me” (Mt 10:40).
The Church reiterates that sympathetic welcome to those in distress is a hallmark of faith. (John Paul II 1999)
We have long since become a multicultural society. Of course there are also problems in understanding and integrating foreigners. And there are limitations in a society in welcoming foreigners. Yet, as Christians, we must ask ourselves to what extent, today, do we respond to Jesus’ exhortation about hospitality and what would Christ tell us, today. The Word of Jesus is a constant challenge to us, and we must not immediately dismiss it with rationality. It is a goad that must be present in all our discussions about integrating and welcoming foreigners into our society.
We should not just wait for politics and saddle it with the task of integration. (Fr. Adolfo Antonelli)
The parable par excellence that proposes to us the model of welcome and hospitality is that of the Good Samaritan (Lk 10:29-37): a stranger, socially discriminated against, rescues a man – potentially an enemy – who is the victim of an aggression, heals him and brings him to shelter in an inn, where he receives welcome and refreshment. To welcome means to give a place to the other in one’s land, in one’s life, in one’s mind, in one’s heart; it means to give him “right of asylum,” to care for him, for his need to feel alive, loved and protected. After all, a man without a home is a man seeking “family.” Not only does Jesus make himself the neighbor of those who are considered strangers and foreigners, but he himself is the Guest of our story. That is, of our life. His story on earth is all a journey: he comes from the bosom of the Father (Lk 1:34-38) and in the stages of his earthly journey he points everyone to the homeland to which we are destined.
That is why he calls us to follow him. And when he states that his own are in the world but are not of the world (Jn17) he calls man back to his ultimate essence, to his being a pilgrim on this earth. Pilgrim is the human being in his journey through life and death, directed toward the Other and toward himself, to rediscover his most genuine humanity. (+ Bruno Forte)
PRAYER
God, merciful Father, who revealed Your infinite love to us in Your Son Jesus Christ, made man for us,
grant us to experience Your mercy so deeply that we ourselves may become witnesses and workers of mercy
for all those to whom You send us and entrust us.
And may Mary, mother of mercy, intercede for us,
to help us to live the works of mercy with faith and generous hearts, docile to the action of the Holy Spirit, breath of eternal Love. Amen.
+ Bruno Forte Archbishop of Chieti-Vasto
Online version of the book by clicking on “The Work of Mercy – Fr. Ferdinando Colombo – browsable”
Photo
- “Le Opere di Misericordia“, fr. Ferdinando Colombo