Marianne Williamson & the Immigration Crisis (Sunday Homily)

Readings for 14^th Sunday in Ordinary Time: IS 66:10-14C; PS 66: 1-7, 16, 20; GAL 6: 14-18; LK 10: 1-12, 17-20.

The theme of today’s liturgy of the word is exile and deliverance from captivity. In its light, I can’t help thinking of all those refugees at our southern border and of Marianne Williamson’s wise and unique response in last week’s second Democratic Debate.

According to our readings, the immigrants and refugees our politicians want us to hate are exiles like the ancient Hebrews in Babylon. They are the victims of the rich and powerful as were the Jews in Jesus’ day, when Rome occupied his homeland aided and abetted by the Temple clergy. That is, today’s biblical selections say that the poorest and most vulnerable among us are God’s own people.

Yet incredibly, the richest and most invulnerable at the top of our contemporary social order – the very ones who crashed our economy, looted our common treasury, and escaped unscathed with the handouts we ourselves provided – somehow want us to believe that the poor exiles from their beloved homes in Central America are the cause of all our problems.

But remember: the home lands of these exiles from Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Nicaragua are the very countries whose economies our government purposely and permanently crashed in the 1980s. Then, the Reagan and Bush I administrations used drug money to finance illegal wars that ended up killing hundreds of thousands and replacing governments and social movements whose primary beneficiaries would have been the parents of those at our borders today. The latter are victims of the drug lords we established and supported during the ‘80s and who today are doing the same things they did 40 years ago – marketing drugs while terrorizing and murdering the innocent. I’m talking about the generals and other military officers who are now the drug kingpins.

That’s the point Marianne Williamson tried to make at the first Democratic debate. But no one picked it up. None of the other candidates elaborated on Ms. Williamson’s observation that today’s immigration “crisis” amounts to our government’s reaping what it sowed. The other candidates still haven’t seconded Marianne’s point. Instead, they and their interlocutors remain stuck in the same old, same old. They mouth the standard political platitudes while ignoring the shameful history that explains today’s headlines.

It’s been that way from biblical times and before – rich foreigners oppressing poor locals. Listen to today’s readings. Or, rather, read them for yourself. Here are my “translations.”

IS 66:10-14c
 
 These are the words
 Of Isaiah’s prophecy
 To all in captivity
 By Powers
 Foreign and domestic:
 “Your time of desperation 
 Is nearly over.
 You will soon
 Return home
 Like starving infants
 To Mother-Jerusalem.
 With hunger satisfied
 And prosperity
 Incredible
 Along with joy
 And comfort, comfort, comfort
 At last!”
  
 PS 66: 1-7, 16, 20
  
 Our liberator 
 From exile
 So kind and powerful
 Is the answer
 To the prayers
 Of captive people
 And a source of joy
 For the whole
 Human race
 And all of creation.
 No obstacle
 Can impede
 God’s destiny
 Of liberation
 Joy and freedom
 From oppression. 
  
 GAL 6: 14-18
 
 Yes, our destiny
 Is an entirely 
 New World!
 Where the world’s distinctions
 Are meaningless.
 Acting accordingly 
 Now
 Will bring 
 Everyone
 Compassion and peace.
 However,
 The World
 Crucifies us
 For this belief.
 Nonetheless,
 We’re called to
 Bear its torture
 And scars
 Gladly
 As Jesus did.
  
 LK 10: 1-12, 17-20
 
 Paul’s words
 Agree with Jesus
 Who sent 
 Thirty-six pairs
 Of “advance men”
 And women
 To announce
 (Like Isaiah)
 Liberation
 From oppression
 By powers imperial.
 Like lambs among wolves
 Like monks
 With begging bowls,
 They healed and proclaimed
 God’s Great Cleanup
 Of a world
 Infested by demonic
 Imperial oppressors.
 And it worked!
 Every one of those 72
 Cast out evil spirits
 Just like Jesus.
 (Despite powerful opposition
 And crucifixion.) 

Some have ridiculed Marianne's debate performance. However, that only shows how our country thought-leaders have become tone-deaf to biblical values. They consider them ludicrous.
 
 For me, that only signals the necessity of doubling-down on support for the only one in the crowded Democratic field who courageously insists on the values embedded in today's readings which identify the keys for solving the problems caused by "experienced" politicians. As Marianne says, those keys are love and forgiveness precisely for and of those the rich and powerful vilify.