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Perspective: Escaping a ‘riptide’ — A Catholic response to the immigration debate

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By Mary Joy Cunningham

Like many people  who grew up in San Diego, I was taught as a kid what to do if I ever got caught in a riptide: Don’t spend your energy swimming against the strength of the current, but also don’t let the current pull you out to deep water — both responses that can lead to drowning. Instead, turn to one side, and start swimming parallel to the shore until you are out of the strong pull of the tide.

Sometimes polarizing, complex political topics remind me of riptides. It can be so easy to get either swept along with a current, or to become exhausted trying to directly fight strong political rhetoric (from one side of the aisle or the other) in a polarizing issue.

But, as Catholics, we know we are called to be the “light of the world” (Matt 5:14) and, as lay people, we are called to “seek the Kingdom of God by engaging in temporal affairs and ordering them according to the plan of God” (“Lumen Gentium”). In other words, we’re called to be more like a solid lighthouse than someone swept up by powerful currents. So, when we feel these strong tides tugging at us, how do we start “swimming to the side”?

Immigration is one of these “riptide” topics. It’s a topic where I see many good-hearted, faithful Catholics getting caught up in strong political currents. From more than eight years of personal experience working with immigrants in the U.S., and from conversations with other Catholics in this field, I offer three suggestions — three ways to refocus on the intrinsic dignity of the human person, three ways to start “swimming to the side” and escaping this riptide:

1) Interact with people as if they have the dignity we say they have

St. John Paul II said that “the evil of our times consists in the first place in a kind of degradation, indeed in a pulverization of the fundamental uniqueness of each human person” (Letter to Henri de Lubac, 1968).  In my work, I’ve been particularly struck by how individual refugees and asylum-seekers I’ve met have experienced this “pulverization” in direct, acute ways. I’ve also been struck by how simply recognizing someone’s dignity, and interacting with them in a way that demonstrates that recognition, can be a powerful counter to a prior experience of the “pulverization” of their dignity.

Here’s an example: Last year, I received a call through work from a man in an immigration detention center.  We had a few back-and-forth calls as I helped him connect to a community resource and, months later, he contacted me again specifically to say thank you for the calls. He shared about how he had fled his home country after being tortured by government officials, and how lonely and difficult the months in U.S. immigration detention had been for him. He also shared how simply having someone acknowledge him and express respect and care — even in such a small way like my few phone calls — was really meaningful. He kept saying it was like a “glass of cold water in the middle of the desert” for him.

We have opportunities every day to do small, yet powerful things that acknowledge individuals’ personhood and dignity — smiling and making eye contact, genuinely asking how someone is doing, really trying to “listen to understand.” As Pope Benedict XVI said, “Seeing with the eyes of Christ, I can give to others much more than their outward necessities; I can give them the look of love which they crave” (“Deus Caritas Est).

2) Be open to receiving others’ self-gift

Interestingly, when we encounter people who are in need and/or are different from us, we can easily forget that they have something to offer us. But being open to receiving the self-gift of another can actually be a way of acknowledging their personhood and dignity; acknowledging that they are a person like me.

Here’s what I mean: I have learned that sometimes my clients’ examples of faith, conviction and courage can be profoundly impactful in my own life.  I think especially of an asylum-seeker client I worked with who had a history of intense suffering and persecution that effectively spanned her life since childhood. In the midst of all of it, she had discovered the Christian God and developed a deep faith, even when embracing that faith resulted in more persecution. When she became pregnant and refused to have a forced abortion, she escaped and, in a very real sense, “went to the ends of the earth” to protect her unborn baby. As a person who tries to live out my own faith and someone who believes in the dignity of the unborn, this client’s story continues to inspire me; I think of it when I am facing something hard, and I find myself desiring to follow her example.

As Pope Francis acknowledged about migrants and refugees, “their witness of faith … can bring a new energy and life to communities of ancient and Christian tradition, and invite others to encounter Christ and to come to know the Church” (Message for the 2013 World Day of Migrants and Refugees).

We might be used to thinking about mutual self-giving especially in the context of the family, but we can practice it with people outside of our normal circles, too. Participating in a Mass or Catholic devotion of a different cultural group than my own, volunteering with people I don’t normally have contact with, or sharing a “potluck” meal with a new family in my parish or neighborhood are all simple ways to put myself in a position to practice mutual self-giving.

3) Pray and reflect

Finally, and most importantly, we should stay rooted in Christ through prayer, and let our response to others flow from Him.

Have you ever thought about how much value God sees in the individual human person? It can be pretty mind-blowing when you start breaking it down. We’re each created in the image and likeness of God. And God sees each of us as “worth” His love, so much so that He took on human nature, went through torture, and died because He wanted to be with each of us forever in Heaven. And He respects our individual freedom so much that He wants to let us freely choose whether we want to be with Him. And He gives us the sacraments and the Church to help us through life, especially accompanying us in this super intimate, tangible way through the Eucharist. And, as many of us have experienced, He knows us individually and draws us to Himself in the midst of the specific circumstances of our lives. This is the intrinsic dignity of each human person; a dignity based in His unconditional love.

I know sometimes this can be difficult to take to heart, for ourselves and others. Here is a simple prayer that I’ve found helpful: “Lord, help me to see people and love them with You.”

Like a riptide, the intense, political discussions happening around topics like immigration can be overwhelming. We might find ourselves being swept up by adopting political rhetoric and positions. Or, we might find ourselves getting exhausted trying to swim against the tide head-on by addressing all the stances we believe are incorrect. If we are going to avoid “drowning,” and if we are going to live out our call as lay Catholics to be a light in the world and to help “order temporal affairs according to the plan of God,” we need a way to “swim to the side.” Refocusing on the intrinsic dignity of the individual human person, based in Christ, can be that way — our way to escape this political “riptide.”

Mary Joy Cunningham is a San Diegan and lifelong Catholic who has spent much of the last decade working with low-income and vulnerable immigrant groups.

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