Pierre Ducharme, OFM
Merry Christmas! Behind these words is a beautiful, tragic and heroic story. Such is the story of born Leader, integrally powerful, consistently humble, merciful, and beholding an inclusive vision for purpose. Rejection and salvation, opposites held in tension, he is for the glory of God and justice to the poor. Christmas, in the end, is Good News.
Christmas tells a story that touches hearts. Joseph and Mary, with unborn child, fleeing Herod’s program of genocide only to find no room at the Inn nor an in anywhere else. Jesus is born outside, in an animal feeding trough. Christmas tells the story of an Incarnation. God becomes human in a world that has become so inhumane. Justice is at last proclaimed.
Christmas would tell a cute story if not so real. What Jesus’ family experience is no worse than the trials of those fleeing or enduring violence in Gaza, Ukraine, Afghanistan, Eritrea, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Myanmar and countless other countries today. But God be praised, today’s refugees are welcomed into safer lands. Or are they?
According to the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNRA), there are but five countries (Iran, Turkey, Germany, Columbia and Uganda) welcoming one-third of the world’s identifiable refugees. The North American intake is so small, it does not even measure.
In the aftermath of the recent United States election, where the victor pledges the swiftest deportation event in his nation’s history, the Canadian government announced a pause on all private refugee sponsorships until 2026. According to UNRA, Canada is the only country in the world to have a permanent private refugee sponsorship program. Introduced in the 1970’s, in support of Vietnamese “boat people”, Canada’s private refugee sponsorship program has welcomed just over 300,000 newcomers through 45 years. With the help of individuals, like my parents back in the day, churches, aid organizations, and some good Franciscans, Canada has been able to welcome and integrate refugee families swiftly and effectively. How many of our friends and neighbors came to Canada as children, growing to know no other home than this that their parents found for them here. Canada as a nation would have, in fact, little to boast about if not for a history of welcoming migrants – many through private sponsorship.
So, why close the borders now? Perhaps, for the same reasons that the people of Bethlehem closed their doors. Unfounded fears, created by cruel fiction about those who are fleeing. Or, perhaps, because it is, as always, less costly to close doors than it is to open them. I had someone suggest to me recently that immigrants are to blame for this country’s ongoing opioid and mental health crisis. All of the addicts I know, however, were born and raised locally. Many were raised within well-off, and long-established, Canadian families. Immigrants, meanwhile, are filling churches week after week, infusing our confused and purpose-wanting society with constructive habits and a fresh enthusiasm that grounds minds and feeds souls. For the good of everyone, Canada needs immigration!
The threat to Canada is not the newcomer but our own fearful and miserly heart. Christmas changes hearts, when allowed in. The world into which Christ came was cold, inhospitable, but our Lord was bold and determined. The anxiety that propels exclusionary, and therefore short-sighted, politics is baseless. But if God could be so bold, these hysterics too will pass. The Refugee may be welcomed again. A brave and generous Migrant-King is born today.
