Now after they had left, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is abou t to search for the child, to destroy him.” Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother by night, and went to Egypt and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet, “Out of Egypt I have called my son.”
Matthew 2:13-15 NRSVue
So, I'm baffled and perhaps confounded. Yesterday afternoon I wrote today's blog entry and set the time for early this morning. Click. And disappeared. I have no idea why, but here I go again.
Horrendous news out of Texas brought to mind an episode of Criminal, a British series which has been one of our favourites in the past couple of years. The premise is simple. Suspects for various crimes are in a police interview room and a team of detectives develop their strategies for interrogation. Criminal has episodes from France and Spain, as well as the UK but the interview room is essentially the same in each country.
The one that I thought of focussed on a lorry or transport truck driver suspected of bringing a load of migrants into the country illegally. The truck has gone missing, it's the cold of a British winter, and officials are anxious to rescue these people before they perish. But the driver is reluctant to incriminate himself by revealing the location and claims he had no idea that children the age of his own might be in the vehicle. It's well worth watching.
Near San Antonio a couple of days ago a worker heard cries from a trailer and when it was opened the bodies of dozens of migrants were found. A total of 51 people from Central America and Mexico perished, only 12 survived. The sad reality is that we hear similar stories on a regular basis from around the world. Desperate human beings take the risk of being smuggled in unventilated vehicles, in unseaworthy boats, on foot through dangerous territory towards borders. They usually have no prospects in a new land yet there is a faint hope that life will be better. The choice to do this is beyond the ken of most of us, even if we come from families whose forebears emigrated from other parts of the world.
I don't want to become inured to these stories, as unsettling as it is to hear them. Today we can pray for the families of those who died in Texas seeking something better. I'll pray that we in wealthier nations not harden our hearts to those who are fleeing economic privation and political terror. We can also remember those who provide support to refugees and migrants, often as part of religious organizations which hold the conviction that caring for the poor, the sick, the outcast is a gospel imperative.
Here is a paragraph from a New York Times report on this grim situation:
The president of Catholic Charities in San Antonio, J. Antonio Fernandez, visited two of the migrant survivors at University Hospital on Monday night. One, identified by the hospital as a 23-year-old woman, managed to open her eyes when he entered the room. “We asked her if we could pray with her, and she nodded her head yes,” Mr. Fernandez said. “She could not speak. We asked her if she was from Guatemala and she moved her head yes. She had been through hell. All we could do is pray with them.”
Refugees: La Sagrada Familia painting by Kelly Latimore
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