In his pastoral letter on migration, Bishop Mark Brennan of the Diocese of Wheeling Charleston writes,

Our Church recognizes that people have a right to migrate to save or improve their lives. This is because the earth is not our own creation but God’s. He has given us all a fitting place to live. As Scripture says: The heavens are the Lord’s but the earth He has given to mankind [Psalm 115:16]. … The planet belongs to all of us. We are all neighbors.

Migration as Teacher

Some of the most important lessons I’ve learned about faith I learned from migrants.

Many of our clients at the WVU Immigration Law Clinic have suffered losses and risks that no human being should ever have to face.

In their shoes, I can’t imagine how I would feel — distraught, despondent, fearful, bitter. Yet I see how they get up every day and go to work, care for their children, eat, laugh, and love.

And pray.

Migration and spirit

At times, we ask our clients how they manage the strain. Sometimes that’s relevant to their defense, but we also care and want to know.

Some have told us that they survive by getting on their knees and putting it all in God’s hands.

They don’t say it’s easy, and I’m not either. But they’ve been pushed to surrender in faith in ways that I have not and that no one would ever freely choose.

But we don’t always get to choose what happens to us. We do get to choose how we respond to it.

Choices

Maybe some of us must choose whether to surrender in faith even when we think we don’t need to.

That we have it all under control.

That our time will never come ….