Children
This will most likely not be my most poetic writing. In fact I am struggling to find words that somehow might matter, might connect, might help make sense of things, might even change some hearts and minds.
We just returned from Nativity Youth Camp. 105 years of some youth camp experience at the Cathedral is just an overwhelming thought really. The demographics of the camp leaned younger this year. There were lots of little children, which was really fantastic. It also meant that counselors and adult staff had just a little more work to do. There was more reassuring, there was more getting young ones through episodes of homesickness. There was important work of helping little ones feel safe and secure. There was help with making sure showers were taken, tooth brushes accounted for and used, that clean clothes were available and worn, and this year especially, that dry shoes and socks be secured and worn.
Little ones at camp bring an extra joy actually. There is a reason Jesus placed a small child in the midst of his disciples when they tried to exclude. It is because at the core, God created us all to be children. Pure, open to imagination, loving by nature, and of course vulnerable. Yes, vulnerable. Vulnerability allows for others to come and to love. Isn’t this why we adults rally to a child in need? I watched last week teenagers carry, love, read to, calm, reassure, play with, love little children. Here is a truth! If any of those little ones were in any need or trouble there would be one response- To lovingly help them! We do that so wonderfully at Church camp where our children come from homes with much, hearts that love them, and networks to support them.
It is through this lens that I beg any who take the time to read this pondering to look at the heightening and awful humanitarian crisis at our country’s southern border. Children! We are talking about vulnerable children who are separated from parents, who are sleeping on floors, who are living in unsanitary conditions without proper nourishment. Depending on one’s ideological views on the subject of the making of this crisis, one might be tempted to go to the false securities ideologies promise and find themselves in an endless cycle of debate with others. I beg that to stop if that is going on inside of you. In my brief time as a social worker serving abused and neglected children, and in a lifetime of Priesthood, I spent zero time pondering ideology when a broken child stood before me. Instead, it is amazing how black and white something becomes when the brokenness is right there before you. There are children suffering and even dying and there can be only one response to that------do everything you can to stop it. It is difficult to reconcile any of this suffering with the teachings and spirit of the one who we follow, Jesus the Christ.
This is long now and perhaps too much of a rant. I pray not. We can make a difference to end the suffering taking place of children. We relentlessly must write to our representatives to claim injustices and to persuade courses of action for relief of suffering of children. We can support organizations who support families being processed, a list of whom will be at the end of this writing. In addition, we can pray. Pray for all, and it does matter. We can pray for desperate families making these dangerous journey’s and for children held in awful conditions. We can pray for the agents at the border and those staffing these places, for this must be a horrible burden for them. We can pray for one another, that we can be changed, be moved, be movers of compassion.
Organizations Helping those being processed.
National Bail Out
The American Bar Association
Freedom for Immigrants
