Our cover story this issue is about Maryknoll’s work on the U.S./Mexico border, where the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers, the Maryknoll Sisters and the Maryknoll Lay Missioners all respond to the crisis of displaced people clamoring for asylum. Immigration is a hot-button issue, but as Pope Francis reminds us, all migrants “have faces, names and individual stories.” At the border, Maryknoll, as always, serves those on the margins.
At this time of year, the Gospel of Matthew reminds us that the baby Jesus, too, was a refugee. His parents fled with him to safety in a foreign land out of the reach of a maniacal ruler who sought to kill him. (Matthew 2:13-23)
“Jesus at the border,” our cover line, recalls another passage from Matthew, where Jesus identifies with the hungry, the thirsty, the strangers with little but the clothes they are wearing. (Matthew 25:35-40)
Do we see Jesus in the migrants? Are we responding to “the least of these brothers and sisters,” as he said? Are we responding as Jesus would?
This issue also features the newly elected leaderships of the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers and the Maryknoll Sisters, both of which represent the changing face of mission. The two leadership teams bring together missioners from different generations and from different origins, with one priest and three sisters having been born overseas. All bring mission experience in far-flung regions of the world and a commitment to the Maryknoll charism of accompanying and helping those most in need.
