Daily Meditation for January 7, 2025

Our beloved United States has become so polarized. Our Statue of Liberty’s message seems no longer our country’s emphasis. We are more and more given to reject rather than accept refugees, immigrants, “the tired, the poor, the huddled masses at our shores.” The values, words and actions we proudly proclaim are to be questioned. What if in rejecting those huddled masses at our shore, we have rejected Joseph, Mary and Jesus; silenced a Beethoven or a Mozart among the diverse peoples seeking entrance here? Or what if a poet laureate, a Nobel Peace Prize recipient, or a saint were among those deported? Or a chess champion who may have drowned close to our shores? Is it that we continue to think that “they” will deplete our funds, our jobs, our health? Might we imagine how some whom we are rejecting could be the very ones to “make us great again”?

By Renee Domeier, OSB