Franciscan Sister Mary Ann Spanjers shares on a recent Bi-National Migrant Posada in Nogales, Mexico.
More than 2,000 years ago, Joseph with Mary at his side, pregnant and about to give birth to her Son, Jesus, journeyed to Rome to register in the Census as the Emperor had ordered. Being poor and under these conditions they experienced the suffering that today’s migrant’s experience: outside their homeland, without a home, without a place at the Inn, without money, without any type of security and seeing as their only choice to stay with the animals.But…such a precarious situation, why celebrate it?
That which happened 2,000 years ago, we remember with veneration. And we celebrate, God-with-us.
THE WORD BECAME FLESH
But not only in Jesus, but in all flesh, most especially in the humanity of the most vulnerable, like the immigrants, who are fleeing from the violence, the misery, the lack of work, curable illnesses with no vaccine, and debt. And in Mexico like in the U.S., there are borders of all kinds that want to stop their arrival.
The Sisters Leonette, Monica and Mary Ann joined over 200 pilgrims from various countries who made the two mile pilgrimage Posada along the U.S. Mexican border into Nogales, Mexico with Mary and Joseph along with Bishop Gerald Kicanas, of the Tucson Diocese and Bishop Jose Luis Leopold Gonzales, of the newly formed Nogales Diocese in Mexico. The stories, prayers, singing and people made this a profound experience for all. The Posada concluded to the Kino Border Comador/Soup kitchen (the Jesuit place of food and refuge for migrants in Mexico) where the pilgrims were welcomed.
