The RMS Office of the Bishop in partnership with leaders across the synod has created a community discussion guide to engage challenging topics as people of faith. Each week we will share a personal reflection on that week's featured social statement.
Do This and You Shall Live
Jaen Ugalde
The first time I made the connection between the intersections of faith, spirituality, social justice and my own positionality as an undocumented immigrant brown man born in Mexico and living in the United States, was in the summer 2015 when I participated in a special event held at St. Paul Lutheran Church in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The church was hosting a special guest from Centro America who was invited by a local immigrant rights organization called the New Mexico Faith Coalition for Immigrant Justice. The sole purpose of this engagement was to share a meal together, laugh, dance, cry and heal. As I sat in a circle with other participants in the event, I began to feel like I was sitting around a fire listening to the stories of my sister in Christ along with my aunts and uncles from the church. While listening to the experiences being shared by my sister in Christ, tears began to flow from my eyes due to the compelling and resilient stories she was sharing.
The stories shared by my sister in Christ touched my heart and soul because, my mother, my father and I also migrated from Mexico to Los Angeles, California. As we made our migration cycle we were fortunate enough to be found by good Samaritans along the way. These good Samaritans were real people who gave us a shelter to rest and food to nourish and heal our bodies. Unfortunately, on the road to the Mexico/US border, not all migrants are found by the good Samaritan. Many are beaten, robbed and/or die in the desert trying to make their way to the United States. Children and their mothers are immediately sentenced to prison and put in to cages. Some of us living in the United States will say that our migrant brothers and sisters should “stand in line and do it the legal way.” Jesus compels us to follow His footsteps and when it comes to serving our neighbor, to forget about taking calculated steps so that we may live.
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