FINDING GOD IN ALL THINGS
By Fr Andrew Hamilton SJ
Eureka Street consulting editor and writer at Jesuit Social Services
In Australia, Palm Sunday has for many years been marked by rallies to support refugees. Many Church communities have been involved in marches and other events. The marches have touched a concern for people seeking protection from persecution and the conviction that in Australia they have been excluded and treated badly.
The principle that Australia needs to deter people from coming to this country by boat or by plane by making their lives as difficult as possible has generally been accepted by all sides of politics. This year, as nations around the world have turned against refugees and other immigrants and treated them more harshly, Australians have perhaps become less concerned for them. Media coverage concentrates on the potential danger to the community caused by the very few and ignores the humanity of the persons who seek protection.
And yet wars multiply, people continue to be forced out of their homes and nations, refugees multiply, and refugee agencies find it harder to care for people left homeless and destitute. And Palm Sunday, with its image of the Son of God entering his city before being seized, convicted in a rigged trial, tortured and executed outside the city, remains an emblem of refugee experience. For Christians, it is the emblem of a God who chooses to enter human life vulnerably, and in Jesus to enter the city and be so killed. In that respect, Palm Sunday, which marks the respect given by a small crowd to a man seeking acceptance in a city, is the feast for refugees who also seek hospitality yet so often face rejection.
The story of Palm Sunday speaks to the experience of refugees. Like Jesus in his entry into Jerusalem, unarmed refugees also seek hospitality in centres of power. Like him, too, they are perceived as a threat, are driven off, imprisoned, maligned and left resourceless. They make us ask what a human being is worth when stripped of power and connections.
Palm Sunday and the vindication of Jesus at Easter answer that question. Each human being is worth living and dying for. This year we all have in our minds and hearts people who have been caught in nations from which they cannot escape – from Gaza, as well as people who live under constant threat as in Iran, Ukraine, Myanmar and Sudan. Palm Sunday is a day to grieve for them and to be in solidarity with them in their need for food, shelter and opportunity to live with dignity.
This year, too, it is a day for us Australians to welcome the refugees who have settled here, as well as those applying to come to our shores, especially those from Gaza. It is also a day to remember the suffering of refugees in Australia who are forced to live from hand to mouth awaiting the result of appeals that can drag on for years. Sunday is about an extravagant hospitality that trumps all human inhospitality.
Fr Andrew Hamilton SJ is a life member of the Australasian Catholic Press Association.
Banner image: Hannah Fleming-Hill, Unsplash.