Women’s World Day of Prayer 2013 and beyond...
Artist: Anne-Lise Hammann Jeannot. |
The Women’s World Day of Prayer is celebrated throughout the world around International Women’s Day in March. In Ireland the Service is broadcast by RTE. This year the service which was prepared by the women of France, had as its theme ‘I was a stranger and you welcomed me’. Moira McDowall, a board member of the Council for Immigrants of the Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference, was invited to give the reflection.
Given the importance of this theme for migrant women across the world the Women’s World Day of Prayer International Committee and the United Methodist Women decided to gather together and share stories of women’s experiences of migration. These will be published on the internet as part of a monthly Biblical Reflection, Women & Global Migration.
Moira’s reflection is the second reflection to be published, after that of Yani Yoo from Korea.
The reflection has also been included in an e-book online series that the World Day of Prayer International Committee is presenting to the UN High Level Dialogue about International Migration and Development, taking place from 3rd to 4th October 2013.
‘I was a stranger & you welcomed me...’ Matthew 25:35
‘I was a stranger and you welcomed me’. Matthew presents this Gospel story as Jesus’ final teaching before his Passion. There, he is rejected as a stranger, a stranger to people’s expectations as he overturned traditional notions of God and scandalously reached out to those society shunned. But in his death he is to totally identify himself with them, he is the poor and the stranger and our salvation comes from them.
Who are the ‘strangers’ then in our society?
In 2011 non-Irish nationals made up 12% of the resident population, coming from 199 different nations and a multitude of different situations. There are the ‘success stories’, but sadly this is far from everyone’s experience.
Consider a recent article in the national press, describing the problems faced by asylum seekers and the negative effects of the current system on them and their children. “You welcomed me?”
Consider the victims of human trafficking, something known to be widespread throughout this country, the exploitation of domestic workers, the sadness of migrant women who, whilst working as caregivers here, have had to leave their own children back home in the care of someone else. “You welcomed me?”
Consider, too, the long hours and low pay, the many subtle forms of discrimination... “You welcomed me?”
Yet these are the people with whom Jesus identifies, to welcome them is to welcome him.
Scripture tells us that we are all made in the image and likeness of God. As I look into the face of someone other-than-me therefore, I see, as if in a mirror, both my own reflection and that of God. I do not become the other any more than the other becomes me but in this two-way mirror the other and I both perceive our true identity, people called to relationship.
This is the challenge of hospitality, an active first step towards the other that allows for, in the words of John O’Donohue, the ‘transfiguration of anonymity into intimacy and presence’. It offers community, where in the sharing of the simplest everyday events and concerns, something deeper happens: the ‘host’ becomes the ‘guest’ and the ‘guest’ the host’.
Being part of a community means learning to live with the dignity of difference in mutual love and respect, and a way of participation that develops everyone’s sense of belonging.
In her recent memoir, Everybody Matters, former President Mary Robinson, refers to an African ideal of human connectedness and solidarity, Ubuntu, described by Archbishop Desmond Tutu as ‘I am because you are’.
The strangers among us in the community of this country, its towns and townlands, are a constant reminder of this reality: Ar sc á th a ch é ile a mhaireann na daoine – it is in the shadow of each other that people live, and I would add, where God dwells.’
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For further information on the aims and objectives of the World day of Prayer, and to read future reflections as they are made available: http://www.worlddayofprayer.net / Yani Yoo, http://new.gbgm-umc.org/umw/resources/articles/item/index.cfm?id=1083 Moira McDowall, http://new.gbgm-umc.org/umw/resources/articles/item/index.cfm?id=1140 |
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