God the Father, seeing the dreadful condition into which humanity fell as a result of original sin, chose to show His infinite love for us with an incredible act to restore the order we lost: He gave us His only Son!
Trusting in Mary's “yes,” God sent us Jesus—His Son immigrated to Earth from Heaven! Thus, the mystery of the Incarnation unfolded. Seeing the miserable condition created by sin, God allowed His Son to become poor so that He could make our hearts rich with the treasure of His mercy.
This is His plan to save us from slavery to sin—a plan of divine “immigration” to rescue us. Heaven fixed its gaze on Earth; God took on our human nature to speak our language and restore the dignity He gave us when He created us.
It would seem obvious that humanity would readily accept God’s plan of salvation, but as we know, it was not so. From the beginning, it met opposition. The One who immigrated from Heaven to Earth was persecuted and, while still a child, had to flee with His Mother and St. Joseph to a foreign country to save His life. During His public life, His preaching of the Good News of the Gospel made people uncomfortable. The presence of Jesus is disturbing, challenging, unsettling!
He immigrated to Earth to free us from the poverty in which we lived. The Gospel Jesus preaches opens our eyes to see others and their needs. He invites us to discover the Father in Him, because whoever sees Jesus sees the Father. He Himself gives us the key to finding Him: Jesus is in our neighbor!
This divine “immigration” of Love to Earth is a revolution that baffles a society living by the letter of the law. Such a society emphasizes rituals and external practices and forgets the person. In such a world, hope fades in the face of inequality; possessing is valued more than being; material things more than people; work more than human dignity; law and violence more than love of neighbor...
This revolution caused discomfort. The institution felt threatened and reacted by seeking to eliminate the One responsible for it all. They forgot how to be humble. They forgot their need for others and for liberation from sin. They manipulated the law to eliminate this immigrant from Heaven who came to offer a new order.
This new order, the order of Love, opens our eyes to the beauty of God's plan for each one of us—a plan that restores dignity and enables us to find Jesus in our neighbor. A plan where Love—for God and human life—comes first.
It would be good to ask ourselves honestly: Do we let Jesus “immigrate” freely into our hearts and fill us with the life and Love He wants for us? Or do we, instead, put up barriers—like custom checkpoints—that make it difficult for Him to “immigrate” into our hearts, to become part of our lives? How afraid are we of giving Him free passage so that we can become vessels of His kingdom?
Sin is a barrier. When we choose sin over Love, we compromise our human dignity, wound our hearts, and we lose our ability to recognize Jesus in others. When we Love Jesus only on our terms—when it’s convenient—we treat others the same way. When we build barriers between ourselves and God, the same barriers appear in our relationships with our brothers and sisters.
In Jesus, God the Father built a bridge—a bridge that unites Heaven and Earth, that unites us in Love, heals us in charity, and enriches us in sharing. Sadly, instead of choosing to walk on that bridge, we often build walls of selfishness —of false self-sufficiency and indifference— that separate us from God and neighbor.
We are all pilgrims on this Earth, called to go to Heaven —called to be saints. The bridge to enter Heaven and the visa required is Love—Love of God and of neighbor as ourselves. The Love in our hearts is the measure by which we will be measured.
However, humanity has decided to emigrate from God's Love, to emigrate from His Son. When we separate ourselves from Him, a great void appears in our hearts. Instead of accepting Jesus—Him who is the bridge between Heaven and Earth—we build ideological walls to shield ourselves from the fear of loneliness, of darkness, of truth.
By separating ourselves from the One who is Truth, each person creates their own “truth”—their version of reality, where truth is subjective and convenient— producing a world of relativism. In such a place, there is no Truth that unites us. There is only chaos, fruit of selfishness, of living without God—the Love that unites us.
By emigrating from His Love, we become incapable of seeing Jesus in others. Thus, separated from God and our neighbor, respect for human dignity—our own dignity—vanishes and human beings become another thing that can be used, negotiated, or discarded.
Let us stop building walls to shield ourselves from our own insecurities and instead give Jesus free passage to “immigrate” into our hearts and fill them with His Love—Love for God and for our neighbor.