Diaspora Earth

Greetings on this the Feast of The Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph
Readings: Sir 3:2-6, 12-14; Ps 128:1-2, 3, 4-5; Mt 2:13-15, 19-23
Notes: Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI is lucid, conscious and stable but his condition remains serious, the Vatican said Thursday… at age 95 the retired Pope is entering his final days, his final journey home.

The Holy Family had to flee to Egypt to save Jesus’ life. On their return they had to divert to Galilee for Judea was unsafe for them. The course of our lives is filled with the unexpected and the dangerous.

But the Lord is always guiding: (three times the angel helped Joseph decide what to do)

• the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream to flee (refugee).
• the angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt to return.
• and because he had been warned in a dream (to divert), he departed for the region of Galilee (internally-displaced).

Today about 68 million people are in forced migration.
Refugees, migrants, and internally-displaced persons all make up these numbers.

Source: https://www.concernusa.org/story/forced-migration-causes/

• Secure national borders are rational.
• Impenetrable national borders are a grave moral disorder especially when it is caused by dysfunctional governing.
• International aid to nation-states that struggle with food, employment and political insecurity is a priority response.

List of Popes: https://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2013/feb/13/popes-full-list#table

The world has changed so very much. Yet the fatherly care of the popes continues in the line of Saint Peter, the Apostolic Succession. Who was Pope when you were born? I have lived under the fatherly care of these popes:

• Francis I
• Benedict XVI
• John Paul II
• John Paul I
• Paul VI
• John XXIII
• Pius XII

Formative Guidance (in my life)

Paul VI

And what is more, the Church has the firm conviction that all temporal liberation, all political liberation- even if it endeavors to find its justification in such or such a page of the Old or New Testament, even if it claims for its ideological postulates and its norms of action theological data and conclusions, even if it pretends to be today’s theology- carries within itself the germ of its own negation and fails to reach the ideal that it proposes for itself whenever its profound motives are not those of justice in charity, whenever its zeal lacks a truly spiritual dimension and whenever its final goal is not salvation and happiness in God.

-Paul VI. 1975.

John XXIII
(11) Man has the right to live. He has the right to bodily integrity and to the means necessary for the proper development of life, particularly food, clothing, shelter, medical care, rest, and, finally, the necessary social services. In consequence, he has the right to be looked after in the event of illhealth; disability stemming from his work; widowhood; old age; enforced unemployment; or whenever through no fault of his own he is deprived of the means of livelihood.

—John XXIII.Pacem In Terris. 1963.

Pius XII

It is not too much, We are sure, to expect that in the process of restriction, Christian charity and the sense of human solidarity existing between all men, children of the one eternal God and Father, will not be forgotten. Immigration can help in solving one of Europe’s saddest human problems, – a problem which is being aggravated inhumanely by the enforced transfer of helpless, innocent populations.

PIUS XII. 1946.

First reading
God sets a father in honor over his children; a mother’s authority he confirms over her sons. Whoever honors his father atones for sins, and preserves himself from them. When he prays, he is heard; he stores up riches who reveres his mother.

Responsorial Psalm
Blessed are those who fear the Lord and walk in his ways.

Blessed is everyone who fears the LORD, who walks in his ways! For you shall eat the fruit of your handiwork; blessed shall you be, and favored.

Alleluia Verse
Let the peace of Christ control your hearts; let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.

Gospel Portion
And because he had been warned in a dream, he departed for the region of Galilee. He went and dwelt in a town called Nazareth,

Peace be with you,
Deacon Gerry