All Are Welcome

Yesterday it was cool enough to sit on the patio outside the dining room for breakfast. Sr. Micaela noted a straggly purple petunia growing out of a crack in the sidewalk, and Sr. Susan Barber murmured, “All are welcome.”

I’ve heard it said that weeds are commonly defined as plants that are growing in a place where they are not desired. If that is the case, the word “weed” is not in God’s vocabulary, because God loves and desires all that God has created.

Unfortunately, some people view other human beings as weeds—being in a place where they are not desired—when they seek asylum in the United States because of economic hardship or political or religious persecution. Sometimes these immigrants are tolerated if they stay out of sight and perform difficult work, such as slaughtering and dressing livestock or picking fruit and vegetables. If they stray outside certain areas, however, they are plucked up by the roots and tossed out to survive as best they can (or not).

We who are made in God’s image need to adopt God’s vocabulary, which includes such words as “welcome,” “share,” “compassion,” and “serve.” Phrases such as “this is mine,” “get out,” “you’re not one of us” and “there’s not enough for you” are incomprehensible to God, who said, “The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt; I am the lord your God” (Lv 19:34). In other words, God says: “Repeat after me: ‘All are welcome in this place.’”