Fences
It seems like we need fences. If you were fortunate to own a piece of property, you would want to make sure where your property line is. A fence makes it clear. The deer around our house with no respect for property lines have eaten the flowers and leaves off my newly planted Lilies of the Nile. I hope the lilies would come back next year. My wife told me; “You need to put up a fence.” The deer were gleaning.
If you had the opportunity to visit Jerusalem, you can’t miss the high and formidable concrete wall around Bethlehem. When this wall was constructed in response to terrorist bus bombings, it separated olive fields from their owners. There was a time when neighbors were able to visit and work with each other. And when it was time for harvest, laborers were available to bring in the produce. In fact, according to Deuteronomy, farmers were instructed to leave some produce for those in need, “When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, do not glean what is left; it shall be for the alien, the orphan and the widow.” (24:21) There were no fences to stop them.
There was a time when seasonal laborers were able to travel across borders to work in the fields and after the harvest was completed they returned home where they really wanted to be. In California right now with the wine grapes harvest going on, there is a shortage of laborers because of our immigration laws. Chinese sojourners who labored in America like my grandfather and father did never intended to start a life in the US. They had plans to return to China where centuries of civilization have already taken place.
The fate of 800,000 dreamers is going to be determined on Tuesday. For a myriad of reasons including being seasonal laborers for jobs few American citizens want, people came across the border as laborers have done over the eons. Who would question the desire for laborers to want to bring their children so that they can continue to be parents and to remain as a family?
The disciples asked Jesus when they encountered a blind man, “Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” (John 9:2) Jesus healed the man with mud and his saliva and pronounced that he was born blind so that God’s work might be revealed in him. If there is a need to decide who is to be blamed for the dreamers in the US, we might want to blame the parents. But should we? For the dreamers, they are not to be blamed.
Today, I am reminded of the French priest, Michel Quoist who wrote, The Wire Fence.
The wires are holding hands around the holes;
To avoid breaking the ring, they hold tight the neighboring wrist,
And it’s thus that with holes they make a fence.
Lord, there are lots of holes in my life.
There are some in the lives of my neighbors.
But if you wish, we shall hold hands,
We shall hold very tight,
And together we shall make a fine roll of fence to adorn Paradise.
There may be a need for some fences but if we are going to have any, let it be a wire fence where we see the holes in our own lives in order to hold hands with our neighbors: undocumented, dreamers, citizens, all people to adorn Paradise.