Dear Editor: I have a few thoughts to share in response to Ms. Ilene Salerno’s Aug. 1 letter encouraging a greater attentiveness to Donald Trump’s message.

Ms. Salerno writes: “It is so refreshing to have someone stand up and tell it like it is.”

Well, of course we feel this way when the person “telling it like it is” resonates with or echoes what I believe. “My sentiments exactly,” we would say. And then she tells us that Mr. Trump “…is saying what the ordinary citizen is saying and thinking.” We must be careful, Mr. Trump is saying what some ordinary citizens are saying and thinking. Not everyone.

All this energy and time we’re putting into the question of illegal immigrants (which, of course, means Mexicans and Central Americans, not Canadians or any other nationality). We ought to speak plainly. “Are you legal?” might be a question, but it isn’t a Jesus question.

In Matthew 25: 31-46, Jesus has told us what the questions are: “Are you hungry? Are you thirsty? Do you need a place to stay? Do you need clothes? Are you sick? Would you like someone to visit you in prison?”

The Ronald Knox translation of the New Testament doesn’t say: “When I was a stranger you welcomed me.” Instead it reads: “When I was a stranger, you took me home.” Yikes!

And if we read all the way to the end of the verses we’ll see that these are life and death questions, heaven and hell questions. There’s no wiggle room. We like to find our way around these teachings of Jesus.

Instead of “Are you legal,” we might ask: “Mexican mom, do your children need school clothes and shoes? Tell me their sizes.”

Or, “Guatemalan mom, are your children going to school having had a good breakfast? Can I help?”

Or, “Mexican dad, I know someone who has digging to do in his yard and no one else is interested in the job. Are you?”

Seemingly every lawn on Long Island is maintained by Mexican and Salvadoran men. I became friendly with these fellows who came to cut the parish grass and, when in early November they were still on the job, I asked them if they knew Our Lady of Guadalupe and would they like to come to the big fiesta we were having on her feast day? “You’re far away from home, would you like to join us for prayers, food, singing and dancing?” Instant family! We’ve got to stick to Matthew 25.

 

REV. STEPHEN P. MORRIS

Starlight, Pa.