Isaiah 58:9
you will call, and the LORD will answer…
Reflections this week are by Michelina Nicotera-Taxiera
Isaiah is preaching to a people who knew what it felt like to be displaced from their homes. When we look at the devastating human crisis at our border it is very easy to believe that God is far away. Yet we are given this promise in Psalm 72:12 that “God rescues the poor when they cry out, the oppressed that have no one to help.”
So how can this be? If God truly cares, then how come there is so much suffering? Why has this situation become such a humanitarian disaster? This verse gives us certainty that God does care. But the Lord needs us to respond as the “helper.” God needs us to be His hands and feet.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu once said, “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.” God promises to answer and help; but maybe if we are not standing alongside Jesus, with those who are oppressed; then we are just too far away to hear God’s voice.
Questions for reflection:
- How is being neutral towards injustice participating in it?
- In what ways during this Lenten season, could you stand with God’s people who are suffering?
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Michelina Nicotera-Taxiera is an illustrator living in Tucson, AZ. She works as a volunteer with an asylum advocacy group called Save Asylum and also at a migrant welcome center, Casa Alitas. Last year she created the Way of Asylum which is a devotional Stations of the Cross. In these stations Jesus’ suffering is embodied in the people seeking asylum in our country. https://www.thewayofasylum.com/
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