Reaction to their arrival in our town was mixed. There are folk who do not like change and would like our little town to stay as it is forever. Some others just plain selfish, speaking words like - ‘We should look after our own first’. Shut our hearts tight, we will hold what we have, nothing more. Open our hearts wide, we will reap a wonderful harvest. I am happy to report though that many welcome them them with open arms and are doing all in their power to be of assistance.
We have no idea how our visitors must be feeling, many of them unable to speak English and so they are picking up on all the nuances of how we in Cahersiveen are receiving them or rejecting them.
Our visitors are individual persons with his/her own face, looking on them as refugees is missing the whole point. Seeing them through the lens of Love and Compassion will not just benefit them, it will hugely benefit us also. They are people to be loved - not problems to be solved. They come bearing gifts and talents, if we open our hearts, our little town will be greatly enhanced and might not be a ‘little’ town, any more.
They do not ask to be here. If they could, they would be in their own countries, in their own homes. Because they chose Life, they must go where they are sent, silently, accepting whatever comes their way. Their choices are not just limited - they do not have any. Sadly we do not live in an equal world where everyone’s dignity is respected and everyone has equal opportunities.
Not so with us, not so. We are free to make whatever choices we wish. In this instant we can be cold and uncaring or we can be kind, it is completely up to us. Let us choose wisely, what I give to others will have eternal value, what I keep for me, dies when I die.
‘Men lose all the material things they leave behind them in this world, but they carry with them the reward of their charity and the alms they give. The Spirit of the Lord will rest on all who live in this way and persevere in it to the end’. (St. Francis of Assisi)
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