Asleep

Here are a couple of quotes from a book I just read. It's called Enrique's Journey by Sonia Nazario. Challenging? I'd say yes.

The book follows a 17 year old Honduran's journey as he attempts to make it to the U.S. to find his mother. His mother had left him and his sister 11 years before to work in the U.S. in order to earn enough money to support her children. Thousands of migrants attempt this journey, riding on the tops and sides of freight trains through Mexico, trying to avoid gangs, bandits, police, not to mention the danger of getting on and off moving trains. Many get deported from Mexico to Guatemala several times before they are able to get close to the U.S. border. Many others die or are severely injured along the way.

The following quotes are from (and about) a priest in a city in Mexico close to the Texas border. His church feeds and clothes migrants, as well as finding them medical treatment and all sorts of other services.

"His focus is one instilled by mentors at the seminary: 'Either we are with the poor, or we are not. God teaches us to most help the poor. Any other interpretation is unacceptable.' To Padre Leo, the people most in need in Nuevo Laredo are migrants. They go for days without food, for months without resting their heads on a pillow; they are defenseless against an onslaught of abuses. He vowed to restore a bit of their dignity."

"He tells church members that they, too, were once migrants. Saint Joseph was a migrant. The Bible was written by migrants. Running off a migrant, he says is like turning against yourself. A person must be more than spiritual, he tells them. They must act. 'Some people read the Bible and fall asleep,' says Padre Leo. 'For me, it was a jolt. The worst thing as a Christian is to go through life asleep.'"