CHARLOTTE — Jesuit Father Peter Neeley, assistant director of education for the Kino Border Initiative, located along the Arizona-Mexico border, visited St. Peter Church in Charlotte the weekend of Nov. 20.
Father Neeley, who preached at all the weekend Masses there, said the main reason for his visit was to “humanize the talk about immigration.”
The Kino Border Initiative is a binational humanitarian organization that works with migrants in Nogales, Ariz., and Nogales, Mexico. Its mission is to promote U.S.-Mexico border immigration policies that affirm the dignity of the human person.
The heart of Father Neeley’s message was to raise awareness of the daily reality and struggle of so many displaced, deported and asylum-seeking people at the Mexican Border – a daily reality in Nogales.
“How can the people of the Diocese of Charlotte humanize this discussion on immigration? How can we restore dignity to the people that are in the process of deportation?” the visiting priest asked St. Peter’s parishioners.
Father Neeley explained part of the Kino Border Initiative’s mission is to “build bridges.”
“Building walls is not what Christians do. Christians build bridges,” he said.
In June, a small group from St. Peter Church traveled to Nogales to experience the reality that Father Neeley described. One of those pilgrims, Bob Macpherson, offered a small reception the evening of Nov. 18 to welcome Father Neeley to the parish. During the gathering, Father Neeley shared with a crowd of about 40 guests what a typical weekend at the Kino Border Initiative is like.
“When you come out of an experience down there, you are going to give me the name of somebody you met and their story,” Father Neeley explained, as this is essential to humanizing the discussion about immigration. “We ask for the dignifying treatment of the people they (the U.S. Border Patrol) arrest.”
“When a person is deported, that person is probably at the lowest point in their lives. So we ask the volunteers to just sit with them for 10 minutes, and just listen to their story,” Father Neeley said.
The priest offered that, because of its complexity, the immigration problem can only be solved by people, not by walls or money.
“It’s going to involve us working together. It’s going to involve us doing stuff little by little. Complicated, but what happens is when you lose the human dimension of it, it all becomes dollars and cents.”
For more information about the Kino Border Initiative and ways to get involved, go to www.kinoborderinitiative.org.
— Rico De Silva, Hispanic Communications Reporter
The season of Advent developed in the Church over time. Here are 10 facts that you may not know about the roots and meanings of Advent:
1. Advent is a time of expectation and preparation for the birth of the Lord. The word “Advent” derives from the Latin word “adventus,” which means “coming,” and is associated with the four weeks of preparation for Christmas.
2. Advent has a changing start date, but it always contains four Sundays. It starts on the Sunday closest to the feast of St. Andrew the Apostle (Nov. 30). It can begin as early as Nov. 27th or as late as Dec. 3.
3. Advent marks the beginning of the liturgical year. Advent was chosen to begin the year as representative of the time in history that Christ was not known to us. With His birth the beginning of our faith was founded. The liturgical year ends with the feast of Christ the King, His reign over the universe.
4. The Advent season has two meanings. It emphasizes both the celebration of Christ coming into the world as a man and also the second coming when the Lord will return again. It blends together a penitential spirit, very similar to Lent, a liturgical theme of preparation for the Second and Final Coming of the Lord, called the Parousia, and a joyful theme of getting ready for the Bethlehem event. The traditional color of Advent is purple or violet, which symbolizes the penitential spirit. Religious traditions associated with Advent express all these themes.
5. Hope is a predominant theme of Advent. The Israelites hoped for a Messiah to come, and Christ entered the world. We are hopeful for the arrival of Christ again into the world.
6. Advent is a reminder of the Old Testament promises of the coming of the Messiah. The Advent tradition of the Jesse Tree consists of symbols of the Messiah coming from the line of Jesse (Lk 3: 23-38). Isaiah is often read during this season to remember that we are waiting for the day when the Messiah will come again.
7. Advent focuses on light as opposed to darkness. Christ enters our dark world and casts away the darkness of sin to redeem us. He will come again as the light of the world.
8. Advent has two parts. The first portion the First Sunday of Advent until Dec. 16 is preparation for the second coming of Christ. The second portion from Dec. 17 to 24 directly prepares us for the commemoration of the first coming of Christ, Christmas.
9. The origins of Advent can be traced back to the Church in France. In the 4th Century, the Church in France used the period before Epiphany as a time of preparation for baptism. It was called “St. Martin’s Lent” for the 40 days that started on Nov. 11, the feast of St. Martin of Tours.
10. Advent as we know today was developed in Rome. Pope Gregory I in the late 6th or early 7th Century composed many of the prayers, antiphons and psalm responses. Many themes and ideas we now know can be traced to the Roman Advent season.
— Reprinted from the Catholic Apostolate Center, online at www.catholicapostolatecenter.org, and from EWTN
More online
At www.catholicapostolatecenter.org/advent-resources.html: Get additional Advent resources for your family, including educational videos, prayers and reflections, and guides for examining one’s conscience before confession.
Pictured above: A lit candle is seen on an Advent wreath. Advent, a season of joyful expectation before Christmas, begins Nov. 28 this year. The Advent wreath, with a candle marking each week of the season, is a traditional symbol of the liturgical period. (CNS photo/Lisa Johnston, St Louis Review)