By Sister Mary Ann Pajakowski, CSC, ’84 MSA

Most of my work in Park City, Utah, is with immigrants—first and second generation families, many of whom came in the 1990s, many without documentation. They found jobs, they are raising families, and now they are living in the fog of uncertainty as they experience a change in our national culture. They do not feel welcome.

Any one mom, dad, grandma, grandpa, brother, sister can be picked up in a parking lot in front of their apartment or work or Walmart and deported within days. It doesn’t matter if they have a record or not, or an illegal reentry or not. They have husbands, wives, and most importantly, they have children—children who are in Holy Cross afterschool programs, preschool programs, and summer programs.

Many people support the system that makes this enforcement possible—they say that these folks have broken the law, and the conversation stops there. Are our undocumented brothers and sisters to be shown mercy and forgiven? Or do we not have the capacity to relate to them as our brothers and sisters, so that we may welcome them and forgive their debts?

For many of them, the alternative is to be handed over to torturers: gang members who want to recruit them or human traffickers who exploit them for sex or labor. Cartels charge $12,000 to transport them in deathtrap semi-trailers and threaten to harm their family if they don’t pay or transport drugs. Even if they escape these forces, they are handed over to the Sonoran desert, where many die trying to live.

Immigrants and refugees have now outlived our old definitions—there are millions of people on the move who would really rather stay at home but for unlivable conditions of war, persecution, drought, sex and labor trafficking, starvation, or despair. Is fleeing a situation because of religious persecution all that different than fleeing a situation because you can’t feed your children? You can die in either scenario. Should you not try to use any means to get out? What would you do? And who gets to decide to show you mercy?

Jesus asks us to show forgiveness and mercy not on our tit-for-tat terms, but on the basis of the immense and infinite love God has for all who share God’s life. By each of our own lives, we are brothers and sisters loved by God—there are no exceptions. This is the reality for each one of us, and each one of us has the capacity to reflect to others God’s mercy. Each one of us has the capacity to forgive with abandonment, just as God has forgiven us.

I am discovering that committing to this kind of mercy is scary because it is going to make me be more like Jesus in my relationships with all of my brothers and sisters, and some of them really cause me to struggle.

I ask Jesus to give us all the courage and joy to continue to walk with him and answer his challenging call to share God’s mercy. This is my prayer—for me; for all of us; for Notre Dame and the congregations of Holy Cross; and especially for the people who don’t seem to count, whom Blessed Father Basil Moreau encouraged us to seek out and serve.

Sister Mary Ann serves as education director for Holy Cross Ministries in Salt Lake City, Utah. Before that, she taught high school and served immigrants and other marginalized people in Indiana and Alaska. This past summer, she celebrated 50 years of consecrated life as a Sister of the Holy Cross.

Pope Francis and the U.S. bishops are asking Catholics to support our brothers and sisters who have fled their homes seeking a decent and safe life for their families. It’s a historic campaign called “Share the Journey,” and this weekend begins a week of prayer in support of immigrants and refugees. Learn more at www.sharejourney.org.