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VISIONING OUR NATION THROUGH THE LENS OF THE BEATITUDES
The Trafficking of Human Persons
and the
Beatitude of Blessed Are Those Who Mourn
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me
because God has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.
God has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.
Luke 4: 18
The spirit of the Lord descended upon Jesus during his Baptism.
He was called and anointed to fulfill the prophecy of Isaiah – “to bring good news to those poor and oppressed.”
You and I are also called and anointed by our Baptism to do the same – to bring God’s good news of liberation. Jesus saw his ministry as one of freedom – of liberation. The blind were freed from darkness, those imprisoned by demons were set free. The lepers were made clean. Not only would these conditions enslave the body but the person would also be cast out from family and society.
In a sense, blindness, demons, and leprosy would kidnap the person and hold them captive. Jesus’ release of these captives would enable them to return to family, friends, worship and community. They were freed to become all that God intended them to be.
We all can relate to being captured or enslaved by something. It may something be as simple as the desire for chocolate or watching a particular TV show. But others may be addicted to alcohol or drugs or be abused by a parent or spouse. Or… one might be one of the millions of individuals, mostly women or children who are quite literally slaves.
Experts estimate that there may be as many as 27 million slaves in the world. 800,000 are trafficked each year over international borders. In the United States alone, 14500 to 17500 are trafficked each year. They are enslaved because of greed or lust or hatred.
Later in Luke’s Gospel, Jesus declares
“Blessed are they who mourn…”
This is directly tied to the passage I read earlier. For Jesus and Isaiah “True people of God lament the condition of God’s people and God’s program.”
And we, as God’s people, mourn the condition of men, women or children, our brothers and sisters who are enslaved today.
We mourn for those forced into prostitution, domestic servitude, farm labor
or to become child soldiers.
We mourn when governments turn a blind eye to the situation.
Mourning is not just expressing sadness about this state of affairs.
Mourning must move us to action.
What can we do about this problem?
We can pray…. For the victims of these horrible activities…
for the perpetrators… for ourselves, that we have the courage to act.
We can study… google the phrase human trafficking and you will find some excellent web sites with information about this issue.
The US Council of Catholic Bishops is actively involved and their web site provides some helpful comprehensive information.
We can preach…. Share with others information about trafficking.
There are many people who don’t even know a problem exists.
We can write to our senators and congress persons to tell them that we expect them to support efforts to stop the problem… demand that they fund the Trafficking Victims Protection Act and provide funding to countries for projects that eliminate child labor.
We can reach out as a community to victims.
Can we share some of our financial resources for groups such as the Coalition of Catholic Organization against Human Trafficking who are helping victims?
Our call as Baptized Christians is to set release the captives….To work on God’s behalf to let the oppressed go free.
Only when these brothers and sisters of ours are set free, can our mourning be comforted.
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