Mass for All Nations

A special song was composed for this year’s World Day of Migrants and Refugees, to go with the theme, God walks with his people. You should check out the YouTube clip—beautiful. The lyrics of the chorus go like this:

O God, who walks with us, your people
From wanderers, now called pilgrims
By your hand, you guide your beloved nation
To our true home, where your love reigns.

That image of moving from wanderers to pilgrims is quite powerful. A wanderer does not have a purpose to what they do, and no destiny they are aiming for; they have no goal towards which they are journeying. A pilgrim, on the other hand, has a destiny, a goal towards which they are oriented, and their journey there has a purpose.

The exiled Israelites, God’s chosen people on their way from slavery to the promised land, were pilgrims under the leadership of Moses, even when it seemed more like they were wandering in the wilderness. More importantly, they began to see that God himself, was a pilgrim God, guiding them by a pillar of fire, and abiding with them in the tent/tabernacle of meeting, containing the Law of the Covenant. The God of the Israelites, who is our God in Jesus Christ, was—and is—a pilgrim God, always accompanying his people, always guiding our path.

In the first reading today, Eldad and Medad had not been at the Tent of Meeting when the Spirit of God came upon the leaders, yet that same Spirit of God was also given to them. Similarly, in the Gospel, there were those who healed in Jesus’ name who were not designated disciples. In both cases, God finds a way of bringing these people—perhaps foreigners, strangers—into the pilgrimage of God’s people. God had integrated them into his people. They were not left outside, but brought home in God and with his people.

A pilgrim is on a journey to finding their home in God. And that home will be found with God who is walking with his pilgrim people. That is why God wishes to pick up travellers along the way, to give them direction, and to guide them ahead. As such, the Spirit of God is to be welcomed wherever it may be found. I think here of the words of our own St Mary MacKillop, who said, ‘we are but travellers here.’ Indeed we are all travellers, pilgrims, for our true home is in God. To repeat what I said earlier: God walks with his people.

These ought to be welcoming words for all who have come to this land to make a life, bringing with them the gifts of cultural goodness and family hope. These are words for you, who are migrants and refugees. You, like Medad and Eldad, may feel like you have been displaced from where you have come from, but God welcomes you into a home here, that is an ongoing pilgrimage of hope. In God and with God, we are all but travellers here.

Might we also hear the other words of Jesus today, “If anyone gives you a cup of water to drink just because you belong to Christ, then I tell you solemnly, he will most certainly not lose his reward.” We are to accept good wherever we can find it, not only in our own group and where we expect it to be. And we are, collectively, to work for the good of each other. This will mean leaving behind what does not aid in our travels in this land. Old hatreds, ancient biases, unforgiven enmities. These are unhelpful burdens for travellers, pilgrims, weighing us down. The journey with God lies ahead of us, not behind us.

Let us not forget, God walks with us; he is a pilgrim God. The first peoples of this land, the Aboriginals, knew this in powerful, though hidden and symbolic ways. They traced through this Great Southern Land of the Holy Spirit song-lines to follow to water, food, shelter and home. What was, for them, only known in signs and symbols, has now been made evident for us in Christ Jesus. Might we follow the song-lines of faith that God lays out before us, as we make our pilgrimage of life here in this place.