Choosing Life on the US-Mexico Border

I am looking forward to being on the Mexican side of the fence for The Border Church this Sunday.

The Mexican side of the border is so full of life - on most Sunday afternoons people from all across Tijuana come out to Playas de Tijuana for a day at the beach. But on the U.S. side the architects of "homeland security" have systematically stripped the borderlands of almost every sign of life.

This contrast struck me powerfully last weekend when I was on the U.S. side of the fence.

Mexicans had been celebrating El Día de los Muertos and someone had created a work of art on the southern side of the border fence. They had embroidered their display with flowers, but on the U.S. side only the stems of the flowers were visible. The sight was a stark reminder, it seemed to me, of the lifelessness that the U.S. government has tried to impose on the borderlands:

The next day my friend Maria Teresa Fernandez circulated photos from the Mexican side of the fence, and through her lens I was able to see for the first time this beautiful, if sorrowful, memorial to people who have lost their lives trying to cross into the United States:

Maria Teresa's photo reminded me that the way Mexicans celebrate El Día de los Muertos is very different than the way Americans celebrate Halloweeen - perhaps a little more like some Christians in the U.S. celebrate All Saints Day.

The photo also reminded me why we gather each Sunday as The Border Church / La Iglesia Fronteriza. We gather and we celebrate the sacrament of communion to honor the dead and reclaim the border for the living.

Had I known what was on the Mexican side of the fence this past Sunday I would have prayed this prayer, which instead I invite you to pray with me now:

O God, across the ages you have called on your people to "choose life!" And yet the forces of death have such a powerful hold on our spirits. Strengthen us, O God, when we are tempted to surrender to the darkness. Give us eyes to see the beauty you are working always in the world. And help us to claim the whole of our lives - and the life of our nation, right up to and beyond its borders - for your kingdom, that place where life reigns supreme. We pray in the name of Jesus, who taught us that death need not be the end of our story. Amen.

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