I have come to cast fire on the earth...

Following the Vietnam war, there were many Vietnamese who had been our alles and now faced likely death at the hands of the new Communist government.

My friend Tony Bianchi, (God rest his soul,) and his wife Mary Ann sponsored one of these refugee families.

They arrived on a below zero Nebraska January night in their scanty clothing. The grandpa was near death and Tony had to carry him to a waiting wheel chair.

This grandpa was "the tired refuse of a foreign shore." as the Statue of Liberty thus describes.

Now a flunky in the white House wants to CHANGE the wordng on the Statue of Liberty to welcome only the STRONG and th smartest.

This is the kind of arrogant pomposity that Jesus decries when he says "he wants to cast "fire on the earth."

 And so we pray:

O God, open closed and hard hearts

to compassion,

to welcome

for the least of our brothers and sisters.

for of such is the Kingdom of Heaven.

Amen

O