Fr. Don's Daily Reflection
The four college student panelists on “Immigration and the American Dream” spoke about their experience and that of their families in coming to the United States. The four were from Ukraine, the Hmong community, El Salvador and Somalia. In detailing the hardships and the successes they and their families had encountered in immigrating, they brought themselves and the audience to tears at times.
To close, the moderator asked them: "What would success mean to you?" The Hmong student said it would mean being able to provide a house for her parents where they could welcome the wider family. For the Hispanic student it was similar: to be able to provide some measure of the ‘American dream’ in the shape of a comfortable home for his parents after such experiences as sleeping in a fish processing factory or in their car.
The soft-spoken young Somali Muslim said unabashedly and simply: "Success for me means living for others." That, of course, was implicit in the remarks of the other panelists. But the generosity of the statement was stunning. He went on to tell of his hope of becoming a medical doctor in order to bring care to people without it. “Living for others” — it brings us Christians back to the most demanding and difficult words of Jesus: lose your life in order to find it; give what you have to the poor and come, follow me; unless you deny yourself you cannot be my disciple. Selflessness as an ideal seems alive and well outside the Christian faith.