When asked to speak recently at an immigration rally in West Chester, Pa., I was unsure if this was for me, if my presence would somehow make a difference. I have attended many immigration events over the years because of my work with immigrant families and others in need, at our parish Basic Needs Center and our free medical clinic and education programs. After asking myself, “What more could be left to say about separating immigrant children from their parents in detention, what more could there be left to hear?” and after talking it over with Father Philip, the question was: “Could there be something to say that would be beyond politics? Something to unite us in our humanity and in our need?” The answer led back to the question: “What are we looking for? All of us, what are we searching for?”

Remembering my own immigrant grandparents, I recalled the story of my grandmother, who at sixteen was put on a boat to America, never to see her homeland or her parents again. What was she looking for? What was their hope for her?

I believe we are filled with hope, like all immigrant people, all sojourners; hope for a sign, a Presence, that brings the world beyond the confines envisioned by politics and philosophy … a Presence that is an embrace, a hand to grasp, a heart of Mercy.

It is through the immigrant’s witness to seeking, longing and hoping for all that is True and noble, beautiful and good, that we remember that we are all seekers and beggars for that same Truth, forgotten perhaps, by a comfortable existence or a momentary loss of heart.

But what the heart seeks is unity, a relationship of unity, not of our own construction but one given to us at our origin, one that we need to encounter again, to receive again, to rediscover.

So it was, that I decided to go to speak at the rally only to be surprised by Christ. Before I said a word, the mayor, whom I had become friends with through working together in other areas for the pursuit of the common good of our community, pointed to my presence at the rally and noted that “Barbara belongs to a far greater authority than politics or the rule of law.” She was simply indicating the presence of one who belongs to Christ and whose very presence points to Him for whom the heart seeks.

May the gesture of standing in solidarity with another, with people in need, generate again our own quest for Him whom the heart seeks.

Barbara Kirby, West Chester, Pa.