The Lord’s Supper Changes the Immigration Conversation

CRAIG WONG, 2012

What difference does a sacrament make in a society where the lines drawn between “legal” and “illegal” persons are hardened not only by prejudice, politics, and law, but also by by cement blocks, barbed wire, transport planes, and electronic ankle bracelets? This essay will suggest that a liturgical practice – more specifically, the Eucharist – can indeed make a difference, but not as a technique for church-based social activism. Rather, it explores the relational, economic, and eschatological dimensions of the Lord’s Supper and their implications for the Church’s engagement with the “strangers in our midst” and the policies that affect them.