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| Source: iconsandechoes.com |
This past Monday, on the Feast of the Nativity of the Theotokos, our friend and SUPRASL 2025 speaker Ewa Natalia Moroz-Keczyńska was found not guilty in a Polish court. In 2022, Ewa and four others were arrested for providing food, water, and shelter to two refugee families from Egypt and Iraq who had been forced to cross the Polish-Belarussian border. They faced up to eight years in prison.
While the ongoing tragedy at that border is a complex issue, and well documented elsewhere, my purpose today is simpler: to share Ewa’s story as a powerful, clear and courageous example of what it means to live out the teachings of Christ in real time.
The situation of refugees and migrants — whether in Europe or across the world—is undeniably complex, entangled in politics, national security, competing humanitarian concerns where the lives of human beings are often exploited to push competing narratives.
I understand the fears many people carry. If my own country faced a sudden influx of refugees, I too might be afraid— of losing security, of strained resources, or of cultural change. These are real, deeply human concerns that should not be dismissed.
Yet as Christians, we are called to view these realities through the lens of the Gospel. We cannot expect governments to always do the right, or the Christian, thing. And likewise we should when its seems that our political leaders or governments seem to be promoting Chrisitan values we should take care to inquire into their true intentions. That being said, while courts are not arbiters of the Gospel, the “not guilty” verdict in Ewa’s case resonates strikingly with Christ’s teaching. We can take strength not because the court validated Jesus’s teachings, but because we see that the Lord has heard our prayers; He has seen the good and justified deeds of His people.
The verdict in Ewa’s case came on the feast day of the Nativity of the Mother of God (new style). The Gospel reading for the feast gives us a clear lens for Ewa’s story. In Luke’s Gospel a woman calls out to Christ, blessing His mother: “Blessed is the womb that bore You, and the breasts which nursed You!” And Christ replies: “More than that, blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it!” Luke 11:27-28. In this short response, as Christ is often want to do - keep it simple - all of His teaching is summed up. Keep the word of God. Keep His commandments. This is an astounding response from our Lord, for in it he places greater honor not on proximity to Him, not even on being the Theotokos, but on the simple and radical act of living His word.
And we know well from the parable of the Good Samaritan, which immediately precedes the reading for the feast, what that word, what that commandment is: to “love God with all our heart, soul, strength, and mind, and our neighbor as ourselves.” Luke 10:27. And Christ leaves no doubt about who our neighbor is: “The one who showed mercy” (Luke 10:37).
Ewa and her companions know this message intimately. They did not act for personal gain, for performance, or even as political protest. They acted as neighbors, performing a sacrificial act of love, fully aware that it could cost them their own freedom. The court’s ruling offers a rare glimpse of light in our polarized world, concluding that “helping people in desperate need, without seeking personal benefit, cannot be criminalized. To suggest otherwise would mean punishing every act of compassion.” The court went even further suggesting that, “Disagreement with an unjust status quo is often the spark that drives necessary change.”
War, injustice, poverty, and climate change force millions to flee their homes. Here lies our tension: the fears of host nations are real, but so too is the suffering of those who arrive. The Christian call does not dismiss those fears—but it also does not allow us to harden our hearts.
St. Maria of Paris, reflecting on John 3:16, wrote: “There is no following in the steps of Christ without sharing, however small, in this sacrificial act of love.”
Today, there are 122.6 million refugees worldwide. Each one is a human being created by God. To each, we are called to be a neighbor.
May we have the courage not only to hear the word of God but, like Ewa, to keep it.
