“As I meet, or lend an ear to those who are sick, to the migrants who face terrible hardships in search of a brighter future, to prison inmates who carry a hell of pain inside their hearts, and to those, many of them young, who cannot find a job, I often find myself wondering: "Why them and not me?" I, myself, was born in a family of migrants; my father, my grandparents, like many other Italians, left for Argentina and met the fate of those who are left with nothing. I could have very well ended up among today's "discarded" people. And that's why I always ask myself, deep in my heart: "Why them and not me?’"
When I think of our recent trip to Egypt and I think of the recent church bombings and the difficulties that Christians face living in Egypt and in the Sinai particularly, or the thousands for whom the garbage village and its life is normal, or the lack of fresh air and dense city living for 25 million in Cairo. Or I think of the millions of displaced peoples in the world today I ask, “Why them and not me?”
I get up each day to fresh air, clean water, the rule of law, food in abundance, security, mobility, free and fair elections, health care, good roads, transportation and infrastructure, good schools, and countless public services. Why me?
Pope Francis ends by saying, …[T]he future is, most of all, in the hands of those people who recognize the other as a "you" and themselves as part of an "us." We all need each other. When we were in Egypt we talked from time to time about three words: Hospitality, Solidarity, and Mutuality. The Pope begins his speech talking about Solidarity and ends with Mutuality. We do need each other.