A Theology of Migration The Bodies of Refugees and the Body of Christ

This book could not come at a more opportune time, with more than three million refugees streaming out of Ukraine and hundreds of thousands of migrants crossing borders in search of safety and life. With his trademark spirituality and pastoral heart, Dan Groody teaches us to see the crucified body of Christ in the broken bodies of refugees and how their bodies are transubstantiated into the Eucharistic Body of Christ to give new life to us all. A Theology of Migration is an absolute must-read.

Weaving migrant stories, Scriptural reflections, and church documents around the various dimensions of the Liturgy of the Eucharist, A Theology of Migration is profound, yet practical. This significative contribution to Groody’s already important work is a timely word for all Christians.

This book is singularly powerful in its location of migrants, their dreams, cries, and relationship with God within the structure of the mass. It is ultimately about our faith: how we, in our understanding of and hospitality to migrants, make our own migration back to God.

Groody explores both the “outer journey of migrants and the inner journey of faith,” framed by the eucharistic liturgy. He moves fluidly between the painful realities that migrants and refugees experience—hunger, thirst, violence, incarceration, rejection—and the body of Christ present at Mass, creating a “Eucharistic hermeneutic of migration directed toward the redemption of the world.” His description of the Mass Pope Francis celebrated in Lampedusa reveals parallels between the broken bodies of migrants and the Eucharist. This book serves as a powerful companion in understanding migration through the eyes of faith. 

Dan Groody has a very natural gift of theological wholeness. He intuits the whole picture. You do not need to be involved in immigration or refugee work to find great inspiration in this book. It is about community, a very full theology of church, and a foundation for mystical service and practical prayer in a deeply suffering world.