I’m a dreamer. I’ve been an active dreamer since I was very young - receiving messages from loved ones who had passed, visions formy next project, and insights that guide me in my waking life. Dreaming is a sacred practice for me.

So, it pains me when people say, “ugh, it was just a dream,” as if something holy didn’t happen. But in the Gospel of Matthew, dreams are anything but trivial. Dreams are the very medium God uses to save lives and alter history.

An angel appears to Joseph in a dream because Joseph, a righteous man who followed Jewish law, needed to be guided into something bigger than the law. Something risky and beyond social expectation. He needed to see that this moment with Mary’s pregnancy and the Messiah’s coming, it required divine courage.

And because Joseph heeded that dream, Mary gave birth to Jesus, raised Him, and Jesus changed the course of history forever. We are disciples of Jesus today in part because Joseph heeded a dream.

Now imagine Joseph awakening from that dream only to be abducted by the Roman Empire - imprisoned for unpaid debts, for showing resistance, for disrespecting a soldier. It happened all the time. The empire could detain or enslave poor Jewish peasants for any number of reasons.

If Joseph were taken, Mary would have been exposed - a young girl pregnant outside of marriage, facing severe societal shame, economic insecurity, and the very real possibility of being cast out from her family. A single mother navigating the brutality of Rome utterly alone.

Can you imagine if God’s message in that dream never had a chance to unfold? Christianity as we know it might not exist.

Dreams are sacred. Right now, the sacred dreams of thousands of our immigrant sisters and brothers are being suffocated. Their dreams, dreams God planted in them, are being cut short by mass deportations. The dream to open a small business and pass it downto their children. The dream to pursue an education. To buy a home. To create a community center like so many women in the Back of the Yards community. These holy visions of a better future are being thwarted.

Just as Rome abducted, imprisoned, and enslaved the poor and the vulnerable, today we see ICE, DHS, and Border Patrol abducting, imprisoning, and exploiting our immigrant sisters and brothers. This is against God and against the people of God.

Which is why it is so important that we dream a new way into being.

Here in Chicago, people dreamt courageously. When families were being torn apart overnight, communities organized rapid-responseteams, used whistles to warn neighbors of raids, formed human chains, and showed up with love and fierce solidarity. And Chicago Catholics showed up with great fervor. During our meetings we asked, “What Catholic-rooted action have you been dreaming up that meets this moment prophetically?”

Those dreams turned into action. In October, we held a 1,000-person Eucharistic Procession to bring pastoral care and Holy Communion to our detained sisters and brothers. When ICE denied our entry, we returned again, but this time with 2,000 people, and held a People’s Mass right outside the detention center.

But the most powerful tool we have is not just our protest. It is our collective dream, our sacred mission, to bring the Body of Christ inside that facility and let our detained sisters and brothers know: The Church stands with you. You have inherent dignity and worth.Your dreams are worth protecting. You are a child of God.

Sometimes the dreams God gives you may call you to go beyond tradition or the law, just as the angel called Joseph to go beyond what tradition required in his time. And so, we must ground ourselves in divine courage to heed those dreams, especially when God is pleading for liberty for the captives.

We can dream a new way into being. But we must heed our dreams.

Scripture says that Joseph “did as the angel of the Lord commanded him.” He didn’t dismiss it. He didn’t say, “ugh, it was just a dream.” He acted.

So when God inspires you to divine action and holy resistance, heed your dreams.

When God inspires you to speak to elected officials to stop mass deportations, heed your dreams.
When God inspires you to hold a Eucharistic procession to the most traumatized parts of your city, heed your dreams.
When God inspires you to accompany migrants to court and offer spiritual support, heed your dreams.
These are not fantasies. These are sacred dreams God is pleading for you to channel and to carry out.

Heed your dreams, like Joseph did. Be a prophetic dreamer. Trust the vision God plants in you, and dare to act on it, with courage, tenderness, and fire.