Strangers No Longer: Homily for National Migration Week

Strangers No Longer: Homily for National Migration Week January 5, 2013

A Homily for the Feast of the Epiphany and National Migration Week

Starting today, the feast of the Epiphany, the Church in the United States celebrates National Migration Week.  Is it a coincidence?  Hardly.

Magi from the east came to offer gifts to Jesus, the King of the Jews, and to adore him.  These men, foreigners, strangers, recognized something in the child that his own people did not recognize.  What did these men recognize?

The gold offered shows the foreigners recognized him as king since from ancient times gold is the precious metal reserved for kings.  The frankincense, an incense that is burnt as an offering to God, shows they recognized him as God, and the myrrh, embalming oil used to anoint the dead, is their foreshadowing of Jesus’ life-giving death.

The Scriptures do not tell us exactly where the Magi came from, but from early on in Christian art, these men were depicted as coming from Europe, Asia, and Africa, one from each known continent.  While being adored by the magi, Christ reveals himself as the Savior of all peoples and all nations (not just the Jews), bringing a universal message of salvation that unites all humanity as he leads us together out of darkness into eternal light.

On this feast we rejoice in the fact that all Christians, hailing from all the countries of the world, share a common faith in Jesus, the Light of the World.  We are bound together by a reality that transcends citizenship, national borders, passports, visas, conflicts, wars and history.  As members of the one Body of Christ, we are called to treat each other with respect and dignity, recognizing the presence of the living God in each person, recognizing that the saving message of Jesus Christ is for all, that the doors of the church are open for all no matter their origin, state of life or monetary contributions.  We are all made equal before God and are offered the same one salvation.

I had a faithful Catholic tell me once, “Father, the church should not minister to illegal immigrants, you are condoning their behavior by ministering to them.”

I looked at this very concerned man and calmly said, “Twice a month I celebrate Mass and hear confessions at the state prison.  I go because there are Catholics in need of being ministered.  I make no statement whatsoever regarding their past.  I do not care if they murdered, dealt drugs or stole.  I am there because at the prison there are human beings in need of Christ, in need of redemption and in need of hearing the Gospel.  I go because Jesus said, I was in prison and you visited me.”

This is why the Church in the United States celebrates Migrant Week, to raise our awareness in our Christian duty to care for those in need including the foreigner and the stranger.  Whatever is foreign makes us uneasy, it is different, yet Christ says, “I was a stranger and you welcomed me.”

Archbishop Gomez of Los Angeles said last year at a Knights of Columbus Conference, “The Church’s perspective on immigration issues is rooted in Jesus Christ’s teaching that every human person is created in God’s image and has God-given dignity and rights.”

The Church speaks for the vulnerable and the weak.  Jesus tells us that our love for God will be judged by our love for him in the person least among us, this includes, he said, the foreigner and the stranger, who oftentimes goes unnoticed and unappreciated be it Mexicans in the onion fields of Vidalia, Filipinos in construction sites of Dubai or Algerians in the streets of Rome selling souvenirs.

Nobody leaves their homeland unless they have to: Mary, Joseph and Jesus had to migrate to Egypt out of fear for their lives.  A lady living in Georgia once said to me, “Father, I know am not wanted here, but if I return to Mexico, I would be killed.  I am not wanted here nor there.  When will I find a place where I am wanted?”

The Gospel brings hope to all peoples especially to migrants who spend their entire earthly lives feeling displaced.  They belong to neither home nor host country, a stranger wherever he goes.
Today’s feast of the epiphany encourages us because it helps us immigrants realize that our true citizenship is in heaven and not on earth.  We become Strangers No Longer, the name of the United States and Mexican Bishops’ document on immigration.  The Gospel unites all believers regardless of origin and allows us to become equal, to be at home, to become one in Christ.

This reality must be lived out especially in the Church.  Prejudices must be destroyed, separation and distrust must cease, and hatred oftentimes increased by a lack of understanding or contact with the stranger must be eradicated.

We are all brothers and sisters in Christ.  We gather at this same Church, around the same altar to worship the same Christ.  We can learn from the stranger among us just as we learn about Christ from the Wise Men.  When we open our hearts to the stranger, showing love and hospitality, we will be opening wide the doors of our heart to Christ.

Pastoral Statement on Immigration by the Catholic Bishops of Georgia

Archbishop Gomez on Immigration

Presentation I gave at Franciscan University of Steubenville in November on the Church and illegal immigration


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