HOMILY
Here is the text of a homily by Father Robert Stark, director of the Office for Social Ministry for the Diocese of Honolulu and regional coordinator for the Vatican’s Section on Migrants and Refugees, given Sept. 29, the Feast of the Archangels and the World Day for Migrants and Refugees, at St. Raphael Parish in El Paso, Texas, on the US-Mexico border. Father Stark was part of the Sept. 23-27 pastoral encounter sponsored by the U.S. bishops for the World Day for Migrants and Refugees.
The images in today’s Gospel, and of today’s Feast of the Archangels and St. Raphael the traveler, are very fitting for our observance today of the World Day for Migrants and Refugees.
The Gospel images of the rich man and the poor man Lazarus reflect the desperate disparity and discrimination painfully experienced by migrants at borders between rich and poor countries. There are many such borders in the world existing not only between countries, but also within countries, our communities and even parishes. Borders define who is included or excluded. Borders protect differences in wealth and opportunities. Border walls blind us to people on the other side, or force us to see them as “others,” not as our neighbor, not as our fellow human beings and members of the race we share in common, the human race.
In the Gospel parable today there is no communication between the rich man and Lazarus just as today there is no real humane communication between the migrants trying to seek refuge from violence and poverty, and those who refuse them entry, and while doing so, cruelly separate children from parents. Migrants have no say in the decisions that exclude them. Those who decide on exclusion do not want to see or hear the marginalized. Migrants and refugees are forced to remain in Mexico or return home and continue to be victims of the violence and poverty they fled.
Migrants and refugees are pictured on a large bronze statue in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican Sept. 29, 2019. Pope Francis attended the unveiling of the statue after celebrating a Mass for World Day of Migrants and Refugees. (CNS photo/Paolo Galosi, pool)
In Luke’s Gospel parable, the rich man has no name; but the poor man clearly has a name, Lazarus, which means “God helping.” Through the parable, Jesus is telling us that we will be remembered in this life and the afterlife not by how much we possessed, but by how we responded to the invitation to encounter God through accompanying the vulnerable, or as Jesus said in Matthew’s Gospel through “what you do to the least of these, you do to Me.”
(This meaningful Gospel parable reminds me of the memorable note my Mom left all her children to be read at her funeral. It said simply, “Live the way you want to be remembered.”)
This past week I had the opportunity to see the wounded Christ in the tearful, fearful faces of those at the Juarez Casa de Migrantes as they were being bused back to the Guatemala border. (Bishop Mark Seitz of El Paso asked for pardon from these refugee families for shutting the door on them.)
The image of Lazarus lying at the gate with open sores, hungering for the crumbs left over from the table of the rich man, is a reflection of all the world’s marginalized. The enormous imbalances in the consumption of the earth’s resources between rich and poor countries too often leave those born on the poor side of borders with only left-over crumbs. A core message of the Gospel today is that the differences in the possession and the use of the earth’s goods have deepened the abyss between rich and poor. That abyss is further deepened by closed doors. To overcome the abyss that divides, we need to build bridges not walls — bridges of welcoming, protecting, promoting and integrating not just migrants but all the marginalized in our world.
Pope Francis asked that the theme of this year’s World Day for Migrants and Refugees be, “It is not just about migrants.” This theme helps us focus on how the questions or fears we may have about migrants as “others” are actually questions about our society and how we live our faith with the so-called “others.”
The pope’s message today is a call to encounter God with all “others on the margins” and that when we focus on migrants it is not just about migrants, it is about our shared humanity, all people, our not excluding anyone, our putting the least and last in the first place, and Christ’s call for us to build the City of God, a kingdom of justice and peace without borders — sin fronteras.
Today, in the Vatican’s St. Peter’s Square, Pope Francis blessed a life-size sculpture, called “Angels Unawares,” of a boat overflowing with migrants and refugees including the Holy Family and angel wings arising from the middle of the humans huddled together in hope. At the base of the sculpture is a Scripture passage reminding us to see the foreigners in our midst as possible angels — like St. Raphael — travelers with a special message, an invitation to encounter God in our shared vulnerability.
Migrants and refugees are an invitation from God to transform our shared vulnerability into a resilient strength. This is also the moving message of the memorial at the site of the recent Walmart massacre “love overcomes hate, life overcomes death, to make El Paso Strong.”
Today the Gospel of the rich man and Lazarus, the Feast of St. Raphael — the traveling angel — and the World Day of Migrants and Refugees, all call us to ask ourselves what are we doing to build God’s Kingdom of resilient justice and peace for all where trust and faith have no borders? What are we doing to transform our shared vulnerabilities into the resilient strength of an iglesia sin fronteras? Are we aware of and responding to the “angels” in our midst. This is why today we are gathered in this Eucharist to worship, be nourished and sent out to deepen our encounter with Christ by building God’s Kingdom together sin fronteras. Amen.
