OFFICE FOR SOCIAL MINISTRY
The media often negatively portrays immigrants. However, in recent homilies within two days of each other, Pope Francis and Bishop Larry Silva focused on the connection between immigration and encountering Christ. This column would like to share excerpts from these inspiring homilies.
On Jan. 14, the World Day for Migrants and Refugees, Pope Francis celebrated Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica with immigrants from around the world and focused his homily on the Gospel invitation to encounter Christ in the “other.”
“Are we capable of recognizing Jesus Christ who is asking to be welcomed, protected, promoted and integrated? It is not easy to enter into another culture, to put oneself in the shoes of people so different from us, to understand their thoughts and their experiences. As a result we often refuse to encounter the other and raise barriers to defend ourselves. Local communities are sometimes afraid that the newly arrived will disturb the established order, will ‘steal’ something they have long labored to build up. And the newly arrived also have fears: they are afraid of confrontation, judgment, discrimination, failure. These fears are legitimate, based on doubts that are fully comprehensible from a human point of view. Having doubts and fears is not a sin. The sin is to allow these fears to determine our responses, to limit our choices, to compromise respect and generosity, to feed hostility and rejection. The sin is to refuse to encounter the other, the different, the neighbor, when this is in fact a privileged opportunity to encounter the Lord.”
Pope Francis concluded his homily with these inspiring words.
“From this encounter with Jesus present in the poor, the rejected, the refugee, the asylum seeker, flows our prayer of today. It is a reciprocal prayer: migrants and refugees pray for local communities, and local communities pray for the newly arrived and for migrants who have been here longer. … In this way, responding to the supreme commandment of charity and love of neighbor, may we all learn to love the other, the stranger, as ourselves.”
On Jan. 16, Bishop Silva celebrated Hawaii’s Red Mass with civic leaders and servants. His homily reminded all that Saints Damien and Marianne of Molokai were both immigrants themselves. He underscored that St. Damien immigrated to Hawaii “to share the riches of his faith in Jesus Christ.” “He is best known for recognizing Christ in those who had little to eat, in those who thirsted for the family love from which they had been yanked, in those who were sick with a disease that caused panic in the populace, and in those who were imprisoned on that isolated peninsula on the island of Molokai.”
His homily also underscored that St. Marianne immigrated here “to better the lives of those in whom she also saw Christ himself as they suffered. She gave food to the hungry and drink to the thirsty, cared for the sick and the imprisoned, and thus brought beauty, healing, and freedom through her devotion and love. Mother Marianne Cope was this immigrant who enriched our lands with her faith and love.”
Bishop Silva concluded his homily with these inspiring words. “We need to remind ourselves that our own salvation depends upon our care for the stranger and the alien, and upon our reaching out to those who are most in need. We come to worship the God who has reached out to us in love, who feeds us, who heals us, and who gives us true freedom. We come to thank him for who he is, so that we might be more and more like him. And we come to dedicate ourselves to the journey toward that place he has prepared for us from the foundation of the world.”
For the full texts of these two inspiring homilies on immigration and encountering Christ please visit http://www.officeforsocialministry.org/message-of-peace.
Mahalo,
Your friends at the Office for Social Ministry
A prayer
The theme for the U.S. Bishops 2018 National Migration Week in January, “Many Journeys, One Family,” draws attention to the fact that each of our families has a migration story, some recent and others in the distant past. Regardless of where we are and where we came from, we remain part of the human family and are called to live in solidarity with one another. The bishops shared the following prayer for all to use not only during National Migration week but all year long:
Merciful and Loving Father,
We beseech you, open our hearts so that we may provide hospitality and refuge to migrants who are lonely, afraid, and far from their homes.
Give us the courage to welcome every stranger as Christ in our midst, to invite them into our communities as a demonstration of Christ’s love for us.
We pray that when we encounter the other, we see in her the face of your Son, when we meet a stranger, that we take his hand in welcome.
Help us to live in solidarity with one another, to seek justice for those who are persecuted and comfort for those who are suffering.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
Amen
