"And the word became flesh and dwelt among us." Those words are familiar to Catholics.  They are recited daily in the prayer known as the "Angelus." They present a core belief of our faith, namely that the Son of God became one of us. From his place with the Father, the Son of God entered our humanity.  Jesus Christ is the "Divine Immigrant," consubstantial with the Father yet incarnate.

When we look at the life of the Lord, we see him traveling from place to place.  Sacred Scripture tells us where he was from and what his ancestral lineage was. But nowhere in the Bible do we find his permanent address, the location of his house, where he lived after beginning his public ministry.  He lived and worked as an immigrant, an itinerant preacher, on many levels.

Our readings today provide part of the context out of which our Catholic social teaching as it relates to immigration and immigrants has developed.  It is not the Church's responsibility to enact civil legislation or to take sides, participating as Church in differences of partisan political debate. No, it is, rather, the Church's responsibility to educate the faithful in those matters where human moral interactions, informed by Gospel faith and Church teaching, need to be lifted up and prayerfully considered. 

That is why we are here today. That is what we are doing here today.  We believe, after all, that all human beings are created by God in his image. We believe, after all, that Jesus Christ, the Word made Flesh who dwelt among us, came to save us from sin and our lesser instincts.  We believe, after all, that Christ instituted the Church as His living body, a community of faith, to continue his saving mission throughout time. And so we, the Church, teach and preach his Word and his message whenever the opportunity arises.  The life that confronts immigrants in our country today is one such opportunity.

We turn, first, to the Word of God.  "We are strangers and aliens no longer," the Letter to the Ephesians proclaims.  "No, we are fellow citizens and members of the household of God." The "household of God" has no national boundaries. The Psalmist announces, "We shall go up with joy to the house of our God." The "house of God" has no zip code.  "When the Son of Man comes in his glory ... all the nations will be assembled before him," Matthew's Gospel states.  It is Jesus, then, who makes the division among us, based not upon where people live but separating those who care for Him from those who do not.  "When I was a stranger, you welcomed me ... whatever you do for these, the least of my brethren, you do for me." Those are his words. That is his message.  That, therefore, is our responsibility as his followers.  That becomes the Church's moral imperative.

The social teachings of the Catholic Church derive their moral authority from Jesus Christ.  As our teachings develop and unfold, the Church interprets and applies them where the situation warrants.

In our day, again, the Church considers immigration reform one of those situations.  The Church asks us, requires us to put our faith in its teachings into action.  Beginning with the passover of ancient Israel --- God's Chosen People --- from slavery to freedom in the Promised Land; continuing with Jesus' own journey and mission from the realms of his divine existence into our very own flesh; moving with Mary and Joseph to escape from the death sentence of Herod to safety in Egypt; returning to his own native land, where he remained a refugee; following him on his life's journey preaching the Gospel; walking with him to Jerusalem and to his death; witnessing his glorification as he rose to new life; watching him as he returned to his Father; giving birth to the Church through the descent of the Holy Spirit; promising to be with us always as the Church carried his presence to the ends of the earth. 

Immigration has been part of our salvation history.  From this background and context the Church has developed principles to support its teaching.

Those principles are as follows.  People have the right to migrate to sustain their lives and the lives of their families, a right that is balanced with the belief that a country has the right to regulate its borders and to control immigration.  And with that right comes the conviction that a country must regulate its borders with justice and mercy.  Where there is no justice and mercy, there is no peace.  "My peace I leave you" Jesus tells us.  "My peace I give you."  Peace is the consequence of justice and mercy. And justice delayed is justice denied.  Such delay and such denial is inconsistent with what we stand for as Catholics, especially in a country that celebrates diversity as a defining value and that has, since its very beginning, offered immigrants a new life of hope.

Speaking to the Bishops of the United States during his pastoral visit here in 2008, Pope Benedict XVI remarked:

"Many of the people to whom (Archbishop) John Carroll and his fellow Bishops were ministering two centuries ago had traveled from distant lands.  The diversity of their origins is reflected in the rich variety of ecclesial life in present-day America.  …, I want to encourage you and your communities to continue to welcome the immigrants who join your ranks today, to share their joys and hopes, to support them in their sorrow and trials, and to help them flourish in their new home.  This, indeed, is what your fellow countrymen have done for generations.  From the beginning, they have opened their doors to the tired, the poor, the ‘huddled masses yearning to breathe free.’  These are the people whom America has made her own" (Homily at Vespers, National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, Washington, D.C., April 16, 2008).

In his closing reflection to the visit of American Bishops to the Holy See in 2012, Pope Benedict said: "The Catholic community in the United States continues, with great generosity, to welcome waves of new immigrants, to provide them with pastoral care and charitable assistance, and to support ways of regularizing their situation, especially with regard to the unification of families. A particular sign of this is the long-standing commitment of the American bishops to immigration reform.

"This is clearly a difficult and complex issue from the civil and political, as well as the social and economic, but above all from the human point of view. It is thus of profound concern to the church, since it involves ensuring the just treatment and the defense of the human dignity of immigrants."

Although political disagreements exist regarding the best approach to take in our country, virtually everyone is agreed that our immigration policies and practices are badly in need of comprehensive reform.  It is, without a doubt, one of the most pressing issues of our day.

The bishops of our country have outlined the moral elements involved in immigration reform: providing some path to earned legalization for immigrants of good character; establishing a framework that allows foreign-born workers to sustain their lives through safe, protected, honest employment; keeping families together; honoring basic human rights; addressing the root causes of world poverty and advancing systemic change; enforcing legitimate measures to control our borders in ways that are targeted, proportional and humane.

This is not a political platform or a partisan agenda.  It is a reflection on the Gospel and the Catholic Church’s social teaching.

Earlier this summer, Pope Francis traveled to Lampedusa, the Sicilian island where thousands of immigrants lost their lives traveling there from Africa.  He explained that he made this his first trip as Pope “to pray, to make a gesture of closeness, but also to reawaken our consciences so that what happened would not be repeated.”  The Church, he said, “is near to you in the search for a more dignified life for yourselves and for your families.” 

The Pope reflected that we live in a “culture of well-being, that makes us think of ourselves, that makes us insensitive to the cries of others …that brings indifference to others, that brings even the globalization of indifference…We are accustomed to the suffering of others, it doesn’t concern us, it’s none of our business …let us ask the Lord for the grace to weep over our indifference, to weep over the cruelty in the world, in ourselves, and even in those who anonymously make socio-economic decisions that open the way to tragedies like this.”

Today, we make his prayer our own, hoping that the better angels of our nature might prevail in our own country, in our own experience, in our own efforts to open our hearts to those seeking a better life.  May Mary, our Blessed Mother and the Mother of Jesus, “the divine immigrant,” help us to see Jesus’ face in those of the immigrant and the poor.