HOMILY FOR TWENTY-SIXTH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME (C)

Fr Billy Swan

Dear friends. One of the biggest changes in Irish society over the last 30 years has been the influx of people from other countries. As proof of this, our parish schools have pupils from all over the world with a diverse mix of languages, cultures and religions. Not long ago, we had to go abroad to meet people from different countries. Now they live next door.

This Sunday marks the 111^th World Day of Migrants and Refugees when we are asked to consider our attitudes to people who have made Ireland their home and those still looking for a home. In his message for this day, Pope Leo has focused on the theme of hope – how people who are displaced and living away from home are sustained by hope and how migrant peoples can become missionaries of hope to our parish communities.

One of the great strengths of the Catholic Church is that we have the resources to help this integration process. For example, at every Mass, there are people from many different countries who come here to our Church to pray and celebrate our faith. Think of what our parish would be like today without these friends from abroad. How few we would be! These people came to us with strong faith at a time when our faith was weak. So, when we see people from different countries involved in the parish, we see a Church that is stronger because of them. This is what Pope Leo is speaking of when he says:

‘In a special way, Catholic migrants and refugees can become missionaries of hope in the countries that welcome them, forging new paths of faith where the message of Jesus Christ has not yet arrived or initiating interreligious dialogue based on everyday life and the search for common values. With their spiritual enthusiasm and vitality, they can help revitalize ecclesial communities that have become rigid and weighed down…Their presence, then, should be recognized and appreciated as a true divine blessing, an opportunity to open oneself to the grace of God, who gives new energy and hope to his Church’ (Message for World Day of Migrants and Refugees 2025).

Here in Wexford parish, we try to model the diverse family of God that includes people from every nation and culture. By welcoming our friends from abroad and helping them to integrate into Irish life, we stand above and against any form of racism and show how integrating people into Irish society is both possible and successful. Yes, every country needs to control its borders. Yes, people entering our country have responsibilities as well as rights. Yes, they are called to give and not just receive.

All that said, our first duty is to have a heart that feels for vulnerable people who find themselves as migrants and refugees.  This teaching comes right from the Gospel story of the rich man and Lazarus and how the rich man was condemned - not for the fact that he was rich but for his blindness in the face of the dire need of his neighbour Lazarus. He did not see because he did not first feel with his heart.

Today's Gospel warns us against hardness of heart. It also warns us against filling our minds with tidy little formulae which allow us to do nothing in the face of misery, poverty and pain. The Gospel calls us away from ‘gated communities’ and lives protected from inconvenience at any cost. It warns us away from being so full and rich that we are blinded to the reality of the poor. For if we keep others locked out from our comfortable world then we keep ourselves locked in.

I conclude with the words of St Vincent de Paul whose feast we celebrate today/yesterday (27^th September): ‘We must try to be stirred by our neighbours’ worries and distress. We must beg God to pour into our hearts, sentiments of pity and compassion and to fill them again and again with the feelings that help us first to see, then to respond to what we see’.