Nothing New: Homily for Thursday, November 13, 2025

Poor treatment of immigrants is nothing new in the United States. It was not all that long ago that Catholics were the victims of great discrimination and prejudice. Interestingly Catholic immigrants experience great prejudice today. But God’s grace is always new, and it helps us to become holy. Readings for Today.

Nothing New

It’s in the book of Ecclesiastes that we read that there’s nothing new under the sun. And in this Ecclesiastes is trying to figure out what life means, because things around us seem to be repeating themselves and in some instances being very futile. The rivers flow into the ocean, for example, yet the ocean is never full.

In many ways our current situation with refugees and migrants is something that has been part and parcel of the history of the Catholic Church in the United States. This isn’t new, it’s just a new manifestation of the way that an old sin in this country has been manifest.

Catholics from the very beginning were not treated well as immigrants. We know, for example, that in the colonies it was not the case that those who came suffering religious persecution were very open to Catholics. In fact, the colony of Maryland was founded in particular for Catholics. We know in our lives that as immigrants began to come to the United States, each group in its turn faced persecution and difficulty.

When the Irish came in huge droves, it was the case that we saw all kinds of prejudice, most notably Irish Catholic need not apply. I remember researching for the 100th anniversary of a parish and there was an editor of a local newspaper in Vermont that wrote an editorial because he had been criticized because he ran an ad for the Catholic Church in the community.

And what he was saying is, “I’m not one of them. You know that I’m not a papist. You know that I have no love for that wrong religion, etc.” When the Irish became settled, it’s not like they remembered their persecution. Their persecution was simply transferred to first the Germans, then the Italians. And it was this persecution of the Italians that became the very thing that Mother Cabrini was asked to do because God wanted her to.

She had a tough life. She was born two months premature, like me actually, and she was very sickly. In fact, the religious community she sought to enter were pretty skeptical because of her poor health and didn’t admit her, or she faced the sabotage of a priest who didn’t want to lose her as a teacher in his school. But she persevered. She continued. If a religious community was not going to have her, she would start her own.

And she went to Pope Leo expecting to go to Asia, the reason she chose Frances Xavier as her religious name. But Pope Leo had other notions. Pope Leo was concerned because there were a number of Italians that were coming to the United States, and he was hearing that they weren’t being treated well, they weren’t being cared for, and he was worried that they would lose their faith. And so he sent her to the United States, the first American to be canonized.

But I think the more important point for us today is not her outstanding care for the Italian immigrants throughout the United States, but the fact that she walked among us. She walked up and down Grove Street and in other streets in the neighborhood, seeking help for the Italian immigrants.

She was very well known, founded the shrine in Golden, Colorado. I guess the shrine is that way. In Golden, Colorado. And I know at least myself, that’s where I did my pre-vestition retreat, was at the Cabrini Shrine. There was a World Youth Day event that was held there. A little aside, so when we were there for our pre-vestition retreat, I was walking up to the big huge statue of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and there were all these signs along the steps that said, “Stay on the path. Beware dangerous snakes.”

And I remember asking one of the sisters what dangerous snakes there were and what I should look out for. And she laughed and she said, “Oh, there aren’t any. We don’t see any dangerous snakes here. We just put those signs up because we didn’t want the people who came for World Youth Day to leave the steps. We didn’t want them traipsing all over the place.”

But what’s the message for us? Just as Frances Cabrini was called to minister to immigrants and migrants and did so throughout her life, so too are we. It’s not Frances Cabrini walking the streets of our neighborhood. It is us. And we are called either to be people of holiness or not. I haven’t read it yet, but the bishops in their meeting from Baltimore released a strong statement about the treatment of immigrants, migrants, and refugees in the United States in this current time.

Because more than anything else, when we see people who are living in fear, when we see migrants, immigrants, refugees not being treated well, what is really the case is that our brothers and sisters are not being treated well. Many who live in fear today are Catholic. And so at the very least, if we were to be provincial, we should at least care for them.

But of course, Jesus tells us in our own lives that it is not the case that we can limit to whom we proclaim the gospel and God’s love for all people. But lest it get lost, the gospel today gives us an important thing to consider as we reflect on the life of Frances Xavier Cabrini. And that is this. Martha and Mary. Now, Martha became a saint, so she gets a bad rap, I would argue, in this gospel reading as being the one who isn’t seeking the right thing.

Lest it be forgotten, it is true that Frances Xavier Cabrini did many wonderful things. She was busy. She reached out and did a lot of things. But more important than that, she chose the better part. Her work came out of her reflection and contemplation from the Lord. That’s the way it should be for us. And so today, as we are called to be saints in our age, reaching out to those on the margins, let us remember that all we do comes from this powerful relationship with the Lord Jesus.

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