Liturgy of the Word at the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Guadalupe (4 November 1982)

On Thursday, 4 November 1982, the Holy Father celebrated the Liturgy of the Word at the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Guadalupe. In his homily, the Pope reflected on God's command to Abraham, to go from his homeland to a land of promise.

Dear brothers in the Episcopate,
dear brothers and sisters.

1. We have just listened to the Word of Yahweh addressed to Abraham: “Go from your country, from your homeland, / and from your father's house, / to the land that I will show you. / I will make you a great people” ( Gen 12, 1f). Abraham responded to this divine call by facing the uncertainties of a long journey that would become the characteristic sign of the People of God.

The messianic promise made to Abraham is combined with the command to abandon his native country. On his journey to the promised land, the immense historical procession of all humanity towards the messianic goal also begins. The promise will be fulfilled precisely among the descendants of Abraham, and therefore the mission of preparing, in the human race, the place for God's Anointed One, Jesus Christ, fell to them. Echoing these biblical images, the Second Vatican Council explains that “the Christian community is made up of men who, gathered around Christ, are guided by the Holy Spirit in their pilgrimage towards the kingdom of the Father” ( Gaudium et Spes , 1).

Heard here, at the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe, this reading from the Old Testament evokes the image of many children of Extremadura and all of Spain who left as emigrants from their native land to other regions and countries.

2. In the encyclical Laborem Exercens I underlined that "this ancient phenomenon" of migratory movements has continued over the centuries, and has acquired greater dimensions in recent times due to the "great implications of contemporary life" (John Paul II, Laborem Exercens , 23).

The worker has the right to leave his country in search of better living conditions, as well as to return to it (cf. Ibid . 23). But emigration involves painful aspects. This is why I called it a "necessary evil" ( Ibid .), because it constitutes a loss for the country, which sees men and women leaving in the fullness of their lives.

They abandon their cultural community and find themselves transplanted into a new environment, with different traditions, sometimes with a different language. Behind them they leave, perhaps, places condemned to a rapid aging of the population, as happens in some of the Spanish provinces.

It would be all the more humane if those responsible for the economic order, as my predecessor Pope John XXIII indicated, would ensure that capital seeks out workers, and not vice versa, "to offer many people the concrete possibility of creating a better future for themselves." , without being forced to leave one's environment, with a transplant that is almost impossible without involving painful ruptures and difficult periods of human adaptation and social integration" (John XXIII, Pacem in Terris , 46).

This objective represents a real challenge to the intelligence and effectiveness of those in government, to try to avoid serious sacrifices for many families, forced into a "forced separation which sometimes jeopardizes the stability and unity of the family, and often the faces situations of injustice" (John Paul II, Allocutio ad quosdam Hispaniae episcopos occasion oblata ad Limina visitationis coram admissos habita , 7, die 14 Dec. 1981: Teachings of John Paul II , IV, 2 [1981] 946). A challenge for those responsible for the national or international order, who must prepare rebalancing programs between rich and poor regions.

3. It must be kept in mind that the sacrifice of emigrants also represents a contribution for the places that receive them and also for peaceful international coexistence, since it opens up economic opportunities to depressed social groups and relieves the social pressure that the blockade produces, when it reaches high levels .

Unfortunately, the use of labor is often not dictated by nobly human purposes, nor does it seek the good of the national and international community; it frequently responds to uncontrolled movements, according to the law of supply and demand.

Host regions and countries too often forget that immigrant workers are human creatures torn from their homeland by necessity. They are not moved by the simple right to emigrate, but by the combination of some economic factors unrelated to the emigrant himself. In many cases these are culturally weak people who have to suffer serious difficulties before adapting to the new environment, of which they perhaps even ignore the language. If they are subjected to discrimination or harassment, they will fall victim to dangerous moral situations.

On the other hand, the political authorities and the entrepreneurs themselves have the obligation not to place emigrants at a lower human and work level than that of local workers. Furthermore, the population must avoid manifestations of hostility, or rejection, respecting the cultural and religious peculiarities of the emigrant. Sometimes they are forced to live in unworthy homes, to receive discriminatory wages and to endure painful social and emotional segregation, which makes them feel like second-class citizens. And so months, and even years, pass before the new society shows him a truly human face. This existential crisis profoundly affects the religiosity of the emigrants, whose Christian faith perhaps only had sentimental elements, so that these easily crumble in an adverse environment.

4. Faced with these dangers and threats, the Church must try to offer its collaboration so that an effective response can be found.

The solutions do not mainly depend on it, but it must and can help through the coordinated work of the ecclesial community of the landing place. I myself, in previous years, had the opportunity to meet many of my compatriots who had emigrated to various countries around the world and I was able to see how much religious assistance that has the warmth of a distant homeland helps and consoles them.

I therefore consider it essential that emigrants are accompanied by chaplains, possibly from their place or country, especially in places where there is a linguistic barrier: the priest constitutes a comforting reference for immigrants, especially those who have recently arrived, and can also provide them valid orientations in the inevitable initial tensions. In this regard, I also want to encourage the effort that the Church makes in Spain, through specialized pastoral secretariats, to integrate the gypsy community and eliminate any trace of discrimination.

It is up to the authorities of the nation or place of birth to offer all possible support to emigrant citizens, especially if they have gone to foreign countries. A large percentage of emigrants abroad, sooner or later, will return to their homeland, and must never feel abandoned by the nation to which they belong and to which they intend to return. Among the essential means for the realization of these relations with the homeland, the distribution of information material, the bilingual teaching system for children, the facilitation of the exercise of the right to vote, the well-organised visits of cultural or artistic groups and other stand out. similar initiatives.

But, above all, the leaders of the host country must generously direct their initiatives in favor of emigrants, with help in work and with economic and cultural help; preventing them from becoming simple wheels in the industrial gear, without reference to human values. To measure the true democratic stature of a modern nation it is difficult to find a more exact yardstick than that offered by the observation of its behavior towards immigrants.

5. Naturally, the emigrant also has to make a loyal effort to coexist in the new environment, in which he is offered the possibility of stable and fairly paid work. Many times, the resolution of doubts and suspicions and the openness to dialogue and sympathy depend on his behavior.

The emigrant and the local authorities must coordinate their conduct with particular care in the case of families who, having arrived from another Spanish region, intend to settle permanently in that territory. Difficulties can appear when there is a language difference between the place of origin and the host place.

The emigrant must loyally accept his real situation, express his desire to remain and try to fit into the cultural customs of the place or region that welcomes him. For the authorities there is an obligation not to force the pace of insertion of these families, to offer the possibility of a gradual and peaceful entry into the new climate, to show the public will not to discriminate for linguistic reasons, to provide the necessary scholastic facilities so that children do not feel in difficulty or humiliated in school, offering them bilingual education, without impositions; support initiatives that allow emigrants to preserve the cultural lifeblood of their homeland. In this way, painful and useless opposition will be avoided, and the cultural heritage of the area that offers hospitality, in giving, will also be silently enriched with elements brought from other environments.

A special word deserves the new drama posed to emigrants by the global economic crisis, which forces them to return to their homeland because they were fired earlier than expected. Powerful nations must give fair treatment to these workers, who have contributed to common development with great sacrifices. They were useful in a special way, much more than what a simple salary could pay. They, the weakest, deserve special attention that avoids closing a chapter of their lives with failure.

Thinking of so many people far from home, the situation of prisoners in penitentiaries comes to mind. Many of them wrote to me before my trip to Spain. I would like to send them my cordial greeting, assuring them of my prayers for them, for their intentions and their needs.

6. The liturgy of the Word - as we have heard - offers us the figure of Abraham, our father in faith. It also shows us Mary, who sets out from Nazareth towards Galilee, to "a city of Judah" called, according to tradition, Ain Karin. There, having entered "Zechariah's house, she greeted Elizabeth", who pronounced the words of the well-known blessing.

Along with men, along with the generations of this land of Extremadura and Spain, also walked Mary, the Mother of Christ. In the new places of settlement She greeted, in the power of the Holy Spirit, the new peoples, who would respond with faith and veneration to the Mother of God.

In this way, the messianic promise made to Abraham spread to the New World and the Philippines. Isn't it significant that today we find ourselves in the Marian Sanctuary of Guadalupe in Spain, and that at the same time the Sanctuary of the same name in Mexico has become a place of pilgrimage for all of Latin America? I too had the joy of going as a pilgrim to the Mexican Guadalupe at the beginning of my service in the See of Peter.

And so, as in other languages, but above all in Spanish - since the great family of Hispanic peoples is expressed in this language - the words with which Elizabeth one day greeted Mary constantly resonate:
"Blessed are you among women, and blessed are fruit of your womb! Why do I have the Mother of my Lord to come to me? Behold, as soon as the voice of your greeting reached my ears, the child rejoiced for joy in my womb. And blessed is she who believed that the words of the Lord would be fulfilled” ( Lk 1, 42-45).

Blessed are you! This greeting unites millions of hearts; of these lands, of Spain, of other continents, united around Mary, in Guadalupe, in many parts of the world.

Thus, Mary is not only the attentive Mother of men, of peoples, of emigrants. She is also the model in faith and virtues that we must imitate during our earthly pilgrimage. So be it, with my apostolic blessing for all.

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