Bishop Emeritus Gerald Barnes celebrated the annual Migrant Mass on Jan. 25 at Sacred Heart Church in Rancho Cucamonga. The Mass began with a procession of banners of various saints who have accompanied immigrants in their journey, including Saint Kateri Tekakwitha, Saint Josephine Bakhita, Saint Toribio Romo, Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini, and Saint Giovanni Battista Scalabrini. During the Mass, the readings and songs were proclaimed in several different languages.
During his homily Bishop Barnes related the day’s Gospel reading, “the people who sit in darkness have seen a great light,” to the current immigration tensions in the United States.
“Today, many of our immigrants and refugees may also feel they are living in darkness, today many of them are living as if they are in exile, they’ve left their native countries and sought a better life for their families and for themselves,” Bishop Barnes preached. “Sometimes the immigrant feels forgotten, sometimes they think that no one cares about them. Sometimes they feel lost, intimidated, living in fear and even with anger. And Jesus tells them, tells us, ‘Come, follow me.’ He listens to the cry of the poor, the cry of the forgotten, to the cry of the scapegoat, to the cry of the immigrant and refugee and He says to them, ‘I will never forget you, my people, I have carved you in the palm of my hand, I will never forget you. I will not leave you orphaned, I will never forget my own.'"
The Migrant Mass has been celebrated every year since 2007 to honor of the many immigrant communities that enrich our region and to highlight the Church’s teaching on migration.
Later in his homily Bishop Barnes shared about his recent experience of concelebrating Mass at the Adelanto ICE Processing Center with Bishop Alberto Rojas and six other California bishops.
“We were not given an opportunity to speak with them personally, or have any kind of contact with them, but we were there and when we walked out into the field, because we didn’t have Mass in a room we had Mass in the field and… when they saw us walk out to the field to celebrate, they broke into spontaneous applause. ‘Somebody cares about us. We are not forgotten.’ And they were people from different countries, different races, different backgrounds,” Bishop Barnes said.
To conclude the homily, Bishop Barnes encouraged the diocesan faithful to follow Jesus and reflect his light.
“We follow Him for each other. Jesus says, ‘follow me,’ let us follow Him, the light that takes us out of darkness. Let us reflect that light to others. We have to receive the light in order to give the light. We have to live in hope in order to be a sign of hope for others… Let us remind others that God does hear the cry of the poor and that He does not abandon His people.”