On July 1 Cardinal Francesco Montenegro, Archbishop of Agrigento, in a homily about migration, said: “It’s Jesus coming to us on a vessel, it’s him we see in the man or child who drowns, it’s Jesus who looks through the garbage in search of a little food.”

Archbishop Charles Scicluna, in his address at the presentation of the Nativity crib to the Holy Father on December 9, 2016, said: “The luzzu in Saint Peter’s Square becomes for us a celebration of our [Maltese] roots, of the encounter with the Apostle of the Gentiles. But it is also an urgent appeal for a generous commitment of welcome to the people who today cross the Mediterranean in search of our solidarity.” 

During his homily on the feast of St Publius in 2015, Archbishop Scicluna said: “We cannot celebrate this feast here today and then turn round and use words of hate towards migrants on social media.”

The same Christ, as present in the migrants, one day will look at my face and yours and say to me and you: “I was a stranger and you welcomed me” (Mt 25:35) or “I was a stranger and you did not welcome me” (Matt 25:43). 

The fate of our eternal destiny depends on which decision we are going to take vis-à-vis the one voice of Christ who is continually asking us to love Him in the stranger at our doors.