Speaking to a congregation that included immigrants from more than 40 nations, Cardinal Cupich called on Catholics to follow the example set by the Magi and the Holy Family on Epiphany by welcoming the stranger, embracing those who are different and finding the joy in diversity.

The cardinal was the main celebrant of the Jan. 8 Mass that marked the start of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ National Migration Week, which was started 50 years ago to pray for and stand in solidarity with those who must leave their homes and seek shelter elsewhere.

In his homily, he spoke of the benefits immigrants have brought to the United States. Those benefits can be seen by following the example of the Magi and their response to the birth of Jesus.

“Our response to him is to be attentive to see where he is taking us,” Cardinal Cupich said. “Today, on this feast of the Epiphany, as we gather to pray for immigration and work and pledge to advocate for laws that protect the migrant and the immigrant, we are people who come together to hear how the Magi have so much to teach us. Notice that they first of all follow the light in the heavens. The sky is dark, the environment is dark. There is an uncertainty. And they are led, not by the fear of the darkness, but by the brightness above.”

Herod, by contrast, responded in fear to news of the newborn king, the cardinal said.

“Isn’t that a message to us today? So many want to make us afraid of diversity, of the migrant, of the immigrant who is looking for a better life,” Cardinal Cupich said. “Can we not say, let’s see where Christ is leading us? Let’s not be afraid. … It’s a time to remind our nation that we have been enriched by following the light of diversity, openness to the stranger.”

When the Magi arrived at the home of the Holy Family, they no doubt looked strange, the cardinal said, but they were welcomed anyway.

“And what happens? They enrich the lives in Bethlehem. They shared their gifts with them.”

The gifts that immigrants bring were on display, he said, in the entrance procession of people in the traditional dress of their homelands, and in the choirs from the Polish and Filipino communities.

“That is what we should also keep in mind about the migrant and the immigrant,” Cardinal Cupich said. “When we respond in human solidarity with those who are coming to this land, we will not be impoverished. We have always been enriched.”

The encounter between the Magi and Holy Family brought joy, the cardinal said, just as the church experiences great joy every day as it works with migrants and immigrants, doing everything from helping them learn English to assisting with employment and housing.

“We do this ever joyfully because we see that our lives are enriched,” he said. “Again, it’s the antidote to fear.”

After their encounter, the cardinal said, the Magi were changed, and they went home a different way.

“Let us be open, like the Magi, to go from here changed,” he said. “To have our hearts be open, to realize that when we do all this, we are giving true homage to Christ who was born in Bethlehem.”

On Jan. 10, the Chicago Tribune published an op-ed the cardinal wrote that calls on President-elect Donald Trump to preserve the protections afforded to young people who were brought to the United States as children without documents by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which was created by executive order in 2012.

It allows young people to pursue their education and work without fear of deportation.

The people helped by DACA are often called “DREAMers” because they were the subject of the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors bill. The bill was first introduced in Congress in 2001 and would have allowed DREAMers to stay in the United States and eventually obtain citizenship.

In the op-ed, Cardinal Cupich urged lawmakers to turn their attention first to a measure that would enshrine DACA into law and then to passing the DREAM Act.

“To remove DACA protections would put hundreds of thousands of young people at risk of deportation, cutting short their dreams of a better future,” Cardinal Cupich wrote. “But that won’t be the only consequence of forcing these aspiring Americans out. Deport them, and we deport their potential to make our nation stronger. Deport them, and we deport our future builders of bridges, teachers of children, savers of lives. Deport them, and we deport our fundamental values as Americans.”

DACA allowed Steffany Velazguez to pursue her master’s degree in counseling psychology, she told the congregation.

She spoke of being an elementary school student who would painstakingly translate her homework into Spanish to figure it out, then back into English to turn it in; of being a high school student watching avenues to her future shut down because she was undocumented, until suddenly she won a private college scholarship; and about how after college, she was unable to work in her field.

When DACA went into effect, she was able to go to graduate school, and she now works as a counselor for women who are suffering from the loss of a pregnancy or other pregnancy-related issues and as a parish counselor.

“I felt important to society” after DACA went into effect, Velazguez said. “I felt like I mattered. I felt welcomed and I felt loved, loved by a country that adopted me the way St. Joseph adopted Jesus.”

A Syrian refugee who settled in Chicago with the help of Catholic Charities, Ferash Shawish, spoke of his first impression of the United States when he and his wife arrived at O’Hare International Airport in September 2015.

“It was a beautiful, sunny September day, and Jessica from Catholic Charities was waiting for us,” he said. “She smiled and said ‘Welcome to the United States.’”

Shawish, a doctor in his homeland, said he is working as a receptionist in a medical clinic while he studies for his recertification exams so that he can continue his medical career.

He said he only knew what he heard from the media about the United States before he arrived.

“They never mentioned how great this country is,” he said. “Thank God we are here now.”