VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- With their courage and tenacity in the pursuit of happiness, migrants and refugees are "messengers of hope," Pope Leo XIV said.

"Their courage and tenacity bear heroic testimony to a faith that sees beyond what our eyes can see and gives them the strength to defy death on the various contemporary migration routes," the pope wrote in his message for the celebration of the World Day of Migrants and Refugees Oct. 4-5, which will coincide with the Jubilee of Migrants.

Migrants and refugees also remind the Catholic Church that she, too, is on a journey, and true citizenship is in heaven, he wrote.

"Each time the church gives in to the temptation of 'sedentarization' and ceases to be a 'civitas peregrine,' God's people journeying towards the heavenly homeland, she ceases to be 'in the world' and becomes 'of the world,'" the pope wrote, citing the founder of his religious order, St. Augustine. 

Pope Leo's message, which focused on the theme "Migrants, missionaries of hope," was released at the Vatican July 25, the feast of St. James, the apostle.

"The current global context is sadly marked by wars, violence, injustice and extreme weather events, which force millions of people to leave their homelands in search of refuge elsewhere," his message said.

"The widespread tendency to look after the interests of limited communities poses a serious threat to the sharing of responsibility, multilateral cooperation, the pursuit of the common good and global solidarity for the benefit of our entire human family," it said.

"The prospect of a renewed arms race and the development of new armaments, including nuclear weapons, the lack of consideration for the harmful effects of the ongoing climate crisis, and the impact of profound economic inequalities make the challenges of the present and the future increasingly demanding," the pope wrote. 

"Faced with frightening scenarios and the possibility of global devastation," he wrote, more people must yearn for a future of peace and respect for the dignity of everyone. "Such a future is essential to God's plan for humanity and the rest of creation." 

God has placed the desire for happiness in the heart of every human being, he wrote.

In fact, he wrote, "the search for happiness, and the prospect of finding it beyond one's place of origin, is certainly one of the main motivations for the movement of people today."

"Many migrants, refugees and displaced persons are privileged witnesses of hope," he wrote. "Indeed, they demonstrate this daily through their resilience and trust in God, as they face adversity while seeking a future in which they glimpse that integral human development and happiness are possible."

"In a world darkened by war and injustice, even when all seems lost, migrants and refugees stand as messengers of hope," he wrote. 

"In a special way, Catholic migrants and refugees can become missionaries of hope in the countries that welcome them," Pope Leo wrote.

"With their spiritual enthusiasm and vitality, they can help revitalize ecclesial communities that have become rigid and weighed down, where spiritual desertification is advancing at an alarming rate," he wrote.

The presence of Catholic migrants and refugees "should be recognized and appreciated as a true divine blessing," he wrote. Quoting from the New Testament's Letter to the Hebrews, he reminded the faithful not to neglect showing hospitality to strangers since, "through it, some have unknowingly entertained angels."

Looking ahead to the jubilee celebrations and day of prayer in October, Pope Leo wrote he was entrusting all those who are on the move, as well as those who accompany them, "to the maternal protection of the Virgin Mary, comfort of migrants, so that she may keep hope alive in their hearts and sustain them in their commitment to building a world that increasingly resembles the Kingdom of God, the true homeland that awaits us at the end of our journey."

The Feast of St. James, the Apostle, known as the Greater, is celebrated today. The designation "the Greater" is in order to distinguish him from the other Apostle St. James, and it indicates he was chosen first before the other James. James the Greater was our Lord's cousin, and was St. John's brother. With Peter and John he was one of the witnesses of the Transfiguration, as later he was also of the agony in the garden. He was beheaded in Jerusalem in the year 42 or 43 A.D. on the orders of Herod Agrippa. Since the ninth century Spain has claimed the honour of possessing his relics, though it must be said that actual proof is far less in evidence than the devotion of the faithful. The pilgrimage to St. James of Compostella, Spain (known as Camino de Santiago, "the Way of St. James") in the Middle Ages attracted immense crowds; after the pilgrimage to Rome or the Holy Land, it was the most famous and the most frequented pilgrimage in Christendom. The pilgrim paths to Compostella form a network over Europe; they are dotted with pilgrims' hospices and chapels, some of which still exist. St. James is mentioned in the Roman Canon of the Mass.

The Optional Memorial of St. Sharbel Makhlūf (1828-1868) is celebrated today. He was a Lebanese monk, born in a small mountain village and ordained in 1858. Devoted to the Blessed Virgin Mary, he spent the last twenty-three years of his life as a hermit. Despite temptations to wealth and comfort, Saint Sharbel taught the value of poverty, self-sacrifice and prayer by the way he lived his life. This optional memorial is new to the USA liturgical calendar and was inscribed on July 24, 2004.

Today the Church celebrates the Optional Memorial of St. Bridget (1302-1373), patron saint of Sweden. She married a young prince and lived happily with him for 28 years, bearing him eight children. St. Catherine of Sweden was their daughter. After her husband died, Bridget founded the Order of the Most Holy Savior, erecting at Vadstena a double monastery for monks and nuns. Following the guidance of the Holy Spirit, she later went to Rome, where she worked for the return of the Popes from Avignon. She died of natural causes in 1373, at the age of seventy-one. This Scandinavian mystic is famous for her Revelations concerning the sufferings of our Redeemer.

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