Come, you whom my Father has blessed, says the Lord: I was a stranger and you welcomed me. I tell you, anything you did for one of my brothers, you did for me. The Church honors today St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, who founded the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart to care for poor children in schools and hospitals. In 1889, at the petition of Pope Leo XIII, she left her native Italy for the United States to work among Italian immigrants. For twenty eight years, she labored in the United States and South America, establishing some sixty-seven institutions (schools, hospitals, and orphanages. She was the first American citizen to be canonized (1946). She is the patroness of immigrants and migrants.
It took slightly under thirty years for Frances Xavier Cabrini to be declared a saint. Whereas it is not the shortest duration between one’s death and his/her declaration as a saint (other have taken only two years), it can be generally said that it can be grouped among the “shorter” ones. The reason for this can be attribute to the cause for which Frances Xavier Cabrini dedicated her life. He work for the underprivileged both in her native Italy and in the American continent certainly made her a “saint” even before she was formally recognized as such. Working with the underprivileged certainly endeared her to the people because she embodied the very gospel teaching which she had professed as a religious. As it were, she was walked the talk. Like the many saints before her who had dedicated their lives to serve their  lessor brothers and sisters, Frances Xavier Cabrini believed that there was no better way to follow in the footsteps of her Lord. As the Gospel Reading has reminded us, she believed that serving her less privileged brothers and sisters was the best way to show her love for her Lord. She knew that when her time came to meet her Lord face to face, she will be asked if she had faithfully loved Jesus. She had to be ready with an answer.
The Gospel Reading presents us with the criteria that Jesus will use to separate the righteous from the non-righteous when the time will come for him to lead creation back to God. At the last judgment, the only one question that Jesus will ask us is how much we loved while we were here on earth. He/she who is familiar with the last judgment scene does realize that those questions that Jesus will ask us – whether we fed the hungry and the thirsty, welcomed the stranger and clothed the naked, visited the sick and those in prison – are all expressions of love. Love is the essence and goal of creation. God created the human person out of love, and it is only through love that a follower of Jesus fully lives his/her call. 
May we who are today honoring the memory of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini be moved to emulate her desire to live in a practical way the Gospel virtue of charity. Through her intercessions, may we see in our brothers and sisters who are in need an opportunity to put to practice the faith that we profess.