11th Sunday in Ordinary Time 2023

Most Reverend José H. Gomez
Archbishop of Los Angeles

Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels
June 18, 2023

My brothers and sisters in Christ,¹

First of all I want to wish a happy and blessed Father’s Day to all our fathers and grandfathers. We also want to remember today, all our fathers and grandfathers who have gone before us and are in heaven.

To be a father is a beautiful and a noble vocation, it is a calling to serve and to love and to sacrifice. And in the love that a father has for his children, we see the love that God our Father has for all of us who are his sons and daughters.

And this is so important in our world today, to promote that bond between fathers and their children and to strengthen the institution of marriage and the family.

So, let us pray for all our fathers today. May every father be a witness of hope and courage in our families, which face many challenges in our society.

Our readings today also call us to be witnesses to Jesus, to commit ourselves totally to him and the mission of his Church, which is our mission.

In the Gospel, we have the great story of the first apostolic mission, Jesus sending out his twelve to proclaim the Kingdom. And as we know, their mission continues in our lives.

We are God’s people, his Church, a people he has chosen to love him and to serve him.

The beautiful words that God asked Moses to say to the Israelites in the first reading of today’s Mass, these words are now addressed to us — to you and to me:

“I bore you up on eagle wings and brought you here to myself. Therefore, if you hearken to my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my special possession, dearer to me than all other people.” 

My brothers and sisters, for me, it’s always beautiful to think and reflect on God’s love for us. When we stop and think about it and reflect on what it is — it’s just amazing. Such a beautiful mystery.

And this is also what St. Paul is talking about in the second reading of today’s Mass. If you listen carefully, St. Paul, too, is totally amazed by God’s love.

He writes: “Only with difficulty does one die for a just person, though perhaps for a good person one might even find courage to die. But God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.”

This is the beautiful truth of our lives: Jesus loves us such much that he is willing to live for us, to die for us, and to rise and walk with us.

Now Jesus calls each one of us to follow him, and to walk with him on the journey of our life, and to serve him wherever we are, wherever he leads us.

So today we should especially reflect on how Jesus is sending us out, just as he sent out his twelve apostles, to continue his mission in our times.

He is sending us out to proclaim the kingdom of God, to share the good news of his love, the good news that we are all brothers and sisters, sons and daughters of God who loves us!

Yes, my brothers and sisters, as Catholics, we are called to spend our lives on earth spreading the good news of God’s love.

And we do that in simple ways, in our ordinary lives. Wherever you are, whatever you are doing, you are called to bring God into the world and to reveal his love to the people around you.

So we need to feel that beautiful call to be missionaries in our homes and families, in our communities and neighborhoods, at work, at school. Everywhere.

And we do that just by living the life of love that Jesus calls us to. Being kind to others, looking out for their needs.

This is our beautiful mission! And we should be excited about it — excited to share the love of Jesus.

He is calling us to redeem this world — one heart at a time.

When we think about how Jesus worked, how the first apostles worked, all through the Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles, we hear stories of individuals and their encounter with Christ, their encounter with the Gospel.

And Jesus, like those apostles, is asking us to go out and meet people along the way of our lives. And we have many opportunities every day to speak to people about things that matter, to do good for others, and to share the love that we have found in Jesus.

We don’t have to give a homily or preach to everybody — we just do it in our ordinary life, trying to live our faith in the simple, normal way in which we live. That makes a huge difference in the lives of so many people.

So we have so many opportunities every day to speak to people about things that matter.

So let’s ask for the grace today to be missionary disciples. It’s a beautiful call, it is just like the apostles. And it is a moment for us to ask for that grace that we continue to deepen our friendship with Jesus and our commitment to be missionaries in our daily life.

It was not easy for the apostles, but they did it with the help of the grace of God. So today, let us renew our commitment to be missionary disciples, spreading God’s love throughout our lives.

And may Our Blessed Mother Mary be our hope and our guide. May she help us to follow her Son with joy, and spread his love everywhere we go!