25th Anniversary Mass at St. Kateri Tekakwitha Church / 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time 2023

Most Reverend José H. Gomez
Archbishop of Los Angeles

St. Kateri Tekakwitha Catholic Church
Santa Clarita, California
August 19, 2023

My brothers and sisters in Christ,¹

As I was saying, I’m very happy to be with all of you today for this special anniversary — the 25th anniversary.

So today let’s give thanks to God today for his goodness, for all his blessings. I was just thinking of all of the blessings that have happened here in twenty-five years — just thinking of the celebration of the Eucharist, of all the sacraments and so many wonderful things have happened in your community. So we need to give thanks to God for these past twenty-five years.

We thank him for all your pastors, priests, deacons, religious sisters, all the ministers and volunteers, and all the faithful men and women who built this church through their hard work and sacrifices down through the years.

I know that you have had a good number of pastors in these twenty-five years, and you can always blame the Archbishop, but now you have one that’s going to stay for a long time!

So pray for the Archbishop too!

I was thinking that we should offer all these prayers through  the intercession of your patron, St. Kateri Tekakwitha.

She is a model, still today, for all of us as we try to love Jesus and follow him in our daily lives.

St. Kateri used to say that she wanted only to know what God desires and to do it.² So let’s make that our prayer, as we celebrate this beautiful anniversary in the life of your parish — to know what God desires and to do it!

The life of St. Kateri Tekakwitha shows us the message of today’s readings that we just heard from sacred Scriptures.

The prophet Isaiah tells us today that God says: “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.”

Everyone will be welcome in the Lord’s house if they “love the name of the Lord” and become “his servants,” as the first reading of today’s Mass tells us.

So every nation will know his salvation! Every nation will walk in his ways! Every nation will praise him!

This is the promise of the Catholic Church.

That’s what the word “Catholic” means, as you know, it means universal, worldwide. We are one family of God that is made up of people from every nation, all over the face of the earth.

So the Catholic Church is the family of God and “a house of prayer for all peoples.”

And St. Paul tells us today in the second reading that God has “mercy upon all.” And, as we know, that is true. Thanks be to God! He loves each one of us and has mercy on all of us.

We should never forget that. That should be always present in our lives.

And this is also one of the lessons of today’s passage of the Gospel, the story of our Lord’s encounter with the Canaanite woman.

This is not an easy passage of the Gospel. Because just hearing the passage of the Gospel, it seems that Jesus is not too kind to this woman.

But as we heard, the woman is desperate, her daughter is being “tormented by a demon.” She has nowhere else she can turn. And at first, Jesus seems that he’s not responding to her request. Then, when she refuses to go away, he says those words that sound harsh. Jesus says these words: “It is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs.”

So we may be asking ourselves: Why is Jesus treating her this way?

First of all, my dear brothers and sisters, we know that Jesus has a deep love for every person. He gave his life on the cross for every one of us. So, we know that he is not trying to be harsh to this woman. Jesus doesn’t treat people that way, not even with the people who oppose him and persecute him.

The saints tell us that this encounter with the Canaanite woman is a lesson about faith and a lesson about prayer.

Just think about it: how many times do we pray for something, and we think to ourselves: Jesus is not really listening to me?

Sometimes we are tempted to think that way. But when we think that way, my dear brothers and sisters, we are not right.

We cannot forget that Jesus promised us: “Whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you receive it, and you will.” And he said another time, as we remember: “All things are possible to the one who believes.”³

So that’s what he is teaching this woman today in the passage of the Gospel. He is calling her to go deeper in her faith, calling her to trust in him more and more completely.

And as we heard, at the end of today’s passage of the Gospel, Jesus said to her in reply: “Oh, woman, great is your faith! May it be done for you as you wish.” And the woman’s daughter “was healed from that hour.”

So the beautiful lesson for all of us is that we can never stop praying, never stop talking to Jesus about what we need, about our fears and anxieties. Jesus is teaching us today that we should never lose heart, even when it seems like our prayers are not being answered.

One of the saints said: “Persevere in prayer! Persevere, even when your efforts seem barren. Prayer is always fruitful.”⁴

And that is true. Jesus always hears our prayers. He is always listening. It’s true that we don’t always get what we want. But my brothers and sisters, we get what we need. We need to trust that God is in charge, that he knows what is best for us.

And I think that’s something that — I’m sure that you all believe and practice in your parish during these twenty-five years. So when we pray, we need to speak from the heart, like the Canaanite woman: “Lord, help me. Have pity on me, Lord.”

That’s all we ever need to say. That’s the perfect prayer!

So, my dear brothers and sisters, as we celebrate this beautiful anniversary in your parish, let us renew our love for Jesus and our confidence in him. He is our friend, he’s our brother. And he shows us the face of our Father in heaven who loves us.

Let’s ask the intercession of St. Kateri Tekakwitha — St. Kateri Tekakwitha, pray for us!

Let us ask Mary, our Blessed Mother, to help us to pray with filial boldness. May she help us to grow in our love for her Son, that he might say to us, as he said to the Canaanite woman: “Great is your faith!”