500th Anniversary of Christianity in the Philippines and Santo Niño Celebration 2022

Most Reverend José H. Gomez
Archbishop of Los Angeles

Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels
January 16, 2022

My brothers and sisters in Christ, ¹

I’m very happy to be with all of you today for our holy Mass to celebration the feast of Santo Niño and also to commemorate the 500th anniversary of Christianity in the Philippines.

As Pope Francis said in his homily on the celebration of the 500 years in Rome. He said: “You received the joy of the Gospel. The good news that God so loved us that he gave his Son for us. And this joy is evident in your people. We see it in your eyes, on your faces, in your songs, and in your prayers. In the joy with which you bring your faith to other lands.”

So as I was saying before, it is moment to give thanks to God for those 500 years and the bishops of the Philippines celebrated the Jubilee, it’s also a great moment to start thinking of the next 500 years.

So today, we especially entrust ourselves to the Divine Infant, Santo Niño, as we continue to give thanks to God for opening the door of faith to the people of the Philippines, five hundred years ago.

And of course, we also recall that shortly after the door of faith was opened, the first Filipinos to come to America, arriving at Morro Bay, in 1587.

It is beautiful to think about it and to reflect that Filipinos were here, worshipping and working in our country long before our country had a name.

So we give thanks to God today also for the rich Catholic heritage of the Philippines that has become such a beautiful part of our Catholic life here in Los Angeles, and in America.

That rich heritage, we have just a beautiful example in the tapestries here in our Cathedral, as we see the the great missionary and martyr, San Lorenzo Ruiz de Manila, who is over there in the tapestries of the Cathedral.

So again, we have to give thanks to God for so many blessings — for the Philippines, for the Church, for the United States, for your families, for all of us — for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.

Then turning to our Gospel today, we have the beautiful story of Our Lord’s first miracle, of the wedding feast at Cana in Galilee.

As we know, this is the beginning of Our Lord’s public ministry. And it is interesting that he chooses to perform his first miracle at a wedding, with his own mother present.

I think that through this miracle, first of all, Jesus wanted to bless and sanctify married love — the beautiful commitment of husbands and wives to share their lives together and to bring new life into the world.
 
But even more than that, I believe that Jesus wanted to show us that the marriage of man and woman is a symbol of how much God loves each one of us.

That is what we just hear in the first reading of today’s Mass — those beautiful words from the prophet Isaiah: “For the Lord delights in you. As a bridegroom rejoices in his bride, so shall your God rejoice in you.”

My dear brothers and sisters, God loves all of us, you and me, without conditions and without exceptions.

God delights in you! You are a special treasure to him. This is the amazing truth of our Catholic faith.

And then as we know, God has a mission for your life — my life and your life.

As we know, we have a vocation — a special vocation. Each one of us, no matter who we are, has a part to play in building up God’s kingdom of love and life. And it’s also interesting because that’s the meaning of the servants in today’s Gospel.

As we heard, Jesus tells the servants at the wedding, “Fill the jars with water.”

My brothers and sisters, we have to see ourselves in the servants today.

Like those servants, we need to fill the water jars of our lives with the waters of love, with the waters of good works, works of mercy and service.

And we do that in simple and ordinary ways. In our daily lives. Jesus wants to work with us, and through us. Through our good works, through our works of love. In our families. In our places of work. In our society.

And this is the water that he will transform — that he will turn into new wine. Wine that will bring the joy of God to others. The promise of divine love, the promise of divine life.

But as we know, my dear brothers and sisters, everything starts from our obedience to the word of Jesus.

This is especially — as we reflect on today’s passage of the Gospel — what Mary tells us in the Gospel today, when she tells the servants: “Do whatever he tells you.”

This is the key to the Kingdom. This is the key to holiness, to our vocation. To entering into the divine life — to do the will of God, to do whatever Jesus tells us.

We have to think about it. Because sometimes it seems to me that we just take it for granted. And as we see, in today’s passage of the Gospel, just doing that it was a big miracle.

And also in this passage of the Gospel, I was reflecting, how beautiful it is to see Mary’s humility. She’s just there, just another guest at the wedding. But then, as we know and as we just heard, she notices that the hosts have run out of wine, and she wants to help.

She does not want anything for herself, she wants only to help others. And so she talks to Jesus and tells him: “They have no wine.”

So I think in Our Lady’s simple words today, we have a profound lesson in trust. Trusting in God — in God’s love for each one of us as we are trying to reflect today.

So we need to abandon our cares and concerns to our Mother Mary. She will take care of us, even if we need a miracle! She knows our needs, like a good mother, and she will bring our cares and concerns to Jesus. She will tell us to go to Jesus.

So let’s ask for the grace today to renew our devotion to the Santo Niño that brings to us the presence of Jesus in our lives.

And let us do whatever Jesus tells us, giving everything we have to him, so that he will transform the water of our love into the new wine of his divine life and promises.

And as we do, let us especially count on the help of Mary our Blessed Mother in every situation that we have in our life, every decision that we have to make. Because she will show us the way to be with her Son, Jesus Christ.

1.  Readings (2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time): Isa. 62:1–5; Ps. 96:1–3, 7–10; 1 Cor. 12:4–11; John 2:1–11.