50th Anniversary Mass for St. Peter Claver Church

Most Reverend José H. Gomez
Archbishop of Los Angeles

St. Peter Claver Catholic Church
Simi Valley, California
October 30, 2022

My brothers and sisters in Christ,¹

As I said, I’m very happy to be with all of you today for the 50th anniversary of your parish. It is a moment of grace and thanksgiving for your anniversary.

We thank God this morning for this half-century of grace! I was thinking that time flies, and time goes fast, especially when you think of all the blessings that have happened here in this parish for now 50 years. Seems like it was yesterday that the dedication of the Church happened, but it’s been 50 years!

So we thank God for all his blessings on this faith community, and we thank him for the love and sacrifices of those who came before us and helped to build this great parish.

In a special way, today, we ask the intercession today of your patron, St. Peter Claver.

As we know, he was a 17th-century Spaniard, born into a farming family. He became a Jesuit, and then he gave up everything to follow Jesus Christ across the ocean, to the New World, to Colombia.

St. Peter Claver left everything behind to serve those who were being brought to Colombia in chains, he ministered on the slave boats arriving from Africa. Today let us remember his beautiful vow — he wanted everyone to know that he was: “Peter, slave of the slaves forever.”

I’ve been thinking that his life is a beautiful witness to us. First, because it reminds us that the Americas — our country and every country in North and South America — were evangelized by missionary disciples and by saints who were immigrants from other countries.

And then also, in this time that we are living in the world and in our society — it seems especially a time of tension and divisions in our communities — St. Peter Claver teaches us that beyond the color of our skin or the condition of our lives, we are all created equal, with dignity and a transcendent destiny.

We are, my dear brothers and sisters, children of God. Sons and daughters of God created in  God’s image and likeness. We know that — it is a beautiful reality that especially in this time, we are happy to share with the people of our time.

And this is also — it’s beautiful because it’s also the teaching of Today’s Gospel, that is the meaning of the story of Zacchaeus, the wealthy tax collector. We are all children of God, all of us loved by God and called to love one another. And we all have to keep in mind that even the worst among us can know God’s mercy and find salvation.

I think it’s interesting also that last Sunday’s Gospel talked to us of that beautiful story about a tax collector. We heard that prayer — also beautiful prayer — of the humble tax collector: “O God, be merciful to me a sinner.”

As you know, in Jesus’ time, the Jewish people considered tax collectors sinners. Because they felt that they betrayed their own people by working for the Roman government. So people didn’t like the tax collectors.

At that time, people didn’t like to associate with the tax collectors and they considered them beyond the reach of God’s mercy.

That’s why it was so surprising for people that Jesus accepted the invitation to go to the tax collectors house and have a meal with him and other people.

We heard in the passage of the Gospel of today’s Mass what people said: “He has gone to stay at the house of a sinner.”

But of course, God is rich in mercy, and he doesn’t want any of his children to be lost.² And that’s the point of St. Luke in giving us these two stories about tax collectors — today and last Sunday. What he’s telling us is that even the worst sinners are loved by God.

It’s beautiful, isn’t it — when we think about it? How important it is for us to open our hearts and, I’m going to mention later one, have this beautiful ministry of bringing people to God, no matter what.

So in the first reading of today’s Mass, it is a beautiful passage from the Book of Wisdom, and I have a few words that I think would be good for us to reflect on, especially thinking on all the beautiful things that have happened in this parish for 50 years. In the first reading we heard:

“You have mercy on all, because you can do all things; and you overlook people’s sins that they may repent. For you love all things that are and loathe nothing that you have made. …You spare all things, because they are yours, O Lord and lover of souls.”

My brothers and sisters, this is our God. And he loves us with such an unbelievable love. And again in today’s Gospel, he shows us how much he loves us.

Because the story of Zacchaeus is the story of every human heart. It’s your story and mine. It’s the story of God’s mercy. And it is the story of this beautiful parish.

Jesus promises us today: “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save what was lost.”

And there is no one who is too far gone, no one who is so lost that Jesus cannot find them. That’s true for each of us, but it’s also true for our loved ones, for people in our lives whom we pray for.

Even though he was lost in sin, Zacchaeus was looking for Jesus. But the Gospel tells us he couldn’t see him “because of the crowd.” In a sense, the world got in his way.

Zacchaeus was lost because he had worldly ambitions; he got caught up in the pursuit of material wealth and power. But his heart was still restless, and so he climbs up that sycamore tree to “see who Jesus was.”

And he hears those beautiful words that change his life right there, Jesus tells him: “Come down quickly, for today I must stay at your house.”

Again, there is the  beautiful story of mercy. And brothers and sisters, this story is still being played out in history, in the drama of every human heart.

And yes, each one of us, we have a part to play in that drama, in that history. It’s a beautiful vocation. We are disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ. And that means that Jesus has looked for us, personally, and saved us, and now he calls us to share in his mission. He calls us to go out with him, and to seek and save those who are lost.

And there are so many people out there, my brothers and sisters, who need us. We all know people who want to see Jesus — maybe they don’t say anything but we see and we know that they need Jesus.

That’s also our vocation — reaching out, being missionary disciples. So the challenge that we have is — how are we going to help them? I will say — just little, simple ways. Just talking to them, listening to them, looking for little openings, ways that we can help people know that Jesus loves them. Just inviting them to come, to be with us, to get to know Jesus.

We can look for just simple ways that we can tell them about the difference that Jesus has made in our own personal lives.

St. Peter Claver used to say: “We must speak to them with our hands before we try to speak to them with our lips.”³ That’s a practical way to do it, and a good reminder for us that doing little things in the service of our brothers and sisters will make a huge difference. And that’s exactly what you have seen and you have done in your parish.

Because the best sermon we can ever preach is the example of our own lives.

So, on this beautiful anniversary, let’s dedicate ourselves, once again, to helping everyone we can to find Jesus and to know his love and mercy.

And let’s ask the intercession of St. Peter Claver:

St. Peter Claver, pray for us!

And may our Blessed Mother Mary, help us to be worthy of the beautiful calling that we have, to bring many souls to a new encounter with Jesus Christ, just as Jesus met Zacchaeus on that road to Jericho.