5th Sunday of Easter 2023

Most Reverend José H. Gomez
Archbishop of Los Angeles

Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels
May 7, 2023

My brothers and sisters in Christ,¹

As I was saying, we are still celebrating the Easter season, and actually we are about halfway along in the forty days between the Resurrection of our Lord and his Ascension into heaven. We celebrate the Ascension of Our Lord in about two weeks from now.

But already in our Gospel today, Jesus is preparing his disciples. He tells them: “I am going to the Father.”

He also makes a beautiful promise, as we heard: “In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places … I am going to prepare a place for you … I will come back again and take you to myself, so that where I am you also may be.”

It’s a beautiful promise! Jesus says he is going up to heaven and that when he returns he will bring his disciples back to heaven with him, that they will all live forever in the Father’s house.

But as we heard in today’s Gospel, his apostles really were not able to understand this promise of heaven; they are afraid. In fact, this Gospel today gives us a beautiful picture of the humanity of the apostles, basically the way we all are — very much they were just like us.

When they hear these words from Jesus, about him leaving, they get nervous. What will they do without him? How will they live?

We heard St. Thomas asking Jesus: “Master, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” And then St. Philip says, “Show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”

Obviously, as we can see, these are human reactions. They are just looking for assurance, for certainty. They are worried about what might happen if they get lost along the way.

And Jesus answers them so beautifully, so tenderly, with so much love. He understands their fears, he understands that following him will be different, will be a change and a challenge. So he speaks to their hearts in the Gospel. But, my dear brothers and sisters, obviously he is speaking to each one of us, also.

And Jesus says to the disciples and to each one of us today: “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You have faith in God; have faith also in me. … I am the way and the truth and the life.”

So, that is a beautiful way that we can understand our own lives, because we are still living kind of, in the same, “in-between time” as the apostles. And the challenge for us — it is similar to what it was for the apostles: How do we live? How do we follow Jesus? Can we be sure that his promises are true?

And what Jesus is telling us today is that faith in him is the key that opens every door. We need to make him the way for our life, as we know.

We need to live for Jesus and live our lives according to his plan, his teachings. And we can totally trust in his promises, because we are walking with him.

He is the Shepherd of our souls, as we heard in last Sunday’s Gospel, and he will lead us to the Father’s house. But, my brothers and sisters, we need to believe in him and trust in his promises.

We need to remember: he did not just make his promises with words. He backed up his words with his Body and Blood, with his very life.

Jesus, as we know, died on the Cross, and then three days later, he rose from the dead. For us. Christ is alive and he’s with us. This is how much your life is worth to him, because he gave his life for each one of us. There is no greater love than to lay down your life for a friend. And he did that. For you and for me.

So, he will never abandon us. His love is true. He has proved his love for us on the Cross.

Let’s ask for that grace to understand the extraordinary love that Jesus has for each one of us.

In the second reading today, St. Peter says, “Come to him, a living stone, rejected by human beings but chosen and precious in the sight of God, and, like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house.”

This is the call of faith, the call to conversion. It is the call to follow Jesus and to make him our way, our truth, and our life.

We need to hear that call, again and again, in our lives. He is calling us to follow him every day, in every moment.

So we ask for that grace today to go to him, to give our lives once more to Jesus, the living stone! To build our lives on that solid rock, on that great foundation of his promise of heaven!

And if we trust in him, if we give our lives to him and his will, Jesus will take care of rest. Just as he took care of his apostles and early Church in Jerusalem.

As we heard in that first reading: “The word of God continued to spread, and the number of the disciples in Jerusalem increased greatly.”

And my dear brothers and sisters, the good news that Jesus gives us today is that the journey of our lives has a certain destination.

We are on the road to our  Father’s house, we are bound for heaven, to be where he is.

And as the saints teach us, heaven begins here on earth. “All the way to heaven is heaven,” when we are walking in the footsteps of Jesus.

And, as we know, road to heaven is paved with our little acts of love, our little acts of everyday kindness and decency, the sacrifices we make for one another, especially in our homes and in our families.

So today, my dear brothers and sisters, let us ask Our Lord today to increase our faith, to help us to trust him more and to love him more, just as we see the disciples, the apostles did. Then we can really go out and share the beauty of the love of Jesus to the people around us.

And as we are during this month of May, the Month of Mary, let us ask her intercession. May she be a mother to us and help us every day to make her Son more and more “the way” for our lives.