Most Reverend José H. Gomez Archbishop of Los Angeles
Cathedral Our Lady of the Angels Los Angeles, California February 19, 2023
My brothers and sisters in Christ,1
So we continue to pray for Bishop Dave O’Connell and his family.
Early this morning, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s office informed us that they have determined that his death was a homicide. So, obviously we are deeply disturbed and saddened by this news.
So, as I said, we continue to pray for Bishop Dave, and for his family in Ireland. And we pray for law enforcement officials as they continue their investigation into this terrible crime.
I was reflecting that it was just last Saturday — Saturday before yesterday obviously — that Bishop Dave and I were celebrating the annual Mass for the Sick here in the Cathedral.
So we had a beautiful statue of the Blessed Mother on that side of the sanctuary. So as he was starting the homily, he went over there and prayed to the Blessed Mother, and then he turned around and said, at the beginning of his homily: “She told me to tell you that she loves you.”
That is who Bishop Dave was. He had a wonderful sense of humor and a beautiful devotion to Mary, our Blessed Mother. We all miss him very much.
May he rest in peace.
And it is fitting that our readings today for this Holy Mass are all about — God’s plan for our lives, and his desire to that we should be holy, that we should be saints.
And obviously Bishop Dave was a great example for all of us.
So that is the great truth we heard in that first reading from the Book of Leviticus. As we just heard: “Be holy, for I, the Lord, your God, am holy.”
So we think these words cannot apply to us. Surely, God cannot have such high expectations for each one of us, for me and for you. These words must be meant for just special people, maybe a select few.
But my dear brothers and sisters, it’s true! God wants all of us to be holy! That is why he made us.
These words that we hear today are not only a commandment, or a suggestion. They are a promise: “Be holy, for I am holy.”
And then when we think of the passage of the Gospel today, Jesus is telling us the same thing. Again, it is a promise and a command: “So be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
So the questions for us are — what does it mean to be holy? And how do we do it?
And the answer is simple and it’s beautiful. It is one word. We hear it in both the first reading and in the Gospel. The word is: love.
To be perfect, to be holy — means to love. It means loving the way Jesus teaches us to love. It means loving others as God loves us.
We just heard God himself saying that in the first reading today and he tells us: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
And Jesus goes deeper in the Gospel — he tells us what that love means. He tells us that everyone is our neighbor, even the ones who do not like us. Even the ones who are hard to love. Even the ones who make themselves our enemies.
We heard those strong words from Jesus, in today’s passage of the Gospel: “But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your heavenly Father, for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust.”
This is, my dear brothers and sisters, the meaning of love. Why do we love? We love because we are children of God. And because God is our Father, that means that everyone is our brother, everyone is our sister.
So, yes, Jesus is challenging us today. He’s calling us to imitate him, to imitate God. Because, when you think about it —this is how Jesus loved.
He loved those who hated him, who persecuted him and humiliated him. His last words on the Cross were a prayer for those who killed him. Yes, this is true love.
So the first thing we need to do is to really appreciate the love and mercy that God shows to us. The love that Jesus showed us on the Cross.
So we need to be grateful for his love, grateful for his mercy. And then we need to show that same love to others. That same forgiveness, that same desire to be “one,” to be united in love.
It is challenging, but really God wants each one of us to always grow in the virtue of charity, in the virtue. Of love.
So how are we going to do it, as I said, every time? We have to do it in our ordinary life. Just try to live every day as a humble child of God, trying to do what God wants us to do. Trying to live with the awareness that he’s with us always — God is with us always, that he really loves each one of us personally. And trying to see every person as a child of God, as a brother or a sister.
So, this coming week, as we know, we begin Lent. This coming Wednesday is Ash Wednesday, as we all know. So, maybe during Lent we can work on growing in love. Trying to do everything for love. For the love of God! For the love of our family and the love of our neighbors.
Again, when I think of Bishop Dave O’Connell, I think of a man who loved God and who loved others.
So let’s ask the Holy Spirit today to give us the virtue of love and charity.
And let us ask Mary our Blessed Mother, to help us to grow in holiness, so that we may be perfect as our Heavenly Father is perfect.
And May our Blessed Mother, Our Lady of Guadalupe wrap Bishop Dave in the mantle of her love, and may he rest in peace.