Chinese New Year 2023

Most Reverend José H. Gomez
Archbishop of Los Angeles

St. Bridget Chinese Catholic Church
Los Angeles, California
January 22, 2023

My brothers and sisters in Christ,¹

Happy New Year to all of you and your families!

As I was saying before, we should also remember the victims of last night’s shooting in Monterey Park. It is so sad. We pray for those killed and injured in this shooting, and we ask that God stay close to their families and loved ones. We especially pray for peace — peace in our society, peace in the world.

So as we begin this New Year, I pray that this will be precisely a year of peace and joy for all of you and your families.

The Lord is gracious and merciful and so good to us. We thank him today for all his blessings in our lives.

As we just heard in our first reading and in our psalm today — the Lord is the God of all creation, the maker of heaven and on earth, from the highest mountain tops to the depths of the sea. He gives us rain from the sky — sometimes a little too much rain, but it’s a blessing somehow, especially regarding the dryness that sometimes we have in California and in Los Angeles.

So anyway, he gives us rain, he blesses us with grain, with oil and wine.

As Moses says in the first reading: “With your own eyes you have seen all these great deeds that the Lord has done.”

So it is true, my dear brothers and sisters, we have seen the goodness of the Lord!

And we know that God’s love is the reason for everything in creation. God is “the Love that moves the sun and the other stars.”²

And God creates each and every one of us out of love. We were put on this earth, because God wants us to be here, each one of us.

So today we have to especially reflect on how our life is so important to the Father. You are his sons. You are his daughters. We are precious to God, every one of us.

And God our Father wants beautiful things for his children. He wants us to be holy — just like he is holy.

So, the question that we all have is: how do we do it? How do we strive for holiness in our lives?

And Jesus shows us the path in today’s passage of the Gospel, in his beautiful teaching of the “Beatitudes.” So we have to think of the Beatitudes as a “blueprint,” — as a “guidebook” — for how we grow in holiness.

Jesus is calling us to live as he lived — to be meek, to be pure at heart, and poor in spirit. He is calling us to live simply, to do everything for the love of God and the love of others.

If we really reflect on it, the Beatitudes tell us we need to live and work with humility and purity. We need to have a simple lifestyle. We need to bring a spirit of mercy and forgiveness, and try to be peacemakers in our relationships.

And the Beatitudes tells us that we need to care for people in our society, we need to have a heart for the poor, and compassion for the vulnerable.

Finally, the Beatitudes tell us that we need to live these values and these priorities — even if they are not popular or if they are opposed in our culture.

When we think about it, this is a beautiful way to live. And St. Paul tells us today in that second reading, if we live according to these teachings, we will find happiness and peace. He tells us:

“Keep on doing what you have learned and received and heard and see in me. Then the God of peace will be with you.”

So but all of that, my dear brothers and sisters, has to be done in our daily life. Because the path to holiness is found in our everyday life.

Holiness for us will be found through the ordinary things you do, every day. Raising a family. Going to work. Serving in your parish, in your community. This is how you will become a saint.

Holiness is not something only for special people, or for those in the Church with ordained or consecrated ministries. All of us in the Church are called to holiness, each one in our own way.

No matter who we are, no matter what our condition in life is. You and I are all called to walk in the footprints of Jesus, to conform our lives to his image, and to seek the Father’s will in everything that we do. All of us are called to be saints of the every day.

It sounds very challenging, but it is the truth. And it becomes real in our daily life.

Let’s keep in mind that the Beatitudes are the picture of what it means to be a saint, because the Beatitudes are a picture of what Jesus was like. And, as we know, Jesus is our model.

And what we see when we look at Jesus, when we study his words and his example, we see that Jesus lived for the love of God and the love of others.

And that, of course, is the way we want to live. For the love of God and the love of others. And it happens, as I’ve been saying at home, at work, at Church, in our daily life.

So, as we begin this new year, let’s as for the grace to follow Jesus more closely, and to love him more deeply.

And let us ask for the grace to love also the people whom God entrusts to our care and the people that God puts in our lives. Those who are nearest to us, especially. In our families, in our homes. And also in the places where we work, in our schools, our neighborhoods and communities.

And again, let us keep our brothers and sisters in Monterey Park in our prayers today.

And let’s take all our concerns and cares to Holy Mary, Our Blessed Mother. May she take our hand and guide us to be the saints — the holy men and women — we are made to be.