Christian Service Awards 2025

 
Most Reverend José H. Gomez
Archbishop of Los Angeles 
 
Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels
March 18, 2025

 
My brothers and sisters in Christ,^[1]
 
As I was saying, I’m happy that we come together today to pray at Holy Mass and celebrate our Christian Service Awards winners. By the way, congratulations to all the winners this year! Special prayers for you all!
 
Each year, these awards honor the excellence of how we live and practice our faith. And it is beautiful that we always celebrate this Mass during the holy season of Lent.
 
Because Lent is the time when the Church invites us to think about our lives, to think about our friendship with Jesus. This is the time when we examine ourselves, looking into our hearts: asking ourselves, are we living the way that Jesus wants us to live? What are we doing well? What can we be doing better?
 
Our Christian life is meant to be a life of love. We’re meant to spend our whole lives loving Jesus and following his commands and teachings; being good friends with Jesus; and loving others as Jesus loves us.
 
That’s the journey that we’re all on. And the goal of our lives, the destination of our journey, is heaven, where we will be saints and live forever in the love of God.
 
That’s why these Christian Service Awards are so important. Because these awards remind us that we are here to love, and that love means service.
 
That’s the message in today’s Gospel.
 
We heard those beautiful words from Jesus: “The greatest among you must be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled; but whoever humbles himself will be exalted.”
 
That’s the definition of “greatness.” Jesus wants all of us to be great in service, to be great in humility!
 
And of course, as we understand, Jesus himself is our model. And today, in a special way, he is inviting us to follow him,
 
Jesus is the King of Heaven and the Son of God, but he humbled himself to come down from heaven and to live on earth as one of us.
 
And Jesus said he came to serve, not to be served. He humbled himself so much that he died on the cross for us, for you and for me, and because he humbled himself God exalted him through his resurrection and ascension back into heaven.
 
Obviously, we know these truths, but I think we need to keep reflecting on them, and we especially we have to live them.
 
So, that’s why Jesus is inviting us again today to imitate him, to follow his example in our lives. He’s inviting us to make ourselves humble of heart and to serve the people in our lives, our fellow students, those in our families, and in our communities.
 
And today, in the passage of the Gospel that we just heard, Jesus tells us something else that is important.
 
He talks about the scribes and Pharisees, the religious leaders of his time and place.
 
And as we heard, he had strong words for them. He tells us that they don’t practice what they preach, and they don’t help others to live their faith.
 
And of course, that calls our attention, because we are supposed to be doing that, as leaders of the community.
 
So, my brothers and sisters, we need to reflect on how we cannot just be Christians in name. Believing in Jesus, following Jesus, this should make a total difference in our lives. It should shape the way we think and the way we act. It should shape our priorities and the choices that we make.
 
Jesus wants us to love him and follow him, and to be his friend. He wants us to live with joy and love, and to have a great life, a beautiful life, the best life.
 
And he wants us to share this life, to share our faith in Jesus, with everyone we meet! And we do that, not so much by our words, but by the witness of our lives.
 
So, we have to practice what we preach. And we have to be the people we say we are.
 
It is a beautiful call, a beautiful vocation. It is, in a sense, what we are celebrating today — understanding our closeness to our Lord Jesus Christ, knowing that he’s with us all the time, and bringing the good news of the Gospel to the people around us with our life of service.
 
So, my dear brothers and sisters, let us keep reflecting on these beautiful truths as we get ready to meet Jesus in the Holy Eucharist. And especially during this Lenten season, that we open our hearts to the love and presence of Jesus in our lives.
 
Let us ask Mary, Our Blessed Mother, to pray for us. May she help to always practice what her Son teaches, and serve him and others with great love!