Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe 2024

 
Most Reverend José H. Gomez
Archbishop of Los Angeles
 
Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels
December 12, 2024
 
My dear brothers and sisters,^[1]
 
It is a joy to be with you tonight, on this beautiful night of the Virgin!
 
Tonight we celebrate, with singing and dancing and rejoicing, the coming of Our Lady! The coming of the daughter of the Most High God!
 
In our celebration the many nations of the earth are represented, all the many tribes and peoples and tongues under heaven.
 
All of us have come, young and old, on this glorious night, to give praise to God, the Lord of heaven and earth, the one true God, through whom all things were created.
 
In the silence and darkness of this midnight, we remember the Daughter of Zion who came to visit her children in Mexico City, four hundred and ninety three years ago on this night.
 
She came radiant out of the heavens, clothed with the sun, with the moon beneath her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars!
 
All these images that we hear in the sacred Scriptures for this feast, they are trying to describe what can never fully be described, a vision so beautiful, so powerful.
 
I was rereading the story of the Virgin’s encounter with St. Juan Diego, the story that we all know that is told in the “Nican Mopohua.” And St. Juan saw the same vision.
 
He remembered that when she first appeared on top of the hill at Tepeyac, her clothes were shining like the sun, the stones she stood upon seemed to gleam like precious jewels. All the air around her seemed to shimmer like waves of colored light; the air was filled, too, with the sounds of birds singing.
 
And Mary appeared and called him to help her to build a sacred dwelling, a church, a temple, a place where she could give the world her Child.
 
“I will give him to all people in my personal love,” the Virgin said. “Him that is my compassionate gaze, him that is my help, him that is my salvation.”^[2]
 
Brothers and sisters: This is our story, this is the story of the Americas; through the Virgin at Tepeyac, God is opening the door of faith in the New World.
 
This is who we are and where we come from. Each and every one of us has walked through that door of faith and been baptized as a child of the Most High God.
 
We belong to a royal family, dear brothers and sisters. Never forget this, no matter what happens in your life.
 
We are sons and daughters of the Queen of heaven and earth. Our brother is Jesus, Son of the great King David, born of the Virgin Mary, and he rules all the nations with an iron rod.
 
And we have an important role to play in God’s kingdom. No matter who we are or what we do in life. Each and every one of us is a child of God.
 
Tonight Mary comes again. Into the world, and into our lives.
 
She comes in her personal love and she comes to bring us the God who is Love; the God who helps us, the God who wants to be our salvation.
 
It is written that when Mary spoke to him, Juan Diego could feel her love in the very breath of her words.
 
She loves each one of us in the very same way. We are precious to Our Lady! We are precious to her Son!
 
Our Mother looks down upon us tonight with her compassionate gaze, with a look of such tenderness, it is the look that we see in her eyes in the sacred tilma that she left for us.
 
“Truly I am honored to be your compassionate mother,” she says to us, in the same words that she spoke to Juan Diego.
 
And our Mother calls us tonight to love her, and to seek her, and to trust her, and to cry to her.
 
She promised Juan Diego: “Truly I will hear their cry, their sadness, in order to remedy, to cure all their various troubles, their miseries, their pains.”
 
And truly, she will do all these things for us. She hears your cries tonight, she knows your fears, she knows the things that are making your heart ache.
 
Our Mother will always be there to comfort us and to bring us to her Son.
 
But my dear brothers and sisters: Our Mother also has something that she needs us to do for her.
 
The story of salvation is still being written. The story of each of our lives is still being written.
 
We know who we are, and where we came from. But where are we going? To know that, we must take her hand, and we must let our Mother lead us.
 
Tonight, she is telling us what she told St. Juan Diego:
 
“To bring about what my compassionate and merciful gaze would achieve, go! …. You have heard my breath, my word; Go! Do what you are responsible for doing!”
 
Tonight, she is giving each and every one of us the responsibility for continuing her beautiful mission of bringing Jesus and the joy of his salvation to all the Americas.
 
She still wants to make a place in this world for her Child.
 
So she tells us tonight: Go, just as she did. Go with haste to bring Jesus into your home, into the lives of the people in your families.
 
The kingdom starts in the family! Serve one another in love, with a generous heart! Make your homes a place where everyone feels loved and understood!
 
The Virgin is telling us tonight: Go, into your neighborhood, into your school, into the places where you work. Tell the people there how much Jesus loves them. Show them the difference that Jesus has made in your life!
 
You are the precious sons and daughters of the Queen of Heaven, and she is calling each of you tonight to help her to build the Kingdom of her Son on earth!
 
She is calling you to help Jesus to open the door of faith in every human heart! Let’s go and do it!
 
¡Que Viva la Virgen de Guadalupe!
¡Que viva San Juan Diego!
¡Que viva San Junípero Serra! 
¡Que viva Cristo Rey!
¡Que viva la Virgen de Guadalupe! 
¡Que viva la Virgen de Guadalupe!
¡Que viva la Virgen de Guadalupe!