Homeless Person's Interreligious Memorial

Most Reverend José H. Gomez
Archbishop of Los Angeles

Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels
December 21, 2022

My dear friends,¹

I’m honored to be with all of you tonight, your presence here is a beautiful sign of your solidarity and love for the least of our brothers and sisters in the City of the Angels.

In a special way, we want to offer a warm welcome to the new mayor of Los Angeles, Mayor Karen Bass.

Mayor Bass, congratulations. Please know that we are praying for you as you begin your service to our great city. And we are grateful to you, for making the issue of homelessness your urgent priority.

The true measure of any society is how its cares for its poor and vulnerable.

And I know that you can count on all of us — civic leaders and leaders of the religious communities — to join arms with you to promote dignity and justice for every Angeleno.

So we are gathered this evening to pray on behalf of our brothers and sisters who sadly, were forced to live and die on the streets of our city.

We pray tonight that the home they could not find on earth, they now find in heaven, secure in the merciful arms of God. 

The question that we just heard from the scriptures is universal: “Who is my neighbor?” It’s a question for every time and place. It’s a question for this moment in Los Angeles.

And the answer that Jesus gives, the parable of the Good Samaritan, is also universal. It’s a story that we all know, regardless of our religious traditions.

So one line in this parable stands out to me tonight.

Jesus says that the Good Samaritan saw the man lying by the side of the road — and that he was “moved with compassion at the sight.”

The other two in the parable had seen the same man, in the same broken condition. But they passed by on the other side of the road. Why? Because they could not see this man’s common humanity.

To be a true neighbor — to be truly human — we need to see with eyes of mercy and fraternity, as we have heard in a special way tonight.

We need to look at the “other” — and see a brother or a sister. Whatever the color of their skin, whatever their nationality, their language or religion.

The deepest human truth is that we are all one family — sisters and brothers, created by God to love and to be loved.

We are called to be our brothers’ and sisters’ keepers. That means, very practically, that we need to be like the Good Samaritan.

We need to bear one another’s burdens; we need to lift up our neighbors when they’ve fallen, heal their wounds, and find them a place to live. When one of us is suffering, we all suffer.

So as religious leaders, as civic leaders, each of us has the duty to spread this beautiful “way of seeing” throughout our communities — to call our neighbors to open their eyes and open their hearts.

So, “Who is my neighbor?” That’s not a question addressed to others. That’s a question addressed to each one of us — to me and to you.

And the answer is that everyone is our neighbor, especially the poor and the prisoner, the hungry and the homeless, the immigrant and the refugee.  

So today we especially pray for those neighbors of ours who suffered on the streets. We ask that God’s light shine upon them, and that he grant them peace. 

And we pray that God grant all of us the courage and creativity that we need in order to meet the challenges of this moment in our city.

By the help of his grace, may we always do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with our God. Amen.