Most Reverend José H. Gomez
Archbishop of Los Angeles
Mary Star of the Sea Church
Oxnard, California
June 24, 2017
My dear brothers and sisters in Christ,1
This is a great day — I am so happy to be here with you to remember and celebrate the life and witness of our brother, the Venerable Bishop Alfonso Gallegos.
Of course, as a Latino bishop — he is an inspiration to me in my ministry. And he is another L.A. saint!
As you know, I like to reflect on how amazing it is to think about the many saints — who have walked these same streets and prayed in these same places and ministered to the people of this Archdiocese.
Los Angeles was named by the missionaries for Our Lady, the Queen of the Holy Angels. So it is a City of the Angels. But it is also a City of Saints.
The spiritual foundation of this Archdiocese was laid by St. Junípero Serra, the great Franciscan. I had the great privilege to celebrate Mass with our Holy Father Pope Francis when he canonized St. Junípero in Washington, D.C. He is the first Latino saint from our country!
And today I am praying, that one day, I will be able to see the canonization of our brother, Venerable Alfonso Gallegos — the first Latino saint who is a bishop in our country!
Brothers and sisters, the truth is that this is still a city of saints. The places where we live are places where great saints have walked and prayed and proclaimed Christ — St. John Paul II, St. Mother Teresa, St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, Blessed Maria Inés Teresa, the Servant of God Dorothy Day.
Just last weekend, I celebrated the 90th anniversary of the Carmelite Sisters of the Most Sacred Heart, which was founded by one of my favorite local saints, Venerable Maria Luisa Josefa of the Blessed Sacrament.
So today we remember Bishop Gallegos, and we remember that we are all called to holiness, all called to be saints and to help those around us to become saints, too.
It is fitting that on this day, the Church remembers the birthday of St. John the Baptist.
As we know, the Church only celebrates two “birthdays” in her liturgy — the birthday of Jesus, which is Christmas as we all know, and the birthday of St. John the Baptist.
St. John the Baptist is the first “apostle” in a way. Because he is the first to proclaim Jesus Christ. And John started proclaiming Jesus before either of them were even born!
We all remember the story of the Visitation.2 When the Blessed Virgin Mary came to see St. Elizabeth when they were both pregnant.
We remember the beautiful scene at Elizabeth’s house in the hill country. Mary walks into the room and she greets Elizabeth. And immediately the child in Elizabeth’s womb — who St. John the Baptist — leaps for joy!
Think about it! The first person in the world to recognize Jesus Christ — and to be filled with the joy of his salvation — was an unborn child.
And that is why in our first reading for today’s feast, we hear the prophet Isaiah talking about the child in the womb. He said:
For now the Lord has spoken
who formed me as his servant from the womb …
It is too little, he says, for you to be my servant …
I will make you a light to the nations,
that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.
Brothers and sisters, these words tell us about the mystery of our lives. Before we are born — God knows our names. He has a plan for our lives.
God sends us out into the world, just as John was sent out. To be a light to our nation, to proclaim Jesus Christ with our whole lives. To proclaim God’s love and mercy — and the great dignity of every human person.
This is what we see in the life of Venerable Alfonso.
On his last day, the day he died, he was taking part in a peaceful demonstration against abortion — to proclaim the sanctity of life and dignity of the child in the womb. And also on that same day, he went to visit a man who was sick and dying of AIDS. Another beautiful witness.
Venerable Alfonso was a witness to the God of life, to the God who calls us to the “peripheries,” as Pope Francis likes to say.
He was the Bishop of the Youth and Bishop of the Barrio. He was the Bishop of the Low-riders. He had a great love for the undocumented, for the migrant workers, the men and women — and even the children — who worked in our fields and picked our food.
Venerable Alfonso always sought the face of God in the face of the poor — in the homeless and the immigrant; in the sick and the suffering; in the child waiting to be born; in the prisoner hoping for a second chance.
In our Gospel today, we hear the story of how St. John the Baptist was born. And we heard that beautiful line:
All who heard these things took them to heart, saying,
“What, then, will this child be?”
For surely the hand of the Lord was with him.
My brothers and sisters, I think we can say that the hand of the Lord was with Venerable Alfonso.
His episcopal motto was “Love one another” and it was drawn from the Gospel and the Rule of St. Augustine.
Venerable Alfonso taught us that Christian love must be expressed in deeds of mercy to our brothers and sisters. And Christian love means we have to be willing to live our faith — even in difficult moments and even when witnessing to Christ can mean suffering.
St. John the Baptist was willing to suffer imprisonment and even death to bear witness to his faith in Jesus and in God.
So his feast today — and also the life of Venerable Alfonso — calls us to examine our conscience.
How are we living our love for Jesus? Are we working to be “a light to our nation”? Our country needs to know God again! Our country needs a new evangelization and a new moral conversion. We need a new awareness of the sanctity and dignity of every human life!
And I was thinking today about when Venerable Alfonso visited the tomb of the martyr, Blessed Oscar Romero in San Salvador. He was deeply moved and he later wrote:
“Here rests a great and peaceful leader who did not hesitate to risk his life for the most noble and sacred human rights. I offered the Virgin heartfelt thanks for the example of this saint and immediately I recalled the saying of Christ our Teacher: ‘the Church will be persecuted but will never be defeated.’”3
So brothers and sisters, let us celebrate the memory of this great local “saint.” Let us try to follow his example and love one another and to defend the sacred human rights of our brothers and sisters.
Venerable Alfonso Gallegos, pray for us!
St. John the Baptist, pray for us!
And may Our Blessed Mother Mary, Our Lady of Guadalupe, help us to become saints and to be light to our nation!
1. Readings (Solemnity of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist): isa. 49:1-6; Ps. 139:1-3, 13-15; Acts 13:22-26; Luke 1:57-66, 80.