Most Reverend José H. Gomez
Archbishop of Los Angeles
Los Angeles State Historic Park
January 21, 2023
Good afternoon to everyone!
How are you doing? All right!
I guess, I’m supposed to say: One Life … All right everyone got it!
So thank you for coming out, it is so great to be with you! What a joy it is to be alive, to believe in Jesus, and to celebrate the great gift of life!
So I want to welcome all of you, and also, all the ones that are joining us from all over the country and from all over the world, watching and listening over the channels of EWTN, El Sembrador (ESNE), and Guadalupe Radio.
Together we are doing something beautiful, my dear friends. We are part of a great movement of human freedom and human dignity, the beautiful movement to build a culture of life and love.
We all want to live in a society where human life is cherished and welcomed, where everyone can live with dignity — from conception to natural death.
This is a spiritual movement. A movement of the hearts and minds and souls. The movement for life is a movement for love.
St. John the Apostle wrote, “God is love, and whoever remains in love, remains in God, and God remains in him.”1
God is Love! And every person is made in the image of God. So, all of us are made in the image of love, the image of God.
God the Father sent Jesus into the world to show us the “human face” of love, to show us what love looks like in our ordinary human lives. Jesus lived for others, and this is how we are called to live.
And when we live like Jesus, when we love like Jesus, my friends, we change the world. The saints tell us: “Where there is no love, put love, and you will draw out love.”2
So the most important thing we can do to change the world, to build a culture of life — is to love the people in our lives. Those who are nearest to us. In our families, in our homes. In the places where we work, in our schools, our neighborhoods and communities.
Love dreams of a society where it is easy for people to be born and to raise families. Where it is easy for people to grow old and to spend their lives with dignity.
So, my dear friends, you are going to hear some extraordinary testimonies today. I’m also excited to hear the speakers we have for you today.
But when we go home later this evening, let’s remember that this is more than one day. OneLife LA is a way — a way of life and a way of love. And love is our mission.
So let us entrust this beautiful moment of One Life LA to the intercession of Mary our Lady of the Angels. May she walk with us and guide us.