Pentecost Sunday 2022

Most Reverend José H. Gomez
Archbishop of Los Angels

Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels
June 5, 2022

My brothers and sisters in Christ,¹

As I was saying, today we are gathered here for the special celebration of the Solemnity of Pentecost and also the closing of the process of Synod — the Archdiocese Synod process as preparation of the Synod in Rome in 2023.

So, it is a beautiful day, the Solemnity of Pentecost. On Pentecost, the Church was born in the fire of the Holy Spirit! So, today we are celebrating the Church’s “birthday.”

And the Church here in Los Angeles is alive, on fire with the Spirit.

Just yesterday, probably some of you were here — here at the Cathedral — I had the privilege of ordaining eight fine new priests to serve as shepherds and spiritual fathers to the family of God here in the Archdiocese.

And we thank God today for that grace! Let’s especially pray for our new priests — and for all our priests who give their lives to serve us. And on this birthday of the Church, let us ask for a new outpouring of the Holy Spirit in our times, and a new flowering of vocations to the priesthood and consecrated life.

It is important at this time to especially pray for that — for more vocations to the priesthood and consecrated life.

As I’ve been saying, it is a beautiful time here in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, especially to be a Catholic in Los Angeles.

And also as I was saying, we are concluding our local observance of the Sixteenth Synod Bishops, called by Pope Francis.

As we heard at the beginning of Mass, since this past October, we have been holding listening sessions all around the Archdiocese, as the Holy Father Pope Francis has requested. Now we are looking forward to the meeting of the world’s bishops with the Pope in Rome in October of 2023.

And I was reflecting on this process and I think for many of us, it has been a beautiful time for reflecting more deeply about our lives as disciples and our responsibility for the Church’s mission. And that is exactly what the Holy Father intended for this “synodal path,” as he calls it.

It is a beautiful process.

St. Paul tells us today in the second reading: “As a body is one though it has many parts, and all the parts of the body, though many, are one body, so also Christ.”

My brothers and sisters, we belong, we are part, of the Body of Christ. Each of us a member, each of us play an important part in this beautiful plan of salvation.

As we just heard in our first reading today, on Pentecost the Holy Spirit came down upon Holy Mary and the apostles in “tongues of fire.” And filled with the Spirit, they began proclaiming — in every language of the earth — the mighty works of God. 

So Pentecost reveals the Church’s universal mission. And I’m sure you noticed, on that first Pentecost there were people gathered “from every nation under heaven.” And everyone there that day heard the apostles’ preaching “in his native language.”

That is, my brothers and sisters, what “Catholic” means. It means universal. And that’s our mission. As members of the Body of Christ, of his Catholic Church, we are called to proclaim his Gospel to every nation.

We are called to follow Jesus, and to love him, and serve him, and to work with him to create — from out of the world’s many peoples — one single family of God. 

So yes, my brothers and sisters, the Church’s mission is our mission. Yours and mine. It is a mission entrusted to each of us, personally.

Jesus said that he came to cast fire on the earth.² He sent his Holy Spirit on Pentecost to complete his mission. That fire that started at Pentecost is meant to keep burning in us, in his Church.

Today our Lord’s words in the Gospel today are addressed to his disciples in every age. That means, again, that he is speaking to you and to me. He tells us: “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”

And as he spoke those words: “He breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.’” 

So in reality what happens to the apostles and our Blessed Mother at Pentecost — has happened to each one of us in our Baptism.

Baptism is like our own personal Pentecost. In the living waters, Our Lord sends his Spirit into our hearts — making us a new creation, sons and daughters of the living God, brothers and sisters gathered into his family, members of his Body, which is the Church.

So today, let us ask for the grace to rediscover the meaning of our Baptism. Truly, this is the most important day of our lives. Because in Baptism we claim our true identity, the true meaning and purpose of our lives.

And the purpose of our lives is to spread the fire, to share the light we have received.  

We must see our lives as a missionary pilgrimage. We are following in the footsteps of Jesus, on our way back to the Father’s house, trying to get to heaven.

And as we walk this path with Jesus, we are called to invite our neighbors, our loved ones —everyone we meet — to come with us.  

One of the holy writers said, “We cannot go to heaven alone, because God will say to us: Where are the others?”³

So my brothers and sisters, Jesus gives us the joyful duty to spread the fire of his love to the ends of the earth. Just as the Father sent him, now he is sending us — out into our homes, the places where we work, our neighborhoods, everywhere.

Like Holy Mary and those apostles at Pentecost, we have the beautiful opportunity to tell others of the marvelous work of God, the beautiful friendship that we can have with Jesus.

This is our beautiful mission and this is what every soul is longing for! Only when people meet Jesus, can their lives begin again! Only in this encounter can they discover the beautiful love that God has for them, and the power of his forgiveness, his mercy.

So my dear brothers and sisters, Pentecost continues in your life and mine. Christ is alive in you. Let us live with that confidence. Let us live as he lived. And let us love as he loved!

Let us ask the intercession of Mary Most Holy, that there will be a new Pentecost in our days. That we can really say that the Church in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles is alive. That we are really excited about our faith and that we are living our mission in our daily life, trusting in the presence of God in our lives and especially the inspiration of the Holy Spirit in our lives. May the fire of love in our hearts inspire others — until the whole world is on fire with the love of Christ!