I’m very happy to be with all of you today for this celebration of the Holy Eucharist!
As I was saying, we celebrate today, the Mass to our Blessed Mother, Queen of the Angels. And we also celebrate today the founding of the Catholic Church, the family of God, here in Los Angeles. We thank God for the protection of Our Lady of the Angels.
As we know, it was 250 years ago that St. Junípero Serra and the Franciscans came to found Mission San Gabriel Arcangel, and later this city, placing it all under the powerful mantle of Our Lady of the Angels, Nuestra Señora de Los Angeles.
And as we know, we are nearing the end of a beautiful season of grace, the Jubilee Year that we have been celebrating to mark the 250th anniversary of San Gabriel Mission, and the fruitful collaboration between the Franciscans and the Tongva natives, the first peoples of this land, and the first generation of Catholics of Los Angeles.
So, our celebration today is special. In this Jubilee Year, united with all the angels, we honor Holy Mary, Our Mother and Queen.
Mary is the beautiful lady in the temple of heaven that we hear described in today’s second reading. She is the “woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.”
And as we heard, Our Lady was “with child” and gave birth to a Son, Jesus Christ, who will “rule all the nations with an iron rod.”
But as we also heard, that this child was opposed by a fierce enemy, the devil, “a huge red dragon, with seven heads and tens horns,” and a large tail that “swept away a third of the stars in the sky.”
So my brothers and sisters, this is obviously symbolic language. But it describes a condition that is real. Jesus told us that the world would oppose us, would oppose the Church, just as it opposed him.2 As we know, it has never been easy to live as a child of God in this world.
But this reading gives us great hope! Because we see in this reading that our victory has already been won. By Holy Mary! By the beautiful Queen clothed in the sun!
As she protected the Child from the dragon, she continues to protect you and me, and the whole family of God. And under her protection, the Church continues to grow and to spread — to the ends of the earth.
And if we just look around what is happening today in this celebration — what do we see? We are one family of God! We are the children of God who have been called from many peoples, a beautiful diversity of men and women from every land and every language and ethnic backgrounds.
As I was thinking about it, and just looking at what was happening here — every year we have this beautiful Mass — it always reminds me of those beautiful words that Our Lady of Guadalupe spoke to St. Juan Diego. She said to St. Juan Diego: “Am I not your mother? Are you not under my shadow and my gaze? Am I not the source of your joy? Are you not sheltered underneath my mantle, under the embrace of my arms?”3
My dear brothers and sisters, we are many peoples, but we have one mother!
And this is the beautiful truth of our lives: We are children of God, and we are children of Mary — born of the Holy Spirit in Baptism. And we are walking in the footsteps of Jesus, and always and everywhere, we are in the company of the angels, and under the shadow and gaze of Holy Mary, Our Mother!
The great saint, Pope John Paul II said: “Where Mary is, her Son cannot fail to be.”4
That is true! Mary is the one who brings us Jesus Christ — in every time and every place. This is the beautiful role that God has given her in salvation history, and this is the beautiful role that she plays in each one of our lives.
So, my dear brothers and sisters, we should be smiling, all the time! We should live with great confidence and joy. It is true what the prophet says in the first reading: “You have brought them abundant joy and great rejoicing!”
So today let us invoke Our Lady and ask her today to strengthen us to meet the spiritual challenges we face in the world today. Let us, each one of us, rededicate ourselves to spreading the Word of God and bringing Jesus to the world, just as Our Blessed Mother did.
Of course, we are all asking ourselves: how are we going to do this? How to trust in the intercession of Mary our Blessed Mother?
As we heard in today’s passage of the Gospel: Mary is “greatly troubled” by what the angel announces to her.
What the angel is telling her will change her whole life. And Mary is afraid, and yet she abandons herself into the loving arms of God. She makes a new beginning for her life — decides to live for Jesus, decides to place her life in the service of the plan of God.
That’s the way we are going to do it — if we put ourselves totally in the hands of God through the intercession of Mary our Blessed Mother.
So let’s make those words of Mary our own this year. Let us, each one of us, say: “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.”
Because my dear brothers and sisters, our world needs a new annunciation! Our world needs Jesus! We need to speak of Christ to our neighbors, to speak of his love in our lives, to speak of his mercy!
This is the message we need to carry into our homes, our neighborhoods, everywhere. The world needs to know Christ — and this is the beautiful mission that we have. We need to bring Jesus into every area of our lives!
So let us ask Our Mother Mary to help us win the grace to renew our love for Jesus and our dedication to spread the Gospel with our lives.
Holy Mary, Queen of the Angels, pray for us.
May she intercede and make this a time of grace for all of us, that we may begin again to know the great gift of our Catholic faith; the beauty of living as children of God and children of Mary!