Religious Education Congress Closing Mass 2023

Most Reverend José H. Gomez
Archbishop of Los Angeles

Religious Education Congress
Anaheim, California
February 26, 2023

My brothers and sisters in Christ,¹

As we all know, this has been a difficult and challenging time with the loss of Bishop Dave O’Connell. And I’m grateful for your support and fellowship this weekend. Being with you has been a gift — and an “embrace of grace.”

We had a beautiful prayer service this morning and we heard beautiful testimonies of his life and dedication to God and the people of God in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. So, it’s been, for all of us I think, a beautiful gift to reflect and learn from, again, the exciting and beautiful example of Bishop Dave O’Connell.

And on this first Sunday of Lent, our readings set before us the whole human history, the beautiful narrative of salvation — from the first man and woman to the “last Adam” — the “new man” in whom we are given the power to become children of God and a new creation.²

That first reading today from the Book of Genesis is our “origin story.” And we all know how that story goes:

God made a wonderful world, a garden of paradise, and as the crown of his creation he made man and woman in his image, to live as his sons and daughters; to walk with him and to share in his divine life.³

But as we heard in that first reading, being a child of God, being the image of God, seems that it was not enough for our first parents. They wanted something more. They wanted to “be like gods” themselves. And that’s just what the devil promised them.

And I was reflecting and I’m sure that we know that the world is still living with the consequences of our first parents’ original sin. It has been said that original sin is the only Catholic doctrine that can be proven to be from just reading the headlines. Sadly, that’s true. Every day in the media we can find stories of sin and cruelty, and people trying to play God.

So, that’s where our story starts, but not where it ends. Sin and death do not get the last word in God’s plan! Where sin abounds, grace abounds even more!⁴

St. Paul tells us in the second reading: “For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so, through the obedience of the one, the many will be made righteous.”

And my brothers and sisters, we witness that act of “obedience” today in the passage of the Gospel, as Jesus confronts the devil in the desert and undergoes the same temptations that Adam experienced. As Adam was disobedient, Our Lord was obedient to God.

So the Gospel tells us today that the Holy Spirit led Jesus into the desert. And we need to remember: Jesus allowed himself to be led; he was obedient to the Spirit.

And as we have reflected this weekend, the Holy Spirit is still alive and active in the world! The Spirit is like a fire moving through history, as Jesus said, like a wind that blows where it wills, always working to renew the face of creation.⁵

So like Jesus, we need to let the Spirit guide us, we need to let the Spirit open our eyes to the signs of the times.⁶

And with our eyes open, we can see how the Spirit is at work in these days — in our parishes and schools and in our communities. We have seen it in a beautiful way, especially these days, in our Congress.

All around us, we can see that there’s a new thirst for holiness, a new desire to live by the Word of God, a new hunger for the Eucharist as the bread of life! We see young families not afraid to go against the grain of the culture, living their faith with zeal and joy, striving to be everyday saints, raising their kids to know Jesus and to live for him.

It’s happening! You see it and so do I! There’s a new awakening, a new religious revival beginning.

So our job is to keep that fire of faith burning in the hearts of our people, and to kindle that fire in many more hearts.

Just think about how this generation has survived the great pandemic of these last three days —three years! I wish it had been three days, because that’s what I wanted three days, not three years.

So it’s been so challenging but now people are looking for answers, for solid spiritual food. For permanent things. They are looking to us — to you and to me and to the Church — to show them the way to Jesus.

So we have a beautiful duty in this moment. It’s not about programs or action plans. It’s about friendship, sharing our love for Jesus and leading others to friendship with him. 

So we need to be good friends to our friends and be faithful and loyal to them. We need to be honest and caring in our families, our work, in our communities. And we need to reach out to make new friends — because, as I said, so many of the people are out there looking for Jesus because they are lonely and hurting.

So as we have seen in the life of Bishop Dave, being a friend is being an apostle. So when we strengthen friendships, when we make new friends for ourselves, then we make friends for Jesus — and that’s our vocation, that’s what we are here for.

Let’s make sure that all the emotions we have had this weekend, this past week with the passing of Bishop Dave O’Connell, that that will be a moment for all of us as we start this Lenten season and in our whole life — as we start this new moment of the Holy Spirit — to let us stand in the fire of Our Lord’s gaze and allow his love to burn away our selfishness and indifference.

And especially to renew our apostolic seed — that we really feel the responsibility of sharing the love of God with everybody in our families, in our parishes, in our communities.

And may we “embrace grace,” and allow him to take away our hearts of stone and give us new hearts to love.⁷

And yes, let us ask Mary our Blessed Mother to help us — to pray with us, and to pray for us on this journey.