Most Reverend José H. Gomez Archbishop of Los Angeles
Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels January 30, 2022
My dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
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So it is a joy to celebrate the lives and ministries of our Religious jubilarians today!
My dear sisters, you are “Jubilarians in a Jubilee Year.” And that is very special for us here in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.
With our Jubilee Year, we are marking the 250th anniversary of Mission San Gabriel Arcángel, and the first proclamation of the Gospel here in Los Angeles, as we know.
And with your jubilees, we honor your dedication to continue that great mission of bringing Jesus Christ to the family of God here in the Archdiocese.
Dear sisters and brother jubilarians, for so many years now, you have been our leaders — showing us by your example, how we should live as followers of Jesus Christ. By the humility and simplicity of your lives. By your love for God and for those in need.
So congratulations to each one of you jubilarians who are celebrating your anniversary.
St. Paul tells us today in the second reading, that
“Love never fails.” And we see that beautiful truth in your lives and ministries. Again thank you and congratulation on your anniversary.
As we turn to our readings today, our Gospel continues the story of last Sunday and today Jesus is preaching in the synagogue at Nazareth. And as we recall from the Gospel last week, Jesus said he was “anointed” to proclaim the Gospel.
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And also today’s Gospel, we hear how the people were
“amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth.”
But then something happened. They suddenly seem jealous and offended. And Jesus notices it. That’s why he says:
“No prophet is accepted in his own native place.”
So the people question Jesus, as we heard:
“They also asked, ‘Isn’t this the son of Joseph?’”
As I was reflecting on this passage of the Gospel, I was thinking there is something similar in our Christian life. Every one of us has our own story, where we came from.
And my brothers and sisters, there is much more to our story because we belong to God!
What God says to the prophet Jeremiah in today’s first reading, he says to each one of us, as we just heard:
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I dedicated you, a prophet to the nations I appointed you.”
The truth about our lives is that before we are born, we are given a vocation, given a part to play in the great plan of salvation of the living God. And this is true for every one of us.
By our baptism we are anointed with the Holy Spirit, and we are “
appointed” to be missionary disciples. God is calling each of us to give our lives to him, to follow Jesus and to proclaim his Gospel.
And I would say that it is more special for us as we have received a special call from God to the priesthood and religious life.
Pope Francis, as we think of our vocation, our religious vocation — Pope Francis just said a month ago to members of religious orders in Rome, these beautiful words: “I thank you for all the work you are doing in the service of consecrated life in the universal Church. I would like to say: at the service of the Gospel, because everything we do is at the service of the Gospel, and you in particular serve that “gospel” which is consecrated life, so that it may be such, that it may be the gospel for today’s world.”
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Beautiful words that remind us, as I was saying before, that we are called to be messengers of the Gospel.
And when we think of the history of the Church, we reflect on how the apostles and the first generations of the Church, they understood that they were called to live and share the beautiful mystery of the life and teachings of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The first Christians lived “in” the world but they were not “of” this world.
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They understood at that their baptism made them different. And so should we, my dear brothers and sisters.
There is a powerful letter from the early second century of the Church that says: “What the soul is in the body, Christians are in the world.”
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This is how we carry out our mission, our calling to be children of God. As the first Christians, we are called to be the “soul” of the world, of every circumstance that we find ourselves in.
And St. Paul, in the second reading of today’s Mass, tells us how we do that: by love. Love is the meaning and the measure of our lives as Catholics, as followers of Jesus.
Love, as Paul tells us, is often hidden. It works behind the scenes. Love is humble, it
“does not seek its own interests,” he says.
Love is always in the service of the higher cause of the Gospel, of proclaiming the salvation that we have in Jesus Christ.
And as we all know, we show our love in little ways, simple things — by our patience, our kindness, our hopefulness; by the way we endure difficulties. And we love — right where we are, where we find ourselves — in our communities, among our families, with the people that we are dealing with. It is the reality of our Christian life and I would say especially our vocation in the priesthood and religious life.
So just as Jesus came back home to Nazareth at the beginning of his ministry, we are called to proclaim the Gospel in our time, in our society, in our ministries.
This is how we live out our anointing as children of God and our appointment to be his prophets in the world.
So my brothers and sisters, let us give thanks to God today for our religious brothers and sisters who are celebrating their Jubilees!
And let us ask Our Blessed Mother Mary, to help us to continue to grow in the image of her Son, as children of God. May she help us to be the “prophets” that God calls us to be, bringing the love of Jesus into our relationships and into every encounter in our lives.
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Readings (4th Sunday in Ordinary Time): Jer. 1:4–5; 17–19; Ps. 71:1–16, 15, 17; 1 Cor. 12:31–13:13; Luke 4:21–30.