Solemnity of Mary, the Holy Mother of God 2024

Most Reverend José H. Gomez
Archbishop of Los Angeles

Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels
January 1, 2024

My brothers and sisters in Christ,¹

We continue in this beautiful Christmas season as we give honor today to Holy Mary, the Mother of God, and the mother of each one of us.

The Church begins every year by honoring Mary. Because in God’s plan for salvation history, Mary brings the new beginning for creation and our fallen humanity. 

And this great solemnity tells us that in the Mother of God we have the hope of a new beginning. Through the fruit of her womb, Jesus, we come face-to-face with the living God.

The blessing that we just heard from Moses in the first reading comes to fulfillment in Mary: “The Lord bless you and keep you! the Lord let his face shine upon you, and be gracious to you! The Lord look upon you kindly and give you peace!”

And I think it’s very beautiful, and I’m sure that we noticed it, that in the blessing of Moses asks for the gift of peace. And today, as I was saying, we also celebrate the World Day of Peace, which the Church has celebrated for many years on New Year’s Day.

So we pray for peace in the world, and we know that war and repression are a sad reality in many nations. So we pray that God spread the blessings of his peace, and that he soften the hearts of leaders, that they may seek the ways of peace for their peoples.

Of course we know that peace begins in the human heart. So let us also ask that God give us that peace of Jesus Christ, which passes all understanding, and help us to be instruments of peace in our lives — wherever we are: in our families, in any situation, in our neighborhoods.

We are called to be instruments of peace.

And this was the mission of Mary the Mother of God. The Child who is born on Christmas is the “Prince of Peace,” and he calls us to be peacemakers and to bring the peace of Jesus Christ into the world.

In the passage of the Gospel today, we have a simple and beautiful model for our Christian lives in the figure of the shepherds.

As we heard, the shepherds came in haste to Mary and Joseph in Bethlehem, to adore the Infant lying in the manger.

When they found Jesus, “they made known the message” that the angels had told them. And after adoring Jesus, the shepherds returned to their ordinary lives “glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen.”

So my dear brothers and sisters, like those shepherds, we need to stay close to Jesus, and close to his Mother and St. Joseph. We need to adore him and to learn from him.

And like the shepherds, we need to glorify Jesus by our lives, by living as sons and daughters of God.

So let’s make this a year when all of us come to know Jesus more and have a new zeal to make him known and loved in the world today.

So one practical thing that we can do as we start the new year and make our resolutions is to try and deepen our devotion to the holy Eucharist.

As you may know, we have been living, for a couple of years, the Eucharistic Revival. And this year, 2024, in the month of July, we will have the national Eucharistic Congress.

It will be a beautiful celebration — and it’s been happening in every single diocese, in every single parish, and now is a national celebration of the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist.

The “secret key” to the Eucharist is that silent prayer that the priest prays at the altar in every Mass. And it says: “By the mystery of this water in wine, may we come to share in the divinity of Christ, who humbled himself to share in our humanity.”

My brothers and sisters, this is our destiny, this is what God wants for each one of us. Jesus gives us his Body and Blood in order to grow his divine life within us, to make us more and more like him.

So, let’s make a new beginning today. In this new year, let’s walk with new purpose on the path of holiness, seeking to love more and more and be more like Jesus, and we’ll do it growing in our devotion to the Eucharist.

And let us entrust ourselves to the Mother of God, our Lady of the Angels.

May she help us to love Jesus more and more. And may she help us to make her Son known in the world and to lead everyone to walk in the light of his love.

Happy New Year to all of you and your families!