White Mass for Health Care Professionals 2022

Most Reverend José H. Gomez
Archbishop of Los Angeles

Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels
October 23, 2022

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ,¹

It’s a special joy to be with all of you for this beautiful celebration of God’s love and his tender care.

Every year our Mass for doctors, nurses, and health care professionals in every level is a special moment of grace for all of us, and as we celebrate this Mass, we are lifting up the best of the human spirit.

We are honoring values and virtues that truly reflect the men and women that God intends us to be.

Jesus has entrusted his Church with the Gospel of life, with the good news of God’s Kingdom. He has entrusted the call for salvation, mercy, and healing love.

Jesus wants to be present, especially present and also close to anyone who is afflicted and sick. And Jesus draws near to these people in need — through each one of us.

So this is why your work in the health care profession is so important.

You have a noble calling, my brothers and sisters. In your work, you are representatives of Jesus. Signs of his compassion, apostles of his love. You are the healing presence of God in our world.

In your work, every day, you are an answer to somebody’s prayers. Often many times during the day. So it is a beautiful vocation, and we give thanks to God for your vocation, your ministry, and your dedication to take care of people who are sick.

And we know, as we heard in today’s first reading, that God hears the prayers of the humble and the lowly.

Let’s listen again to what we heard in the first reading of today’s Mass: “The one who serves God willingly is heard; his petition reaches the heavens. The prayer of the lowly pierces the clouds; it does not rest till it reaches its goal.”

This is true, my brothers and sisters! God really hears our prayers. And God often answers our prayers through the kindness and love of others.

So, it’s so important for us to understand the need to rely on prayer — to learn how to trust in prayer. Prayer is so important! It is, as we probably know, the foundation of our friendship with God.

And we should pray like Jesus taught us — with great humility. That’s the point of his parable in the Gospel today about the Pharisee and the tax collector.

The way Jesus describes the Pharisee’s prayer shows us that pride is always a temptation.

As we heard, the Pharisee is not really praying. He’s telling God how good he is. And Jesus is describing the prayer of the Pharisee for a reason. He is telling us about it because we all have the tendencies of the Pharisee inside us.

Pride is always a temptation, we know that. And we all know we can be a little like that Pharisee. Thinking we’re better than other people.

But God also wants us to be honest in our relationship with him. And that is the other example that Jesus gives us in his parable today, the prayer of the tax collector.

As we heard, the tax collector talks to God from the heart. He doesn’t say anything about his own merits or accomplishments. He just tells God what God already knows. He says: “O God, be merciful to me a sinner.”

This is such beautiful prayer, it is absolute honesty. This should be the prayer of every man and woman, every one of us.

Jesus is telling us today — that this is the attitude that we need when we pray. We need to come to God — just as we are. In humility.

So, my dear brothers and sisters, I encourage all of you — make time for prayer in your daily lives. I hope that you make it a priority. Every day. It doesn’t need to be a long time. Maybe just a few minutes. But make sure that you don’t let anything get in the way of meeting Jesus every day. It’s the most important appointment that we could have every day.

And when you pray: Just talk to God from the heart, just like that tax collector. And we can talk to God about everything — our work, our projects, our fears, our hopes, what we need, what we would like to have.

And especially, we need to talk to God when we feel the need to be strong in our own personal life when we serve one another.

Because through prayer, God will give us strength, just as we heard in the second reading of today’s Mass how St. Paul talks about how God gave him the courage to be faithful to his vocation.

And finally there is another reason why we want to pray — because we need that strength. It is so important, especially as are serving — like I was saying about St. Paul — serving our brothers and sisters.

Going ahead and being faithful to our vocation, that is a vocation of love, of serving one another.

So let us especially ask for the grace to be men and women of prayer. Part of prayer is also listening to what God is asking us to do.

And when you hear his voice, he’s not going to be something spectacular — for it is simply in the simplicity of our daily life we can see that God is asking us to do something — to do better in our own personal life, or to listen to somebody, or to make life better for somebody else.

So he’s always calling us to use the gifts that he gives us to serve others in him, especially the poor, the lowly, the weak and the vulnerable.

And for all of you who are in health care: God wants you to be the answers to someone else’s prayer. So let us keep asking for that grace today — to listen to the voice of God and to find the time every day to talk to God in our prayers.

So, may God bless each one of you in your extraordinary ministry of service to our brothers and sisters in need. And may God bless the people you serve through your work.

And let us ask Mary Our Blessed Mother for her intercession — to help us to pray more like that tax collector. With that simplicity and humility. With confidence that God is present in our lives. That he sees us and hears us. And that he will answer all our prayers.