Most Reverend José H. Gomez Archbishop of Los Angeles
Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels September 4, 2021
My brothers and sisters,1
So it is a special joy to be together for this beautiful celebration.
As we heard in the first reading today, from the prophet Isaiah: “You have brought them abundant joy and great rejoicing!”
So we rejoice today with the universal Church and with Mary Immaculate, Mediatrix of All Graces. For this past century, the Legion of Mary has been a beautiful sign of our filial love for the Blessed Virgin and her maternal love for us.
Today we especially invoke the prayers of Our Lady and also the founder of the Legion of Mary, the Servant of God Frank Duff, who was a true son of Mary and great pioneer in the lay apostolate.
So I will say that this year, 2021, is truly a “Marian Year.”
Not only are we celebrating the centennial of the Legion of Mary in nations all over the world, but, as you know, next week here in the Archdiocese, we begin our Jubilee Year to mark the 250th anniversary of Mission San Gabriel Arcángel, which St. Junípero Serra founded on the Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, September 8, 1771.
And if that doesn’t convince us that this is definitely a beautiful Marian year, later this year, during Advent, we will celebrate the 490th anniversary of Our Lady of Guadalupe’s apparition to St. Juan Diego. And we celebrate that moment in a special way, the beginning of the evangelization of the Americas!
So I think it is a beautiful Marian year that we are celebrating and it is beautiful too, as I said before, to be together today just keeping that in mind.
So in this moment when we reflect on Mary our Blessed Mother, we need to invoke her and ask her to strengthen us to meet the spiritual challenges we face in the world today.
Immaculate 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.
St. Paul says today: “When the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman … so that we might receive adoption. As proof that you are children, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying out ‘Abba, Father!”
God sends Mary into the world to bring his children hope. Through her maternal love and intercession, God fulfills the ancient prophecies.
God sent his Son, born of a woman, to bring light into the darkness. The darkness of this world without God. The darkness of the human heart without Christ.
And through Mary, it is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah that we heard in today’s first reading: “For a child is born to us, a son is given to us!”
And my dear brothers and sisters, in this Son, in this Child — you and I become God’s own sons and daughters.
This is the beautiful truth of our lives: We are children of God, and we are children of Mary — born of Mary and the Holy Spirit. This is the beautiful truth that the Servant of God Frank Duff understood.
Now, anniversaries are always a time to make new resolutions, to make promises of renewal. I have been thinking about that a lot lately as we approach this Jubilee Year.
Because a jubilee is a season of mercy and a season of grace. And as we know, God pours out his graces upon us through Mary, the Mediatrix of All Grace.
So during this year, with so many beautiful celebrations, let us open our hearts to his graces. Let us use this moment to make a new beginning, to renew our awareness of our spiritual childhood in Mary and let us rededicate ourselves to spreading the light of Jesus Christ in the darkness of our world.
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.”
And this Jubilee Year, we have a beautiful opportunity to renew the love in our souls for Christ, to say, to renew our desire to serve him with all our hearts and all our strength.
My brothers and sisters, in a sense, the world needs a new annunciation! Just as the Immaculate Mary did, let us to open our hearts to the love of God, and open our lives to serve his beautiful plan of salvation, and to bring Jesus Christ into the world!
Our world, our city, our country needs Jesus. So many have turned away and forgotten him. But their souls are crying out for Christ, to meet him again or to meet him for the first time.
We need to speak of Christ to our neighbors, to speak of his love in our lives, to speak of his mercy!
There is nothing more powerful than the truth about Our Lord Jesus Christ. Nothing more beautiful than to know his love and to share it with others.
My dear brothers and sisters, as we know, we cannot carry out our mission unless we are men and women of prayer. Your founder of the Legion of Mary had a great love for the Rosary as we know, and he urged us to say it reverently and daily. And to have the prayers of the Rosary constantly on our lips as we go through our daily lives.
So let us ask Mary our Blessed Mother to win for us the grace to renew our love for the Holy Rosary.
And as you give thanks to God today for this century of grace and blessing, let us entrust ourselves to Immaculate Mary, Mediatrix of All Grace!
May she intercede and make this a season 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 our Blessed Mother!
1. Readings: Isa. 9:1-6; Ps. 113:1-8; Gal. 4:4-7; Luke 1:26-38.