75th Anniversary Mass at Our Lady of Assumption Parish 2022

Most Reverend José H. Gomez
Archbishop of Los Angeles

Our Lady of the Assumption Parish
Claremont, California
August 20, 2022

My brothers and sisters in Christ,¹

As I was saying, I’m very happy to be with all of you for this celebration of the 75th anniversary of your parish!

So we thank God for these 75 years of grace. We thank him for all his blessings on this faith community, and for the love and sacrifices of all those who came before us and helped to build this great community. We especially give thanks to God for all those priests, deacons, religious sisters, and the benefactors and volunteers and all the families that have been here throughout these 75 years.

Today let’s also entrust ourselves to the maternal heart of Holy Mary, Our Lady of the Assumption.

As we know, Mary was taken up body and soul into heaven by God at the end of her earthly life.

So Our Lady of the Assumption helps us to see the amazing promise that God makes to each one of us, and to our world. Where Mary has gone, we can go, too.

So, it is beautiful that our readings today are all about heaven. In the Gospel, today, Jesus says:  “Strive to enter through the narrow gate.”

And of course, as we know: Jesus is the narrow gate. He is the path that leads to heaven. And God wants heaven for every one of us.

The prophet Isaiah tells us that also today in the first reading.

He gives us this beautiful vision of heaven; I’m going to quote parts of what we just heard in the first reading. The prophet is saying:  “I come to gather nations of every language! They shall come and see my glory! … They shall bring all your brothers and sisters from all the nations … to Jerusalem, my holy mountain, says the Lord.”

This is, my dear brothers and sisters, what God wants for us! A great family, children of God from every nation! As we know, this is the Catholic Church. Just look around — we are one big, beautiful family of God, from every nationality and ever people.

This is why Jesus came down from heaven. He is the Son of God and he became the Son of Man to show us the way, to show us how to live as children of God and live with him forever in heaven!

And again, Jesus is the narrow gate! That means we need to make Jesus the “way” for our life. In our second reading today, from the Letter to the Hebrews, we hear this command: “Make straight paths for your feet.”

So, how do we do that? It seems to me that we  need to have some practical way — practical habits — practical things to do every day that will keep us on the right path, so that we can keep  thing walking and growing with Jesus.

So today, on this beautiful anniversary, let us make a new commitment to walk with Jesus. Let him really take your hand and let him lead you. Let him be the gate that you walk through.

So I was thinking of three simple things that I would like to recommend to all of you. They are good for me too — as I was reading the Gospel, I was thinking: what is the best way to walk with Jesus, it came to my mind and my reflection three things.
 
Simple things that we all do, but I think it’s good for us, as we celebrate this beautiful anniversary, to especially think of those practical things that can help us to be faithful disciples of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

So I was thinking that there are three things:

Pray the Gospels — not just read the Gospels, but pray the Gospels.

Pray the Mass — not just attend Mass, but pray the Mass.

And then make your life a prayer for others.

So first, the Gospels. The saints never let a day go by that they didn’t spend time with Jesus in the Gospels. Neither should we.

It’s always great if we can find a little time every day to read the Gospel — the Gospel of the day. Just read it slowly. I mean we can do now so easily because we all have these gadgets, these telephones, and whatever, so that is there — the Gospels are there.

So if we can find just a few minutes every day. Read slowly and asking Jesus very simply: Lord, help me understand what you are saying to me today. Help me live in the way you want me to live. That’s it. Do it every day, and believe me, it will make a big difference in your lives.

Then, pray the Mass. As we come to mass, we cannot just attend it but we should make it a very prayerful time. We can try to come to Mass maybe a little early and ask for the grace to be attentive and open our hearts to the presence of God. And to have the best possible disposition to receive Jesus in holy Communion.

It is very simple, and we all do it — but maybe today let’s ask for the grace to do it a little better. Sometimes it is difficult because we come to Mass and it’s in the middle of our day, or we have our things to do and we get distracted, so many people.

But if we come — peacefully quiet and put ourselves in the presence of God and ask for that extraordinary grace of participating, praying, during the Mass — that will make a huge difference in our lives too.

The third one: Make your life a prayer for others.

Everything that Jesus did, he did for other people. Everything Jesus did, he did to put others on the right path, to make sure their feet were walking in the direction of heaven.

That’s how we want to live. He wants us to share his love! The more we love, the more love there will be in our life, and in the world. It’s just a matter of little things. Little things matter a lot. We can be a better listener, more forgiving, more understanding. Love, as we know, is a thousand little acts every day that nobody sees.

That’s real love.

So I suggest to all of you and to myself those three practical things today — to really have Jesus walking with us and that he be our guide — the one who takes us to heaven.

So my dear brothers and sisters, as we celebrate this beautiful anniversary, let us ask for that grace — the grace to keep walking on the path that Jesus puts before us.

The gate is narrow, but we pass through by love. So let’s love one another as Jesus loves us.

We ask Mary, Our Lady of the Assumption and the Gate of Heaven, to help us! May she help us to lead others to her Son, so that we all can follow him through the narrow gate to heaven!