75th Anniversary Mass - St. Bernadette Church

Most Reverend José H. Gomez
Archbishop of Los Angeles

St. Bernadette Church
Los Angeles, California
August 1, 2022

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ,¹

As I said, I’m very happy to be with all of you today for this special celebration and as we give thanks to God for these 75 years of grace. We thank him for his 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 thank all the pastors, priests, deacons, religious sisters, all the ministers, volunteers, staff and all the many families down through the years that have made this parish a special place for so many families.

In a special way, today we ask the intercession of your patron saint, Saint Bernadette. As we know, the Virgin Mary appeared to St. Bernadette near Lourdes, France in 1858. And we are blessed today to be praying in her presence — she is with us today in her sacred relics. We are also blessed today to be celebrating this Eucharist with Archbishop Jean-Marc Micas, the Bishop of Tarbes and Lourdes.

Bishop, welcome!

So this evening, in a special way, we turn to St. Bernadette tonight, and we ask her prayers for us as we seek to deepen our love for Jesus and purify our hearts to worship our Father in spirit and in truth.

In the first reading of today’s Mass this evening, we heard a part of that beautiful prayer that King Solomon prayed on the day that he dedicated the Temple at Jerusalem.

“Can it indeed be,” Solomon prays, “that God dwells among men on earth? If the heavens and the highest heavens cannot contain you, how much less this temple which I have built?”

My brothers and sisters, this is the beautiful truth of our religion. God dwells among us. Our God comes down from the highest heavens, to dwell with us. Out of love for us, he becomes one of us; he comes to share in our human likeness, in the ordinary reality of our human lives. And out of love for us, our God suffers and dies for us, and he rises from the dead, for us!

I insist, “for us.” These are, I think, the two most important words. I hope that we never forget them. We have a God who has given everything for us. For you, for me.

And Jesus is really here. He is waiting for us in the tabernacle. He comes to us every day on this altar, in his Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity. To be our bread.

So let us ask tonight for the grace to be renewed in the truth that our God is alive, that he is here in this place, in this moment. Jesus sees you and hears you, and he longs tonight to speak to your heart.

Jesus tells us tonight in the Gospel: “But the hour is coming, and is now here, when true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and truth; and indeed the Father seeks such people to worship him."

So the hour is here, dear brothers and sisters! We are living in the “now” that Jesus was talking about. We are the ones that the Father is calling to worship him in Spirit and truth.

And to worship the Father in Spirit and truth means — with our whole lives. Not just when we are in this building. God wants all of us, not just a part of us.

And in spirit and truth means we love him and serve him with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind, and with all our strength.

That is what St. Paul means in the second reading of today’s Mass when he says: “Like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”

My dear brothers and sisters, God wants each one of us to be a “living stone” in this temple that he is building in the world.

Your patron saint, St. Bernadette, was a “living stone.” But she was the least likely of apostles. As we know, she was a teenager from a poor family, a humble girl who knew her prayers and went to church, but she didn’t how to read or write.

Yet, Our Blessed Mother Mary chose Bernadette to be her witness, her messenger. She chose Bernadette to proclaim the great promise of Jesus Christ.

Bernadette was not a theologian or a preacher. She spoke from her heart in simple language, just telling people what she saw, and what she heard; she talked of the power of God’s love in her life. And she also had the courage to defend her faith against the attacks of those who refused to believe.

And all of this obviously, is a lesson for us. It is a beautiful reminder of the mission that we all have, in our families, in the places where we work, in our communities, in our schools.

So my brothers and sisters, in our world, our city, our country — everywhere people are looking for Jesus.

And Jesus wants to meet these souls through you and through me! He is sending us out, just as he has sent St. Bernadette.

Just as he called St. Bernadette, Our Lord is calling us to carry his love to everyone we meet, to glorify him by our lives — by the way we live and especially I would say, by the way we love.

This is how we worship God in Spirit and truth. Through our works of love, through our kindness and generosity. Every little act of love and mercy increases the total of love and mercy in the world.

This is how we can turn this world into God’s “spiritual house,” his temple, his Kingdom. Just little works of love in our daily life. Just listening to somebody, talking in a nice way to somebody, helping someone that is in need — just those little acts of love, as you know, is such a huge difference in the life of the people that we deal with. In the whole world, for that matter.

So, as we celebrate this great anniversary, let’s ask St. Bernadette to help us to be living stones, as she was, worshipping God with our whole lives.

St. Bernadette, pray for us!

And may our Blessed Mother Mary, Our Lady of Lourdes, the Immaculate Conception, keep you and your families always in the mantle of her love.