Jubilee of Hope Pilgrimage 2025

Most Reverend José H. Gomez
Archbishop of Los Angeles
 
Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels 
Los Angeles, California 
April 5, 2025
 
My brothers and sisters in Christ, ^[1]
 
First of all we pray for the person that is not feeling well, apparently that person got sick, so special prayers.
 
I hope that you are doing okay, it’s been a long walk. But it’s been good, wasn’t it?
 
I guess we need to do it every week!
 
I think it’s been a great celebration of the Church’s hope, the hope of the whole family of God here in Los Angeles.
 
It’s beautiful to see all of you here this afternoon for this special celebration of the Eucharist. So it’s so beautiful to see all of you to celebrate the Jubilee Year of Hope with the pilgrimage and the celebration of Mass.
 
I was thinking that we all have been walking in the company of saints, who are present with us in their holy relics, now before us at this altar.
 
It is amazing to think of all the historic saints in our midst that are here — their relics. Including the newest saints that are going to be made saints this year: the young millennial Carlo Acutis, who will be canonized after Easter, and Pier Giorgio Frassati who will be canonized in August!
 
So my dear brothers and sisters, in these saints that we’ve been walking with today, we see the universal call to holiness, from the Church’s first beginnings until right now.
 
And I think it’s important to remember that we are called to the same holiness, the same heroic virtue, the same mission. Our vocation and destiny is to join them. We are created to become saints ourselves and to live forever with God in the love that never ends.
 
This is our hope as Catholics.
 
So in the Gospel that we just heard, the people are amazed at Jesus’ teaching. Some say that he’s a prophet; others, the Messiah. They said: “Never before has anyone spoken like this man.”
 
Nobody has ever spoken like Jesus because Jesus, as we know, is the living God who has come into our midst; come to show us his face, come to open his heart to us.
 
In taking human flesh, Jesus shows us what it means to be a human being, a human person. He shows us who we are, and what we are made for, and why we are here.
 
The beautiful truth that he reveals is that God knows our name; he knows each one of us personally. And he has loved each one of us from before all ages and he will love us to the end. That’s why Jesus gave his life for us on the cross. Because he loves us more than we could ever imagine.
 
And Jesus saves our lives for a reason!
 
So, my brothers and sisters, Jesus has a job for each one of us, for you and for me. He wants us to be a part in his beautiful project of redemption.
 
One of the saints said:
 
“I am created to do something or to be something for which no one else is created. I have my mission — I may never know in this life, but I shall be told it in the next.”^[2]
 
This is the truth for each one of us, for you and me. Jesus has a mission for all of us.
 
And in this Jubilee Year, it’s so important for us to reflect on how Jesus is calling us to be his instruments, heroes of hope! In our parishes, in our schools and our communities, and in our homes. We are called to be missionaries of hope!
 
And that’s the way in which we are going to make a difference in our families and in our society.
 
So, Jesus is sending us into the world to share the hope that we have in him.
 
Again, special prayer that that person will be okay.  
 
So, I think that’s what I wanted to share with you today. That really this call of hope is personal for each one of us. And it is a beautiful mission!
 
So, let’s especially ask Mary Our Blessed Mother for her intercession today — that we can be those heroes of hope! And let us commit ourselves again today, to becoming the saints that we are created to be.
 
We ask Our Blessed Mother, Queen of the Angels and Star of Hope, to guide us as we seek always to follow in the way of her Son!