Mass and Groundbreaking at St. Genevieve High School 2022

Most Reverend José H. Gomez
Archbishop of Los Angeles

St. Genevieve High School
Panorama City, California
September 1, 2022

My brothers and sisters in Christ,¹

I’m very happy to be with all of you today this evening for this special event of the breaking ground on your new education and arts center, and it’s a special joy to celebrate this Holy Mass with all of you.

I’d like to thank all the benefactors of this project. I think it will be a great addition to parish and to the school. Thank you very much to all the benefactors. And I also would say that I’m very happy that finally they’re starting the construction. It took a long time, didn’t it? Here we are, so thanks be to God!

So the Gospel that we just heard is good for us to reflect on today, as you begin this important new chapter in the history of your parish and school.

Everything that we do in the Church, has only one purpose: to bring souls to the encounter with Jesus Christ; to spread his Gospel of love so that people will come to know Jesus, and to love him, and to serve him.

That’s what the apostles learn today in the Gospel.

As we heard, Peter and the apostles have just spent a long, frustrating night on the job, in their work as fishermen.

But Jesus tells them: “Put out into deep water and lower your nets for a catch.”

Of course, Simon Peter is skeptical. That was his job — he was fisherman. Because he was a professional fisherman and Jesus was not. So for St. Peter to listen to what Jesus was telling him was a surprise. So, he tells Jesus: “Master, we have worked hard all night and have caught nothing.”

But then, as we notice, Simon says something important. Even though, in his mind, it doesn’t make sense to go out to look for fish again, he’s going to do it. Why? Because Jesus asked him to do it.

So we hear his beautiful act of faith: “But at your command I will lower the nets.”

This is, my dear brothers and sisters, the beginning of discipleship. For the apostles, but also for us.

Today, in a special way, Jesus is speaking to each one of us. He is speaking to you, just as clearly and truly as he spoke to his apostles at the Sea of Galilee.

And today, he is calling each one of us to go deeper. Deeper in our love for him. Deeper in our friendship with him. Deeper in our dedication to the mission that he has entrusted to us.

Jesus made us for a reason. He suffered and died for us — for a reason. Each one of us. He rose from the dead to walk with us, and he has a beautiful plan for our life — for you and for me. He has something that he wants each one of us to do with our life, something that nobody else can do.

And I really think that that is exactly what Jesus is telling us today, especially in this passage of the Gospel. God created each one of us for a reason, our life has a purpose — we have a mission that Jesus wants us to carry out. Every one of us.

So Jesus says to Simon Peter today in the Gospel: “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.”

Again, we need to remember that Jesus is speaking to you and to me. Just as Jesus calls Peter and the apostles today, he is calling each one of us to be “fishers” of souls.

So through your work, through your relationships — I would say through your studies — Jesus wants you to bring people into his wide-open arms. He wants you to help gather people into the beautiful “nets” of his love.

So we are called to be apostles, my dear brothers and sisters. To follow Jesus, to walk with him and to work with him, to play our part in the beautiful history of salvation.

Of course, our mission is often not dramatic or heroic. The apostles went through a lot and they gave their lives for Jesus. But with us, each one of us, is called to make it happen in our daily lives —  in our homes, at the dinner table, coming to school or driving your kids to school, or to practice, to help your children to do their homework.

But for all of us, whatever it is in the ordinary life, in the things that we do every day, we are called to be apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ.

We are called to be “fishers” for Jesus in our everyday lives. At home, at work, in our parishes and neighborhoods. And also at school and in our parishes.

So when you start to think about this beautiful duty that we have to share Jesus, you will see that we have many opportunities that we have — just in the way that we listen to people, that we talk to people, that we help people, that we serve people – it just makes a big difference in our society, in our lives, in our families, in our parishes, in our schools. Just to try to be another Jesus, Jesus himself.

So, I pray that these new educational and art centers that you are building will be a powerful way for you share the Gospel with your neighbors and bring many souls to Jesus.

Let us always keep in our minds those beautiful words of Jesus in the Gospel today, his words to St. Peter: “Do not be afraid, from now on you will be catching men.”

So today we especially ask the intercession of St. Genevieve — St. Genevieve, pray for us!

And may our Blessed Mother Mary help us to put out into the deep, and to follow her Son with love.