Opening of the Holy Doors for the Jubilee of Hope / Feast of the Holy Family 2024

 

Most Reverend José H. Gomez
Archbishop of Los Angeles
 
Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels 
December 29, 2024
 
My brothers and sisters in Christ,^[1]
 
I hope that you are having a happy Christmas season and many blessings to all of us as we start our Jubilee Year of Hope.
 
So as we continue in these twelve days of Christmas, the beautiful season between the Nativity of our Lord and the Epiphany, between his coming as God among us, and his manifestation as the light of hope by which all nations can walk.^[2]
 
I hope that we especially open our hearts to the grace of God during these special days.
 
Today, as you were part of it, we have thrown open the Holy Door of this great Cathedral and together we have crossed the threshold into the Jubilee Year declared by the Holy Father Pope Francis.
 
So, it is so very fitting that we begin our Jubilee today with that image in the Gospel of the Holy Family. Even more beautiful as we contemplated the Holy Family making their customary pilgrimage to Jerusalem for the festival of Passover.
 
Every Jubilee reminds us that we are all “on pilgrimage.”
 
Our life’s journey is now a journey of faith. With Jesus at our side, walking by his Spirit, we are on pilgrimage to his Father’s house, to the heavenly kingdom, where we will discover the love that never ends.
 
And our pilgrimage is never a solitary one, we all go together on this journey of life; we go, as Jesus, Mary, and Joseph did — in our families, and we travel together with our brothers and sisters in the family of God, the Church.
 
So, again it is fitting that we begin this Jubilee on the Feast of the Holy Family.
 
The Holy Father has dedicated this Jubilee to the virtue of hope.
 
And our hope is born on Christmas. In the Child who comes to us in the silence of the night, there we are given the power to become children of God,^[3]
 
This is why Jesus was born from the womb of a mother. This is why he grew up in the heart of a human family.
 
He came into the world as a child of Mary, so that we might live in this world as children of our Father in heaven.
 
And as children of God, we are called to grow in the image and likeness of our brother Jesus, every day more and more conforming our lives to his.
 
St. John tells us today: “What we shall be has not yet been revealed. We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like him.”
 
We shall be like him; we shall be like Jesus!
 
So my dear brothers and sisters: this is the purpose and the goal of our earthly pilgrimage.
 
That we become like Jesus is God’s plan for our life — for your life and my life. His will is that we be sanctified, that we become holy as Jesus is holy.^[4]
 
And we see that pattern in the Gospel today.
 
At the end of this Gospel passage, we are told how Jesus grew in his humanity, sheltered in the loving family of Mary and Joseph.
 
Let’s listen again: “He went down with them and came to Nazareth and was obedient to them; …. And Jesus advanced in wisdom and age and favor before God and man.”
 
It’s a beautiful passage.
 
Jesus created the heavens and the earth; he created the whole human race. He is the eternal Son of the Father, and yet allows himself to become an obedient son of earthly parents.
 
Jesus lived according to the commandments, according to the teaching that we heard in the first reading today, from the Book of Sirach. He honored his father and mother, he submitted to their authority, out of respect and love. 

And as he grew up in his family, Jesus shared in every aspect of our human lives, except for sin.
 
He experienced everything that we experience; he knew love and friendship, sorrow and joy; he knew what it meant to be thirsty and hungry, to be tired and frustrated.
 
As the Son of God, he showed us in his humanity, how we, in our humanity, can lead a holy life, a divine life.  
 
So my brothers and sisters, by walking with him in faith, by reading his words in the Gospel, by reflecting on the example of his actions, by speaking to him in prayer and receiving him in the mystery of his Body and Blood: we can be transformed.
 
We, too, like him, can advance in wisdom and favor before our Father.
 
This is what St. John is talking about today. We shall be like him! This is the “destination” of our earthly journey as children of God.
 
So, my dear brothers and sisters, let us live this Jubilee year “on pilgrimage.” 
 
In this Jubilee, the Lord is calling to us again, knocking at the door of our heart.
 
He is inviting us to open our hearts, just as we have thrown open the Holy Door today.
 
So today let us especially ask Mary, Our Blessed Mother, Mother of Hope, to help us, in his holy year, to cross the threshold of hope, and to receive the gift that her Son comes to offer us, the gift of himself.
 
May she help us to meet Jesus again, as if we are meeting him for the very first time.