Religious Education Congress Closing Mass 2025

Most Reverend José H. Gomez
Archbishop of Los Angeles 
 
Anaheim, California 
February 23, 2025
 
My brothers and sisters in Christ,^[1]
 
I was thinking that this really has been an amazing weekend, hasn’t it? And it was very special starting with the theme for our Religious Education Congress this year “Called to Compassion,” especially in the reality of the world in which we live.
 
I think it’s been beautiful that we have been able to stop and reflect on this beautiful message and understanding our vocation.
 
So today, let us especially keep praying for Pope Francis and let’s entrust him to the tender care of our Blessed Mother, and ask that she be close and guide him to a speedy and full recovery.
 
Let’s also keep praying and sharing compassion for our brothers and sisters whose lives have been disrupted by the wildfires.
 
During Youth Day, just a couple of days ago, I had the privilege to worship in the presence of a relic from one of our newest saints, Blessed Carlo Acutis, who Pope Francis will canonize just after Easter.
 
Blessed Carlo will be our first millennial saint, born in the year 1991.
 
He was only 15 when he died from leukemia, but he had lived a life full of life, a holy and heroic life.
 
As you probably know, Blessed Carlo lived his faith with so much joy and enthusiasm that the people who met him wanted to fall in love with Jesus, too.
 
And as I was praying — the relic was right here, so as I was praying before his relic, I was looking for it, it’s not here. I’m just kidding. So, as I was praying before his relic, it struck me that this is our mission as catechists and teachers, as pastors and ministers.
 
Our mission is to raise up a new generation of saints and heroes for the faith, a new generation of disciples and apostolic souls like Blessed Carlo Acutis.
 
St. Paul says in today’s second reading that every man and woman is made to become a new creation.^[2]  
 
Paul tells us that we are born in the image of the first man, Adam, who was created from the dust of the earth. But we are destined to bear the image of Christ, the “new man” who came down from heaven to be “a life-giving spirit.”
 
The faith that we proclaim and teach is meant to be life-giving, life-changing, it’s meant to bring about a revolution of the human heart!
 
And in your role as teachers and catechists, you are called to be men and women who change lives, working with the Spirit to shape and form souls in the likeness of Christ.
 
The saints tell us that the God we serve is a consuming fire. Our God wants all our love and wants every part of us: all our heart and soul, all our mind and strength.^[3]
 
That means we can never proclaim a faith that is just comfortable, a faith that doesn’t challenge ourselves and challenge the people around us.
 
Jesus died so that a new humanity could arise, a new humanity that shares in the divine life and love. He died to bring about what one holy writer called “a new race of heroes and saints.”
 
This is the Church, this is the family of God. This is you and me! And Jesus calls his Church to be a people set apart, a people who live by a new set of values, a new race of heroes and saints.
 
In the passage of the Gospel today, Jesus spells out that new set of values.
 
Jesus tells us, as we just heard: “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.”
 
He says: If someone takes something from you, let it go. Lend and don’t expect anything back in return.
 
When Jesus first spoke these words, nobody had ever heard anything like this before. And my brothers and sisters, two thousand years later, his ideas still unsettle us: This just isn’t how most people think and act.
 
By his grace, Jesus lifts up our fallen nature, he makes it possible for us to follow him along a higher path.
 
Jesus gives us the power to love as he loves, even to love those who hate and persecute us.
 
Jesus gives us the power to forgive as we are forgiven. And he gives us the power to be merciful, just as our Father is merciful, even to those who are ungrateful.
 
This is the God we serve, my dear brothers and sisters! This is the power of the Gospel we proclaim.
 
We belong to God’s family now, we are “children of the Most High,” as he tells us today.
 
Jesus is calling us now to preach and teach and live — like we believe this!
 
Catechists, teachers, pastors, and ministers. They’ve always been the unsung heroes of Church history.
 
For every saint that we celebrate, there were men and women who first taught them to know and love Jesus, who first taught them the meaning and cost of discipleship.
 
This is our beautiful task in this generation at this time. This is the enthusiasm that we should have as we bring the good news to the people around us.
 
It’s a beautiful mission, my dear brothers and sisters. It’s a beautiful challenge but it’s exciting, as I said, to really be faithful disciples of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
 
So as we meet Jesus today in this Eucharist, let us tell him that we love him. Let us ask him to renew our dedication to making saints and spreading far and wide his beautiful promise for a new humanity. Helping everyone to understand the beautiful message of this weekend — Called to Compassion.
 
May our Blessed Mother Mary keep us always close to her Son!