Most Reverend José H. Gomez
Archbishop of Los Angeles
Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels
February 12, 2022
My brothers and sisters in Christ,1
So World Day of the Sick was started by Pope St. John Paul II 30 years ago, and he wanted to associate this celebration with the Virgin Mary’s apparitions to St. Bernadette near Lourdes, France in 1858.
And as I was saying, we just celebrated the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes yesterday. And we know the wonderful things that happen in the Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes. It is a holy place of pilgrimage and continues to be the source of graces and healings beyond counting, healings spiritual and physical.
So today we celebrate this year’s World Day of the Sick, knowing that our whole world has been bearing the burden of sickness and death, overwhelmed by the coronavirus pandemic.
So we pray today, in a special way, for those who have died and for all those who are suffering, in body and mind, in this pandemic. And we especially ask Our Blessed Mother, to intercede and deliver us from this affliction.
And as I was praying over today’s readings, I was struck by this simple sentence from the Gospel: “And the mother of Jesus was there.”
My brothers and sisters, this is a beautiful truth. She was there, not only at the wedding at Cana, which we hear about in our Gospel. Mary our Blessed Mother is there, in every age, from the beginning.
Mary was there, as we know, at Our Lord’s conception and birth. She was there to present him in the Temple, and to help him grow from an infant to a man in those hidden years at Nazareth. She was there at Cana, at the start of his public ministry. And as we heard today, she is the one who asks him to perform his first miracle.
The Mother of Jesus was there when her Son died, keeping her station at the foot of his cross. And she was also there at the birth of the Church, praying with the apostles for the Holy Spirit to come down at Pentecost.
St. John Paul II said: “Where she is, her Son cannot fail to be."2
This is the beautiful truth, my dear brothers and sisters, as I said. Mary continues to be the maternal face of the Father’s mercy — in every age, and in every place, and in every heart.
In every age, Blessed Mary carries the promise that God makes in today’s first reading: “As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you.”
When Our Lady appeared at Lourdes, she chose to reveal herself, as we know, to a teenage girl from a poor family, a humble girl who knew her prayers and went to church, but did not how to read or write.
And Mary appeared as a young woman, dressed in white, holding a Rosary. She was too beautiful to describe, St. Bernadette said. When Bernadette asked who she was, the Lady smiled sweetly and said, “I am the Immaculate Conception.” Then she disappeared, still smiling.
Our Lady’s apparition at Lourdes was about the “new wine” that Jesus brings. She is the Immaculate One, the Holy Mother of God who through her maternal heart brings a new beginning to the whole human race, by the blessed fruit of her womb, Jesus.
And as the prophet promises in the first reading of today’s Mass: God’s mercy is like a healing river that overflows like a torrent through all times — overflowing through history and overflowing into our lives.
The beautiful Lady at Lourdes told Bernadette: “Go, drink and wash in the fountain.”3 And Our Lady is calling each of us today to go to Jesus, to drink from that fountain of living waters that flows from the heart of her Son.
The Mother of Jesus comes to us because we are her children, and she loves us; and she knows all our sorrows and pain. The smile that she showed to St. Bernadette, was intended for all of us, for each one of us personally. And our Blessed Mother comes to lead us to the tender mercies of her Son; she comes to wipe every tear from our eyes, to free us from suffering.
And the path she sets before us, my dear brothers and sisters, is very simple and it is a very practical. Our Lady tells us today in the Gospel: “Do whatever he tells you.”
This is the way for our lives. To follow Jesus, God’s beloved Son. To stay close to him; to know him and to love him; to listen to him, and to model our lives on his life. To do whatever he tells us.
And if we serve Jesus, if we follow his way for our lives, we too will witness miracles. Miracles of mercy and compassion.
What Jesus tells us is to do — is to be merciful as he is merciful, as our Father in heaven is merciful.4
This is, my dear brothers and sisters, what our world needs, what every heart needs more than anything. More mercy. More kindness. More tenderness.
A few years back, Pope Francis said that the Church, and every Christian, must continue he said, the “revolution of tenderness” that began with Jesus.5
This is our mission. And it is a beautiful mission, a mission that belongs to each one of us. There so many in our world, especially in these challenging times, who are sad and losing hope. There are so many who are in pain, in body and mind. There are so many souls who need to know the tender and merciful love of God.
So that’s our mission — revolution of tenderness.
So today let us imitate Our Lady, and let us bring the tender smile of God to our friends and loved ones and neighbors, and especially to those who are sick and suffering, and those who are dying. Let us carry the loving tenderness of God into our world, and lead every person to drink from the living waters, the new wine that purifies and heals and brings salvation.
As we continue in this holy Mass with the celebration of sacrament of the anointing of the sick, I urge all of us to renew our hope, and entrust our lives totally to the merciful hands of our Father.
And may Our Lady of Lourdes, Health of the Sick and Comfort of the Afflicted, help us to see that she is always with us. May we always know that where the Mother of Jesus is, we can find her beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.
1. Readings (Memorial of Our Lady of Lourdes): Isa. 66:10–14; Judith 13:18–19; John 2:1–11.
2. Homily, Memorial of Our Lady of Lourdes (February 11, 1980).
3. Laurentin, Bernadette Speaks: A Life of St. Bernadette Soubirous in Her Own Words (Pauline, 1999); Office of Readings, February 11.