Most Reverend José H. Gomez Archbishop of Los Angeles
Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels February 13, 2022
My brothers and sisters in Christ,1
As I was saying, we especially today honor World Marriage Day. And just in a few moments after the homily, we will invite the couples here to renew their vows, asking for God’s blessing in a special way and I’ll also give a blessing to all of them.
So this is a beautiful moment as we celebrate this World Marriage Day for us to reflect on the importance of marriage in God’s beautiful plan for creation and for the human family.
And then in light of the readings that we have just heard, we reflect, today, on how marriage is an act of faith, of discipleship, and of following Jesus.
So today’s Gospel, as we have been hearing about the beginning of the public life of Our Lord, today we hear our first “summary” of what Jesus has been teaching. And it’s a passage of the Gospel from St. Luke’s Gospel — it is known as the “Sermon of the Plain,” and it starts, as we just heard, with the Beatitudes and the Woes.
And Jesus is teaching us what it means to follow him. He is telling us the content — the substance — of discipleship.
And I think today, in a special way, we need to hear his words personally. We can imagine that Jesus is looking right in our eyes and speaking directly to our hearts. Just as he spoke to those people on the plain.
As we just heard, in the passage of the Gospel, Jesus says: “Raising his eyes toward his disciples he said: Blessed are you who are poor, for the Kingdom of God is yours.” And he continues: blessed are you who are hungry; blessed are you who weep, and you who are hated and insulted.”
So my brothers and sisters, Jesus is describing a new order of happiness. And what he is calling us to — as we see in our society, it is the exact opposite of what our culture encourages us to do.
So Jesus today is challenging our expectations about what brings happiness, about what gives life meaning.
And at the same time he has a warning for those who think they are successful by the world’s standards. “But woe to you who are rich,” he says. And he continues: woe to you who are well-fed and satisfied, and you who are well-entertained and held in high regard by others.
None of these worldly things matters. What matters is seeking the Kingdom of God, the reward of heaven!
But Jesus is not criticizing how much we have, or how comfortable we are. He is challenging us, calling us to look inside ourselves, to examine our hearts: How are we living, what are we putting our trust in, what do we depend on?
So it is really Jesus asking us to look at the essence of our Catholic faith. And like Jesus, the prophet Jeremiah has a strong warning for us today, as we heard in the first reading of today’s Mass. The prophet says: “Cursed is the one who trusts in human beings, who seeks his strength in flesh.”
This is, my brothers and sisters, the heart of the matter. At the end of the day, do we trust God? Or are we relying on our own strength, on the promises of our consumer economy, on our science and technology?
Obviously all of us are all here because we trust God. That’s why it’s so important for all of us to really listen to what Jesus is asking in the passage of the Gospel.
Because following Jesus, as we know, means trusting in him alone. Again, the prophet tells us this in the first reading “Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose hope is in the Lord.”
So everything that we have — our possessions, our virtues, our talents— it all, as we know, comes from God. Everything comes from God’s hands, beginning with the gift of our life.
So in this sermon today, Jesus is calling his disciples to live for him, and to live from him. With gratitude, with simplicity. Thanking God for his gifts, by sharing those gifts with others.
So what matters in life is not comfort or wealth. Jesus came to show us that we are all equal, that we are all children of God. Rich or poor. And what really matters in life, is knowing and loving Jesus and following him and being with him.
It’s just a beautiful way of helping us to understand the meaning of our lives.
So Jesus calls his disciples to meet him, and to love him and to serve him in the one who is poor. He calls us to work hard for a society where every child of God has what they need to lead a dignified life.
So what Jesus wants from every disciple — from you and from me — is simplicity of life. He wants us to trust that he will provide all that we need. He wants us to live with humility, and free from material attachments —free to serve him, free to seek his Kingdom.
This is beautiful but at the same time, as we just heard, Jesus cautioned us that following him will not be easy. Sometimes we are going to be denounced, we are going to find ourselves excluded from certain opportunities in the world around us.
But Jesus also makes a promise to us, to each one of us personally — that when we encounter criticism or misunderstanding for living our faith in his Gospel, he tells us: “Rejoice and leap for joy on that day! Behold, your reward will be great in heaven!”
This is our faith. This is our discipleship. And we know that our true home is in heaven, and we need to live our lives on earth in a way that leads us there to heaven.
So, my brothers and sisters, we are always to remember that Jesus goes before us and he goes with us. That is the beautiful reality of being a disciple of Our Lord Jesus Christ. We live our lives now walking with Jesus.
So today let us ask Our Blessed Mother Mary today to help us as we continue to follow in the footsteps of her Son — striving every day to love him more and to be more like him, striving to be holy, to be saints.
And let us ask Mary our Blessed Mother and her spouse, St. Joseph, to pray for all our married couples. And may they, Mary and Joseph, intercede that there might be a renewed awareness that marriage and family are a true calling to go with Jesus, to follow him and to serve God’s plan for the salvation of the world.
[i]Readings: Jer. 17:5–8; Ps. 1:1–4, 6; 1 Cor. 15:12, 16–20; Luke 6:17,20–26.