23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time 2022

Most Reverend José H. Gomez
Archbishop of Los Angeles

Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels
September 4, 2022

My brothers and sisters in Christ,¹

As I was saying, as we continue in these Sundays in Ordinary Time, our readings are taking us deeper into the journey of discipleship, as Jesus is preparing his apostles, and all of us, for the demands of following him.

Following Jesus is a decision, a commitment. It is a serious and challenging commitment, but it is a beautiful grace and it really helps us to understand who we are and where are we going, and the extraordinary love that God has for us.

So following Jesus, we can discover something beautiful when we really understand what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. And there is an “insight” of what we gain in the Psalm today. The Psalm in today’s liturgy calls it: “wisdom of the heart.”

As we were singing those words: “Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain wisdom of the heart.”

So my brothers and sisters, Jesus came to save us. We know that. That is a beautiful thing, a beautiful gift of God. God the Father sends Jesus who offers his life for us, and that’s a beautiful victory of understanding what it means — the love, as I was saying before, that God the Father, Jesus the Son of God, and the Holy Spirit have for each one of us.

But the challenge that we have, it’s beautiful too, is that we have to accept that gift that God has given us. And we have to live with  gratitude for that gift, and we have to follow the path that Jesus set before us.

In the wonderful first reading, from the Book of Wisdom, we learn — again — that we could not find that path, that road to happiness and heaven, without Jesus.

As we heard: “When things are in heaven, who can search them out? Or who ever knew your counsel, except you had given wisdom and sent your holy spirit from on high? And thus were the paths of those on earth made straight.”

What a beautiful passage, and it is true: We could not find our way to God, if he did not send his only begotten Son and his Holy Spirit. If he did not show us the way, there’s no way we could find it ourselves. Without him, we would be lost.

So, our first reaction to these readings from the sacred Scriptures today is to give praise to God, and to thank him for the gift of our salvation.

And in our Gospel today, Jesus wants to take us by the hand, and lead us further down that path of discipleship.

Yes we have to admit, his words today in the Gospel are challenging. As he said:

“Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. Anyone of you who does not renounce all of his possessions cannot be my disciple.”

Obviously, Jesus is using challenging language here. But why? I think that Jesus really wants to grab our attention, to make us really think about what it means to be a Catholic, what it means to follow him.

Think about it: he’s telling us that we have to live, as he lived. To follow Jesus means to imitate him — to live as he lived, to love as he loved. And that means that we all need to have only one priority and that is to seek the will of God.

Jesus lived to do the work that his Father sent him to do. In the garden, when he was about to die, he said, “Not my will, but Thy will be done.”

Following Jesus, carrying our own cross, means living for God and our neighbors; it means, we ask for the grace of God to make that decision — it means making a decision to not live for ourselves; it means giving up all our concerns, our own comforts, own self-interest.

Really what Jesus is asking us to do and to understand is that we are all brothers and sisters in Christ. And Jesus wants us to put him first. Before all else in our lives. He wants us to live, only for him, and to love, only for him. And the love we are called to share, he wants us to share first with those who are closest to us – in our families, our friends, our neighbors.

But that love is also meant to change society, to break down the walls, to overturn every injustice. It is a beautiful love when we think about it. It is not just in something superficial or that we can have one time. It is what is — what should be in our lives, and I’m sure that that’s what we all are trying to understand and to live by.

So the love that Jesus commands, the carrying of our cross, means working for a world in which we regard all men and women as our beloved brothers and sisters in the Lord.

It’s a beautiful call. It is something that we all want to do.

So let’s ask for the grace of God. And the intercession of Mary our Blessed Mother in a special way. Today, as you probably know, it was the beatification of Pope John Paul I — and he was a beautiful example for all of us. A holy man who dedicated his whole life to serving God and all of us.

Also tomorrow, we celebrate Labor Day in our country. Today we also should give a special thanks to God for the gift of work. It is a day in which we should reflect on how work is the participation in the creative power of God. It should be a means of sanctification for all of us. Work should take us to God.

So today let us especially pray for an improvement in our economy and for the courage to be the world in which God’s gifts are better shared.

So this week, as we celebrate Labor Day, let us ask for the grace to make all our work and labor of love for God and for our neighbors.

Let’s ask our Blessed Mother Mary to help us. May she help us to take up our own cross and to follow her Son, and to be his faithful disciples.