3rd Sunday of Lent — 100th Anniversary Mass for St. Agatha Parish

Most Reverend José H. Gomez
Archbishop of Los Angeles

St. Agatha Catholic Church
Los Angeles, California
March 3, 2024

My brothers and sisters in Christ,¹

As I was saying at the beginning of Mass, I’m very happy to be here with all of you today to celebrate your anniversary.

Today, we want to give thanks to God for all his gifts and graces in these last one hundred years.

We thank him for all your pastors and priests, all your ministers and volunteers, and all the many families down through the years who have made this parish a source of light and peace, life and love.

So today ask the intercession of your patron, St. Agatha, Virgin and Martyr.

St. Agatha was one of the most famous saints in the early Church, the story of her courage and her witness to the faith was widely told.

So today we ask her prayers for us, that we might have that same courage that she had as we keep moving forward in our Christian mission of sharing God’s love and spreading the good news of his salvation in the world today.

So as we all know, we are almost half-way along in our Lenten journey.

And we have this powerful scene today of Jesus coming into the Temple and driving out the money changers and the merchants.

We heard his strong words: “Take these out of here, and stop making my Father’s house a marketplace.”

Jesus is reminding us today that God wants us to love him with all our hearts; he wants a love that is true and undivided.

In the first reading, we heard God tell Moses and the people of Israel: “You shall not have other gods besides me.”

So my brothers and sisters, is the deeper meaning of our Gospel today.

When the saints read this Gospel passage, they remind us that we are also “temples” of God, each one of us.

When we are baptized, the Holy Spirit comes to dwell within us and makes us children of God. St. Paul used to say: “Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you.”²

So this is a beautiful reality for us to reflect on. God lives within each one of us, just as he dwelt in the Temple in Jerusalem.

Now, when Jesus entered the Temple area in the Gospel, he found some things that should not have been there — money changers and dealers, people selling oxen, sheep, doves, and other things.

So in the same way, when Jesus looks into the temple of our hearts, there might be things should not be there. I’m thinking of some distractions — worries and anxieties. Maybe some bad habits and wrong priorities.

But my brothers and sisters, Jesus wants to purify our hearts! He wants to cleanse the temple of our hearts, just as cleansed the Temple in the Gospel.

And this is what Lent is all about!

So let’s ask for that grace today! Let’s ask Jesus to come and cleanse the temple of our hearts!

Because everything begins with Jesus! Our relationship with him should be the most important thing in our lives. Knowing him, loving him, serving him. With joy!

And I want to recommend to you three habits that can help us grow in your relationship.

The first thing is to read the Gospel every day. Just a little passage of the Gospel. The second is to try to go to daily Mass and spending time with Jesus in the Eucharist. Daily Mass is an extraordinary thing. And the third one is going to Confession regularly.

Because reading the Gospels is how we get to know Jesus, and how we grow in friendship with him.

The Eucharist should be our “daily bread” for the journey, and the Sunday celebration of the Eucharist should be the heart of our lives as Christians.

Just think about it how important it is for us to be in the presence of Jesus in the Eucharist.

And then Confession because that helps our relationship with Jesus, helps it to grow. Because just ask Jesus for the grace to do better, to love him more and to have more love and patience with the people in your life. And Confession, you are receiving grace in this sacrament and things are much better.

So, as we celebrate this great anniversary of this parish community, let us ask for the grace to renew our love for Jesus and our desire to serve him.

Each and every one of us is called to proclaim the love of Jesus Christ to our neighbors and to spread his love in our world today. There is something that we all miss nowadays — is to know and understand the love of Jesus for each one of us personally.

So that is our mission.

So, let us open our hearts today and invite Jesus to in his power to purify and transform our lives.

And let us ask Mary our Blessed Mother to help us all to live with new love, new joy, and a new desire to proclaim her Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.