Celebration of the Elevation of Mission San Buenaventura to a Minor Basilica

Most Reverend José H. Gomez
Archbishop of Los Angeles

Mission Basilica San Buenaventura
December 19, 2021

My brothers and sisters, ¹

It is a joy to be with all of you to celebrate this historic moment in the life of the family of God here in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.

Let us especially keep in our prayers the Holy Father Pope Francis. He just celebrated his birthday a couple of days ago — he turned only 85! So let’s keep our Pope Francis in our prayers in a special way.

Because Pope Francis has given our local Church two great gifts. First, with the canonization of St. Junípero Serra, the Apostle of California, in 2015. And second, he gave us the great gift last year, of designating this mission — Mission San Buenaventura — as one of the historic basilicas of the universal Church.

As we know, this was the last of the missions founded by St. Junípero. Next year, we will mark the 240th anniversary of the foundation of this mission on Easter Sunday, March 31, 1782. So, Father Tom, we need another celebration next year.

And it is beautiful that we are celebrating this Mass today in this Jubilee Year that marks the 250th anniversary of Mission San Gabriel Arcángel — also founded by St. Junípero. As we know, this was the beginnings of the faith in what today is the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.

So let us especially today also invoke St. Junípero Serra, and also the heroic generations of indigenous men and women who built this mission, and all our missions, and that they continue to shape the life of the Church today.

Let us ask their intercession, that we might continue the work of evangelization, the beautiful mission of sharing our love for Jesus Christ with joy. 

It is, indeed, a special moment. As I was saying, we are celebrating the 4th Sunday of Advent. So turning to our readings today, we remember that Christmas is almost here!

We are invited throughout the holy season of Advent, and especially in these final days before Christmas, to reflect deeply on the faith of Mary our Blessed Mother.

So, we are presented today, as we just heard in the passage of the Gospel, with the familiar story of her visitation to St. Elizabeth.

As we know, Mary has been told by the Angel Gabriel that she is to conceive a Child by the Holy Spirit, and the angel also told her that Elizabeth, her cousin, was also with child, even in her old age, because nothing is impossible with God.

In today’s reading, Mary sets out. As we see the beautiful surprise of Elizabeth’s encounter with Christ — she is filled with the Holy Spirit, and she cries out in joy: “And how does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?”

My brothers and sisters, there is nothing more beautiful than to meet Jesus Christ. That is what the visitation teaches us.

And our first reading today, shows us how God works in mysterious and hidden ways. He works through the small, through the weak, he works through those who seem insignificant in the eyes of the world.

We hear that in the prophecy of Micah in today’s first reading. We hear that in the first reading of today’s Mass, the prophet declares: “You Bethlehem-Ephrathah, too small to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be the ruler in Israel.”

So God is telling us that Jesus is going to be born — the Redeemer is going to be born — in a tiny city Bethlehem, a small town, not well known. But God promises that in this tiny city, a child will be born and “his greatness shall reach to the ends of the earth.”

I’ve been reflecting how this is the way that God works and I love the beautiful way that the prophet tells us about Mary today. The prophet says that we are waiting “until the time when she who is to give birth has borne.”

What a tender and humble picture the prophet gives us. “She who is to give birth.” Obviously this is Our Lady, Our Blessed Mother. And this is how we meet Our Lady today in the Gospel, she is a humble woman, who is going to have a baby.

And we know that the coming of Jesus Christ is the greatest event in human history. It changes the world, and it changes every human life. But God prepares for this great event in the quiet lives of ordinary people — not with a great announcement or with anything special, but with the normal reality of a baby who’s going to be born.

We need to think about it. Just reflecting on who Mary Our Blessed Mother and St. Elizabeth were. They were just good, faithful women, leading normal lives, just like their neighbors — I would say just like us. And yet God invites each one of them to enter into his great plan of love for history.

So this is how it is with God! This is how God works. Mary herself tells us that in her beautiful song, the Magnificat. She tells us that God lifts up the lowly and sends the rich and powerful away. ²

And so, I insist, it is with us, my brothers and sisters. God wants to work through each one of us, through our ordinary lives.  

Elizabeth tells Mary today in the Gospel: “Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled.”

So in the end, faith is the key. Faith opens our eyes to see that God’s will can be fulfilled in the quiet activities of our lives.

So what is God asking us? Is he asking us something extraordinary or different or special — in a sense yes, but at the same time, nothing more than what he asked of Mary and Joseph, Elizabeth and Zechariah. He is asking us to believe in his Word, he is asking us to put our trust in him. To do his will, not our will.

God’s will is our holiness, our salvation. That is what he wants for us. And not only for us, but for everyone.
 
And His will is shared, through our own little “visitations,” through little acts of love, little acts of serving others. Just as Mary went to serve her cousin, Elizabeth.

It is a matter of being faithful to God in our simple, daily life. In these little moments the awareness of Jesus is born in the hearts of those we serve.

So, let us ask God today for that humility, for that faith that Mary had. Let us dedicate ourselves today to continue the work of the great missionaries and indigenous peoples who brought Jesus to this country so many years ago.

And as we prepare for Christmas, as we continue in this time of waiting, let us stay close to Mary, our Blessed Mother. Let us ask her to bring Jesus into our lives again in a new way and let us ask her to awaken the awareness of him in every human heart.

1.  Readings (4th Sunday of Advent): Mic. 5:1–4; Ps. 80:2–3, 15–16, 18–19; Heb. 10:5–10; Luke 1:39–45.