Jubilee Mass of Thanksgiving for Carmelite Sisters of the Most Sacred Heart of Los Angeles

 

Most Reverend José H. Gomez
Archbishop of Los Angeles

Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels
June 25, 2023

My brothers and sisters in Christ, and especially dear sisters and jubilarians,¹

Congratulations on the celebration of your Jubilee to all the jubilarians. It’s wonderful that we can get together and especially give thanks to God for so many years that you have served in your vocation as Carmelite Sisters of the Most Sacred Heart of Los Angeles.

So it’s a beautiful honor for me to celebrate this Jubilee Mass.

Let us praise God for all of his graces and all of his gifts that he has bestowed on you, my dear jubilarians!

We especially want to invoke your foundress today, Venerable Mother Luisita.

Let us ask her to pray for us as we thank God for the witness of these jubilarians and all of the Carmelite sisters who bring the joy of Jesus and his compassion to the family of God here in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.

There are some words in the Gospel passage that we just heard that, once again, shows our Lord’s amazing love for us.

Let us listen again: “Are not two sparrows sold for a small coin? Yet not one of them falls to the ground without your Father’s knowledge. Even all the hairs of your head are counted. So do not be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.”

So my dear brothers and sisters, as we know, we belong to God. He keeps us close to his heart. Even the hairs on your head are numbered in his loving eyes.

This is something that we have been reflecting on the last couple of Sundays, just thinking of the extraordinary love of God for each one of us. God keeps us close to his heart, even the hairs on our head are numbered, as I said before.

And this is the beautiful truth that Jesus came to proclaim to the world — the truth about God, the truth about creation, the truth about our humanity. Our great dignity and destiny as sons and daughters of God.

Sadly, as we also just heard in today’s liturgy, not everybody wants to hear that truth. This is what the prophet Jeremiah is experiencing in the first reading.

As we know, Jeremiah was sent by God to speak the truth to the people of his day. And he was forced to suffer, he was persecuted, humiliated, and lied about, as we heard.

But I was saying this morning that the prophet Jeremiah understands that God is at his side. And I was saying that as we like to say, God “has his back,” even when he is suffering. 

The prophet understands that the persecution he is going through is a trial, a test of his faithfulness.

And of course, my dear brothers and sisters, we know that there are many people our there who are undergoing persecution and suffering for their faith. We especially pray for them today. We pray that God grant them the strength to persevere, that they always know his love, as Jeremiah did.

We understand, also, that in our own lives, we face trials and challenges because of our faith in Jesus.

It is not easy to live our faith in our society. We face a lot of pressures to compromise our conscience, pressures to accept things that are contrary to the Gospel, contrary to the dignity of the human person.

But Jesus tells us three times today in the Gospel: do not be afraid. “Fear no one! … Do not be afraid!”

And I was thinking that we have a beautiful example on how to do it in the life and writings of Mother Luisita. As you know, my dear sisters, trust in God alone was the constant theme that runs through her letters to her sisters.

She’d write things like this all the time — “Don’t worry about anything, we are in the hands of God.”

As she also said, “I trust in him.” And she wrote, “I’m so used to have problems that they have become my daily bread.”

So my brothers and sisters, we have to remember this the beautiful words and example of Mother Luisita. No matter what happens in our lives, God is here. He is with us.

We have a Father who loves us, a Father who cares for us — even to the point of counting every hair on our head!

It’s true. God loves each one of us personally, so we have to trust in God alone.

And this is the “gracious gift” that is what St. Paul is talking about in the second reading of today’s Mass. It is the gift of grace, the gift that we have of sharing in God’s own life of love.

And Jesus makes this promise to us today: “Everyone who acknowledges me before others, I will acknowledge before my heavenly Father.”
 
My dear brothers and sisters, we know, we trust in God. We also have a mission — the mission of acknowledging him before others. We have a duty to share the good news about Jesus, the beautiful truth about the love of God.

If we follow Jesus in love, if we live for Jesus and according to his commands — he will help us and he will guide us. And we will be able to share the beautiful love of God with everyone who is around us — in our families, in our ministries, in our relationships, at work — everywhere. Just sharing with them the beautiful love that we understand that God has for each one of us, no matter what.

We heard those beautiful words from Jeremiah: “The Lord is with me, like a mighty champion: my persecutors will stumble, they will not triumph!”

So my brothers and sisters, as we celebrate the beautiful grace of God, especially working in the lives of our jubilarians, let us dedicate ourselves once again to being the men and women that Our Lord made us to be.

And let’s ask the intercession of Mother Luisita — Mother Luisita, pray for us!

May Mary our Blessed Mother help us to accompany her Son, and allow him to do beautiful things in our lives. The greater things that we are born for.