Remarks of Archbishop José H. Gomez

Mass for the Reception of the Coadjutor Archbishop of Los Angeles Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels

May 26, 2010

My dear sisters and brothers,

I am humbled by this beautiful welcome, this joyful celebration of the holy Eucharist. ¡Gracias por esta bienvenida than hermosa!

Cardinal Levada: I am so grateful for your presence. Thank you. When you return to Rome please convey my filial gratitude to the Holy Father for the confidence he has shown in me. Please tell him that I will work with all my heart to be worthy of his trust. Let him know also that we love him and that he is in our prayers always!

I want to thank all the cardinals and my brother bishops who are here. My brothers, I am touched that you have come to be with me on this important day in my life and ministry.

Your presence is a sign that our Catholic Church is founded on the apostles and is alive in our ministry as successors to the mission entrusted to them by Jesus Christ.

Pero todos y cada uno de los que estamos aqui en esta imponente Catedral somos colaboradores que tenemos la responsabilidad de la gran mision de la Iglesia. Nuestra Mision es la mision de Cristo –proclamar la Buena Nueva de que El es nuestro Redentor; que el amor de Dios es mas fuerte que el pecado y la muerte.

Yet every one of us here today in this glorious cathedral is a co-worker who has responsibility for this gran misión of the Church. Our mission is the mission of Christ—to proclaim the Good News that this world has a Savior; that the love of God is stronger than sin and death.

Cardinal Mahony, mi hermano y mi amigo Rogelio, I am honored to be your Coadjutor Archbishop. I come to serve and to follow Jesus Christ. I come to listen and to learn from you and to continue the work you have begun in this historic vineyard of the Lord.

Already I can see how the seeds you have sown over these past twenty-five years are bearing good fruit.

I’m starting to witness how bishops, priests, and deacons; religious, consecrated, and lay people in all walks of life—are serving bodies and souls, hearts and minds in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.

You are building faith and family and friendship. Serving Christ in the least of our brothers and sisters. Preaching and teaching and celebrating the sacraments. Defending the freedom and dignity of the human person, from conception to natural death, especially of those who have no one to help them and no one to speak for them. In so many ways making a rich contribution to the fabric of this society.

The Church here in Los Angeles is a community of truth and love. It is a sign that our Church is one—united in love to Christ, alive with his Spirit, striving so that the Father’s will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

¡Pidamos hoy que esta Iglesia sea siempre una señal de que Dios está con nosotros, y que en su mirada amorosa nadie es un extranjero para El y nadie es un extranjero para los demas! Todos somos hijos de Dios! May this Church always be a sign that God is with us, and that in his loving eyes no one is a stranger for Him and no one is an alien to any of us!

In the communion of cultures here in Los Angeles we can see what it means to say that our Church is “catholic.” In this beautiful diversity we glimpse something of what God desires for the whole world.

We see how God longs to gather all men and women into una familia de Dios, one family drawn from every country, race, and language; stretching to the ends of the earth and into heaven above.

My sisters and brothers, I have so much to learn about this extraordinary family that God has gathered here in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. I have only just begun and I’m going to need your prayers and assistance, and most of all your patience.

Now, allow me to say a few words to my brother priests. You are at the frontlines of this great drama of salvation. You are men of God and men of brave heart, and the bishops’ first collaborators in the apostolic work of the Church.

In your ministries you are the presence of Christ, bringing God to people and people to God. You show them the compassion of the Father who seeks to carry them home—no matter how far away they might have strayed from the paths he intended for their lives.

Brothers, my priesthood is the joy of my life and I’m humbled to be able to minister alongside you. I’m eager to get to know each of you and the people you serve.

I still cannot believe I am here, my friends! This is awesome! This is not a future I could have ever imagined for myself. But this God we serve is a God of surprises—un Dios de sorpresas—as well as a God of blessings and tender mercies!

So let us pray to the good God: that he will stir the hearts of all his faithful, so that they will respond generously to his calling in their lives. Let us pray that many will answer his call to be priests, to be deacons, to be religious brothers and sisters, to be married men and women, or to live a consecrated life in one of the many movements and ecclesial communities.

Recently, a friend told me about one of the local unknown saints here, Maria Luisa de la Peña, a refugee from Mexico who founded the Carmelite Sisters of the Most Sacred Heart of Los Angeles.

Venerable Mother Luisita would tell everyone: “For greater things you were born!”

That’s it, my friends! That’s the good news we are called to proclaim to our city, to our country, throughout this continent and world. Para grandes cosas hemos nacido!!

Each of us has been made for love and for great and beautiful things. There is no soul that God does not long to touch with this message of his love! And he wants to touch those souls through us.

So let us make our lives something beautiful that we can we can offer to God. Let us do everything, even the littlest duties of our days, out of love for him and for the love of our brothers and sisters.

I ask your prayers for me. And I pledge you my life and my love. I promise to always be your servant and a servant of the Word of God, la Palabra de Dios, the Gospel that we all believe in.

Estos dias he estado pensando mucho en mi familia. Mis hermanas y sus esposos estan aqui hoy, desde Monterrey, y tantos otros miembros de mi familia y amigos que son tambien familia. Sin duda que me gustaria tambien que mis padres pudieran estar aqui con nosotros, pero estoy seguro que nos acompñnan desde el Cielo con los Santos y los Angeles.

Dios me concedio la gracia de crecer en un hogar Catolico en donde la vida ordinaria estuvo llena de la sencillez del amor y la piedad. A traves del amor que recibi en mi familia, pude conocer al Senor Jesus y sentir su amor por mi.

Las oraciones y el apoyo de mi familia y amigos, mi familia spiritual, me han apoyado y sacado adelante en mi vocacion sacerdotal y en los ultimos anos en mi ministerio como Obispo. No tengo palabras para agradecerles todo lo que han hecho por mi, pero les ofrezco mis oraciones y mi carino.

Mis papas nos enseñaron tambien que tenemos una Madre en el Cielo, Santa Maria, Madre de Jesus . Nuestra madre amadisima de Guadalupe, quien siempre nos cuida—Our dear mother Guadalupe who always cares for us.

I’ve been thinking a lot about my family in these days. My sisters and there husbands are here today from Monterrey, and so are other members of my family and friends that are family too. I wish my mother and father could have been here to see this day. But I feel their presence among the saints and angels.

I grew up in a Catholic home where ordinary life was filled with simple love and devotion. Through the love I felt in my family, I came to know Jesus Christ and his love for me.

The prayers and support of my family and friends, my spiritual family, have helped me throughout my priesthood and in the last few years in my ministry as Bishop. I am grateful to them beyond words.

To her, Our Lady of Guadalupe, and to her loving heart, I entrust all of us and my ministry to you.

Thank you all for your kind welcome! Muchisimas gracias a todos!