On May 30, Archbishop José H. Gomez ordained new men to the priesthood at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels. The following is adapted from his homily.
Brothers, today you are anointed with the Holy Spirit, the same Spirit that filled Jesus Christ in that synagogue at Nazareth at the start of his mission, the same Spirit that filled the prophets of Israel throughout salvation history.
And as the Father sent his only Son into this world to proclaim his love and salvation, now Jesus is sending you into the world to continue that beautiful mission.
Jesus says to you today: “It was not you who chose Me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain.”
Brothers, you will be the priests of the new Catholic revival that we see growing here in Los Angeles and elsewhere in our country.
This new revival — so many young people and families coming into the Church, so many people coming back to the Church — is a beautiful sign that God’s Spirit is still living and active and working in our world.
It is both a sign and a responsibility for the whole Church, and especially for the priests. We have to care for these new souls in our midst.
We have to encourage them, strengthen them, increase their faith, and deepen their friendship with Jesus.
But brothers, Jesus is also sending you out into the world in a time marked by deep social, cultural, and economic transformations.
You will be priests during a time of a new industrial revolution, as our Holy Father Pope Leo XIV tells us.
The revolution of artificial intelligence (AI) is about more than technology and the economy. AI will change the way our people see the world. It will cause them to question what is real and what is not; it will challenge their beliefs and understandings about what it means to be human.
As priests in this new world, you are being anointed and sent out like the prophet in the first reading — to bring “good news” and “liberation” to people whose hearts are divided and captured, to people who are confused and oppressed.
We need to bring them the truth that will set them free so that they can see the beauty of God’s plan for their lives, the beauty of God’s plan for the world’s redemption.
St. Peter tells us today that the priest must be a shepherd who walks with his people as a model of the “chief Shepherd,” Jesus Christ.
A good shepherd knows his people. He knows their struggles and dreams. So, stay close to those you serve, my brothers. Bring them hope. Bring them Jesus.
The saints teach us that no matter how much the world changes, the cross stands firm. Today the cross remains the one true sign in this world that Jesus Christ is Lord of history and that every soul is precious to him. The cross remains the sign that every person has a magnificent dignity and is worthy of his blood.
Jesus says: “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”
Every Eucharist you celebrate is a remembrance of this great love that he showed by laying down his life on the cross for us.
More than anything in these troubled times, people are longing to know that God loves them.
They are longing to be set free — delivered from their sins, from their fear of death, from the power of evil. They long for the salvation that only Jesus can bring.
So, my dear brothers: proclaim Jesus. In your words and by your example.
The great mission of the Church in our time is to lead the men and women to discover God again — to meet the living God who shows his human face to us in Jesus Christ.
The God who created us and loves us, the God who shares in our humanity and invites us even now to share in his divinity.
Jesus is calling you to be leaders in this great mission. “I have called you friends,” he says to you today. I pray that you will allow these beautiful words of Our Lord to shape your hearts and your priesthood.
And I pray that you will be united in fraternity with your brother priests, praying together, studying together, breaking bread together.
Pope Leo tells us that in the One Christ we are one. So let all of us in the Church strive for unity and fraternity in the service of Jesus.
We entrust your priesthood to holy Mary, Queen of the Angels and Mother of Priests. May you stay close to her and always know the warmth of her love.
