My heart is heavy for all of you who are suffering because of the wildfires that are still burning in the mountains and along the sea. These days are a trial for our great city and for the family of God here in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.
As the firestorm first hit, I offered a series of Masses to pray for you and our neighbors and for the brave men and women working to put these fires out and keep us safe.
It was an emotional experience for me to meet those of you who have lost so much: loved ones and homes, businesses and livelihoods; parishes, schools, and neighborhoods. It makes me deeply sad to see thousands of LA Catholics and other Angelenos living like refugees and displaced persons in their own hometowns.
We are just beginning to understand the magnitude of the destruction and disruption. These fires have reduced people’s worldly possessions and their most precious memories to ashes and left their futures uncertain. Officials say it may take years to rebuild and that many of our communities may never look the same.
In times like this, it’s understandable that we might question God’s love for us, to wonder where he is while good people are suffering. Why does God allow evil? Why does he allow natural disasters like wildfires and hurricanes, earthquakes, and floods?
There are no easy answers. But that does not mean that there are no answers.
Jesus taught us that God is our Father and that he holds all creation in his loving hands. He promised that not a single sparrow falls from the sky without our Father knowing. Then he reminded us: You are worth so much more than any sparrow.
You are precious to God, each of you. You are so precious to God that he sent his only Son into the world to die on the cross for you. We need to cling to this truth when hardships and sufferings come.
Jesus knows our hopes and dreams and struggles. He is near to us in our joys and in our sorrows.
He has only one will for our lives: that we grow in holiness and love and become saints who share his love here on earth and live forever with him in heaven. Everything that happens, everything he allows, comes from his love for us and his desire for our salvation.
This is not an easy answer, but it is the truth.
The saints teach that while God himself cannot suffer, he does suffer with us.
This is the beautiful truth of the cross. By dying and rising from the dead, Jesus showed us that God can bring good out of even the greatest evil.
And because Jesus conquered death, our own sufferings can find meaning and purpose when we join them with his.
Every crisis is a crossroads. And in every crisis we have a decision to make.
We can respond with anger and despair, and that’s a natural temptation.
Or we can decide to accept our sufferings as somehow sharing in the sufferings of Jesus, who suffers for us and with us and who will never abandon us no matter how dark the path may seem.
Even when we have been left with little, we still have love to give.
We can “offer up” our sufferings in a spirit of love and sacrifice for our neighbors. We can make a gift of our lives to suffer alongside others, supporting them in their struggles.
Again, the saints teach us that the sacrifices we make for others can bear fruits of love and compassion when we unite ourselves to Jesus’ sufferings. In a mysterious way, what we offer in love becomes part of the great treasury of compassion that flows from his sufferings on the cross.
Already in this firestorm, we see the Lord raising up heroic witnesses.
I’m thinking of the family down on their knees in the place where their home once stood, giving thanks to God and Our Lady for sparing them; the parishioners who risked their lives to put out the fire on the church roof; and the firefighters who rescued the tabernacle from a burning church.
We will hear more stories like this in the days ahead. There will be many more sacrifices of love that we will never hear of, all the hidden offerings of parents for their children, all the little unseen acts of kindness in our homes and communities.
Let’s keep helping and supporting one another, let’s keep working together so that our neighbors will know the truth of God’s love in this hour of devastation and loss.
Pray for me, and I will pray for you.
And let us ask Our Blessed Mother to protect and guide us.
Our Lady, Queen of Angels: Be a mother to us all!
