On May 31, Archbishop Gomez ordained eight new priests at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels. The following is adapted from his homily.
Every ordination is a sign of God’s love for his people, a sign that the Lord is with us till the end of the age, that his Spirit is alive and working in his Church.
These eight men that we ordain today have heard the Lord’s voice and answered his call, they have left behind their old lives to follow him and to be fathers and priests for his people.
Brothers: we heard God’s Word in that first reading, speaking personally to each one of you: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I dedicated you … I appointed you.”
This is the mystery of election, the grace of vocation.
You were born for this mission, chosen from before the foundation of the world, destined in love to be his priests. At the heart of your priesthood is the mystery of God’s love and the mystery of his plan for your life.
And brothers, you are among the first men in the universal Church to be ordained as priests under our new Pope Leo XIV, who was elected just three weeks ago.
Pope Leo, we know, belongs to the Augustinians; he’s a spiritual son of St. Augustine.
Augustine knew the mystery of election. We all know his story, how his restless heart caused him to wander far from God for many years.
But Jesus saw something in him, and in his mercy he called Augustine to conversion, and then to service as a priest, and later as a bishop. As we know, he went on to become one of the Church’s greatest saints and teachers.
Pope Leo quoted St. Augustine the other day when he was saying Mass at the tomb of St. Paul: “How can we choose, unless we have first been chosen? We cannot love, unless someone has loved us first.”
My brothers: like Augustine, like Paul, like every priest before you, you can choose Jesus today, because he has chosen you first. You can love, because Jesus has loved you first.
Jesus makes a beautiful promise to you in the Gospel, the same promise of friendship that he made to his apostles, his first priests.
He says to you: “I have called you friends. … It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain.”
Every priest is a missionary. As Jesus sent his apostles out to be witnesses to his love, now he is sending you.
Our new pope served for many years as a missionary priest and bishop in Peru. And he is calling us now to be “a missionary Church that opens its arms to the world.”
And this is a beautiful image for your priesthood: you are the open arms of the Church, my brothers.
You are here to bring the love of Jesus to people. Not only at the altar and in the pulpit, not only in the confessional and in your parish duties.
You are called to open wide the doors of your churches and to go out and bring Jesus to your neighbors, to their families, to their children, to the poor, and the lost.
Every heart is waiting to hear the good news of his love!
As priests, you hold the words of eternal life. You know the beautiful truth of God’s love for every person, the mystery of his loving plan for every soul!
So love your people as Jesus loves them, as he tells you today: “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”
This is the love that you will celebrate in every Eucharist. You must make that love the pattern for your priestly life. Witness to his love by making your life a gift for others, just as Jesus did.
St. Peter tells you today: “Whoever serves, let it be with the strength that God supplies.”
That’s my prayer for you. That you will lean on Jesus, let him be your strength and your support in your ministry of service to other people.
Finally, don’t forget that the priesthood is a brotherhood. Stay close to your brothers, love one another, walk together with Jesus
And I pray that you always stay close to his Blessed Mother, just as Jesus did.
You are being ordained on the feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. So she is watching over you today in a special way.
Mary believed in God’s promises with all her heart and she gave everything to fulfill his will. May she teach you to do the same. And may she accompany you always as you follow her Son in love.
