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In his homily for the second Sunday of Lent, Archbishop Gomez said, “It is good that we are here! Throughout this season of joy we have walked together along the path of remembrance and renewal. We’ve celebrated the noble beginnings of our San Fernando Cathedral, established 275 years ago. We’ve pondered the mystery of God’s loving plan in the evangelization of Texas and the new world of America.”
The archbishop expressed his warm gratitude to the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, who granted his papal blessing and the indulgences of the Jubilee.He also thanked Father David Garcia and Father Jake Empereur, SJ, and all the people of the cathedral, who helped to make the Jubilee an important and memorable time. He thanked, too, all of the people of God in San Antonio, in the cathedral and throughout the archdiocese, for their prayers and sacrifices during the Jubilee journey of faith.
“Every Jubilee is a new creation, a time for a new beginning. It is a time of joy as we thank our Father in heaven for his bounty, for his tender mercy. It is a time especially when we thank him for the gift of Jesus Christ — and for the salvation Christ brings us through the forgiveness of sins,” said Archbishop Gomez. “Our sins are forgiven! What joy those words should bring us, my brothers and sisters! Christ has set us free from sin and death. He has set us free for love and for mercy — to love one another as he has loved us, to forgive one another as he has forgiven us, to bear witnesses to his mercy and justice in our world. Jesus has reconciled us to our Father. He has made us all children of God. This cathedral is a sign of the great reconciliation that God has made with us in Christ.”
The archbishop recently penned a pastoral letter called The Tender Mercy of Our God. I wanted to share with all in the archdiocese, at the end of the Jubilee Year, his personal reflections on the joy of forgiveness and reconciliation with the Father. In the letter, he wrote: “The founders of our great cathedral were missionaries of God’s mercy and reconciliation! And as we honor the sacrifices of those heroic immigrant families, we want to rededicate ourselves to living the Gospel they toiled to plant in this new world.”
Archbishop Gomez described how the founders of the cathedral put themselves in the service of God and his plan — to pour out his blessings on all the nations.
The archbishop told listeners that during this special year, he found himself thinking a lot about the faith of our founders. “It is astonishing to think of God’s providence. Because of the faith of these men and women, because of their obedience to the Word of God, the light of salvation was made to shine in this land. Because of their faith, Jesus Christ was made present in our midst in Word and sacrament. By their faith and sacrifice, they sowed the seeds of a new world of faith, a civilization of love,” he explained. “The founders of San Fernando bore witness that Jesus is the light of the world, the true light that scatters the darkness of fear, injustice, sin and death. The apostles were eyewitnesses of Christ’s majesty. (2 Pet. 1:16-19) They heard God’s voice speaking from out of the bright shining cloud. And in faith, they set out to tell all the world what they had seen and heard, to make disciples of all nations. This is the great mission that Christ gave to his Church, the mission that St. Paul called “the ministry of reconciliation.” (2 Cor. 5:18-20)
Archbishop Gomez stressed that this is the mission that the founders of San Fernando set out to serve. “And my brothers and sisters, this is the great mission that you and I are called to continue today,” he said. “We are heirs to this great legacy of faith, a legacy that stretches back to Abraham, who is the father of all who believe. (Rom. 4:11) Like Abraham, like the apostles, like the founders of San Fernando — each of us is called to listen to the voice of God, to play our part in the history of salvation, to do what God asks of us — that his will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
Renewed by the Jubilee pilgrimage of faith, the archbishop called on attendees to be more devoted to knowing and loving Jesus Christ. “Let us listen for his voice. Let us seek to encounter him in the Scriptures, in the teachings of the church and in the sacraments, especially the Eucharist and the sacrament of penance,” he stressed.
“This is hard sometimes. We all know that. There are many other voices that we hear in our often-noisy culture. Voices of fear and division. Voices of terror and unbelief. We can become frightened by the dark clouds around us, as the apostles were in tonight’s Gospel. As Abraham was, we can be tempted to doubt our Lord, to ask, ‘how am I to know’ if his promises are true. But even in the darkness our Lord still speaks to us,” the prelate continued. “We are never alone, my brothers and sisters. We walk with Jesus, who is our savior and our friend. God is with us, and his angels and his saints. St. Paul tells us in tonight’s second reading that we are citizens of heaven. And this is true. We are part of a great cloud of witnesses, the communion of saints.”
Archbishop Gomez recounted how it was his privilege during the Jubilee Year to celebrate Mass in honor of the newest American saint, Rafael Guízar y Valencia. He said it was humbling for him to think that the holy bishop, who was known as the “bishop of the poor” once celebrated Mass at the altar at San Fernando, and that he preached the Gospel from the cathedral’s pulpit.
In this cathedral, we are on hallowed ground, the archbishop emphasized, as saints have knelt and prayed where we kneel and pray. Saints and blesseds, known and unknown, he said, have gone before us here in San Antonio and throughout this great country. The archbishop prayed that one day he hopes to see the founder of San José Mission, the apostle of Texas, the Venerable Antonio Margil de Jesus, raised to the altars as an American saint.
Archbishop Gomez explained how he felt close to the American saints during this Jubilee Year. “And the time of saints has not ended,” the archbishop proclaimed. “St. Paul challenges us tonight: ‘Join with others in being imitators of me.’ We are called to be imitators of the saints. We are called to strive to be saints ourselves.”
Like the founders of this great San Fernando Cathedral, we must be missionaries of God’s mercy and reconciliation — in our city and in our country, the archbishop urged. “As they evangelized this land, we have to, too. We have to tell the world the good news of God’s mercy and forgiveness. We have to invite our brothers and sisters to come home to our Father. We have to seek out the lost and heal the broken. We have to make this city a place of love and forgiveness!”
He quoted Venerable Antonio Margil de Jesus, who said: “Let us respond to Jesus with pure love, proving it by our works, as Jesus showed his love for us by his deeds not with fine words.”
“The legacy of this Jubilee Year, the mission before us in the years ahead, is the new evangelization of San Antonio and America. And that mission will require a new generation of saints. It will require you and me,” Archbishop Gomez concluded. “Let us then respond to the mercy of God with a pure love — a love that in word and deed gives glory to God and raises up our brothers and sisters.”
Archbishop José H. Gomez and Mayor Phil Hardberger hosted a symposium of community leaders titled, “San Antonio: Looking Back on 275 years, Looking Forward to 300,” the morning of March 3 in the San Fernando Cathedral Hall. Coverage of the discussion will appear in the March 30 edition of Today’s Catholic. |