(OSV News) — As Catholics came together at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in downtown Los Angeles to pray for the cardinal electors at the conclave, Archbishop José H. Gomez urged the faithful to also “ask for a new and deeper awareness of the important part that each one of us plays in the church.”
“The church’s mission is not just for the cardinals or the bishops or the pope. Jesus gives each of us a responsibility to share the faith, to spread the good news of his love, and to help others to find him and to love him,” the archbishop said.
He was the main celebrant and homilist at a Mass May 7, the first day of the conclave.
Praying for the future pope
“Today we continue to pray for the repose of the soul of Pope Francis, and we continue to thank God for his life and witness,” said Archbishop Gomez. “In this holy Mass we especially have come to pray for his successor, for the next successor of St. Peter, the next Vicar of Jesus Christ on earth!”
Referencing the day’s first reading from the Acts 8:1b-8, the archbishop said, “When the first believers proclaimed Jesus, ‘there was great joy in that city.’ Let’s bring that same great joy to our city, to our families, and to our communities! Let’s always be excited about our Catholic faith, and especially in this moment when we await the new pope.”
“We ask the Holy Spirit to come and guide the conclave in the ways of truth,” Archbishop Gomez prayed. “And let us ask holy Mary, our Blessed Mother and the Mother of the Church, to help us always to follow the path of her Son. All with Peter to Jesus through Mary!”
During the Mass a pair of Pope Francis’ shoes were on display at the cathedral. They were a gift to Noel Diaz, founder of El Sembrador, a Los Angeles-based Catholic media ministry.
“His shoes send us all a message that we, as Catholics, are to serve our brothers and sisters — serve those who are in need,” said Diaz. “During these times there are so many people who are hurting. So, we must continue the mission — continue being active and serving.”
The promise of Jesus
Across the country, in New York, Brooklyn Bishop Robert J. Brennan was the main celebrant and homilist at a Mass, held at Immaculate Conception Center in the Douglaston section of Queens, celebrated to mark the opening of the conclave.
“Today the church gathers in prayer around the world, not only here in Brooklyn and Queens, as the cardinal electors … begin their first deliberations,” he said. “We’re here asking for the Lord’s direction, his guidance, his blessing on his church. We’re conscious of the promise, the concern of Jesus in the Gospel today (Jn 6:44-51): ‘Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me.'”
“Jesus’ will is that none should be lost, that all should be gathered. … (This) is being lived out in a very powerful way at this very hour,” Bishop Brennan said. “The risen Lord Jesus continues to care for his church. … This has been going (on) in the church 2,000 years. The risen Lord Jesus continues to care for his church — that is the fundamental reality that we observe today. It’s the basis of our hope, it’s the basis of our prayer.”
Bishop Brennan said that at the heart of the papacy are just two principal responsibilities “given by Jesus Christ to Peter. Everything flows from that.”
These are “to proclaim without error” that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, the son of the living God; and “to build up the unity of the church.”
“It’s not about liberal or conservative, it’s not about personality,” he said. “The key responsibilities are to proclaim Jesus Christ in season and out of season, when it’s convenient and when it’s not, and to build up the unity and communion of the church.”
Bishop Brennan harkened back to a homily given by St. Paul VI on June 29, 1978, the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, in which he reflected on his 15-year papacy. The speech was especially poignant as six weeks later the pontiff died, on Aug. 6, 1978.
The pope reigned in the tumultuous 1960s and ’70s but never lost sight of his key responsibilities, Bishop Brennan said, and in that homily he emphasized “one of his perennial themes in his preaching” that he “tirelessly repeated” — “Christ is the Messiah, that the nucleus of the faith is Jesus Christ, True God and True Man.”
“The second point he made in that homily was he spoke about the unity, the communion of the church — it’s our unity in one bread one chalice and he pleaded with the people of the church for that sense of unity, that sense of communion,” Bishop Brennan said, adding that the pope used the Greek word “koinonia,” which is translated as “communion” but “it’s so much more.”
Calling on our mother
In Canada, two days ahead of the conclave opening, Cardinal Frank Leo of Toronto asked the faithful to pray for the deliberations of the conclave and for him, too, as a cardinal elector.
“Please join me in praying intently and wholeheartedly that the Cardinals be given wisdom and discernment from on High; that the Spirit of the Risen Christ descend with power and abundance upon the Cardinals united in Sistine Chapel and that the one chosen … to be the next Successor of the Prince of the Apostles may be worthy and holy, humble and courageous, learned and wise,” he said in a May 5 message sent from Rome.
Because May is largely considered the month of Mary in the Catholic Church, he urged the faithful offer prayers to Mary, the “Mother of the Church,” who “is our spiritual mother in the faith.”
He said, “May her intercession be sought daily, her name be praised by all of the faithful and the purity of her faith be embodied by all those who bear the blessed name of Christian.”
Julie Asher is OSV News senior editor.
