Angelus News | July 31-August 7, 2020 | Vol. 5 No. 21

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ANGELUS July 31-August 7, 2020 Vol. 5 • No. 21 3424 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90010-2241 (213) 637-7360 • FAX (213) 637-6360 — Published by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles by The Tidings (a corporation), established 1895. POPE WATCH Waiting for the weeds Publisher ARCHBISHOP JOSÉ H. GOMEZ Vice Chancellor for Communications DAVID SCOTT Editor-in-Chief PABLO KAY pkay@angelusnews.com Multimedia Editor TAMARA LONG-GARCÍA Production Artist DIANNE ROHKOHL Photo Editor VICTOR ALEMÁN Managing Editor RICHARD G. BEEMER Assistant Editor HANNAH SWENSON Circulation CHRIS KRAUSE Advertising Manager JIM GARCIA jagarcia@angelusnews.com FOLLOW US www.angelusnews.com www.la-archdiocese.org facebook.com/AngelusNews info@angelusnews.com AngelusNews @AngelusNews @AngelusNews ANGELUS is published biweekly by The Tidings (a corporation), established 1895. Periodicals postage paid at Los Angeles, California. One-year subscriptions (26 issues), $30.00; single copies, $3.00 © 2020 ANGELUS (2473-2699). No part of this publication may be reproduced without the written permission of the publisher. Events and products advertised in ANGELUS do not carry the implicit endorsement of The Tidings Corporation or the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. The following is adapted from Pope Francis’ July 19 Angelus address delivered to visitors in St. Peter’s Square from the window of the Vatican Apostolic Palace. In the parable of the weeds in today’s Gospel (Matthew 13:24–43), Jesus helps us understand God’s patience, opening our hearts to hope. Jesus narrates that, in the field in which good seed was sown, weeds sprout up as well. The servants then go to the master to know where the weeds come from. He responds: “An enemy has done this!” Because we sowed good seed! The servants want to go right away to pull them up, the weeds that are growing. Instead, the master says no, because that would risk pulling the vegetation — the weeds — up together with the wheat. It is necessary to wait for harvest time: Only then will the weeds be separated and burned. A way of looking at history can be read in this parable. Alongside God, the master of the field, who only and always sows good seed, there is an adversary who sows weeds to impede the wheat’s growth. The master acts in the open, in broad daylight, and his goal is a good harvest. Instead, the other, the adversary, takes advantage of the darkness of night and works out of envy and hostility to ruin everything. The adversary has a name: it is the devil, God’s quintessential opponent. The devil’s intention is to hinder the work of salvation, to stonewall the kingdom of God through wicked workers, sowers of scandal. In fact, the good seed and the weeds do not represent good and bad in the abstract, no; but we human beings, who can follow God or the devil. Destruction always happens by sowing evil. It is always the devil who does this or our own temptations: when we fall into the temptation to gossip to destroy others. The servants’ intention is to eliminate evil immediately, that is, evil people. But the master is wiser, he sees farther. They must learn to wait because enduring persecution and hostility is part of the Christian vocation. Certainly, evil must be rejected, but those who do evil are people with whom it is necessary to be patient. If Jesus came to seek sinners more than the righteous, to cure the sick first before the healthy, so must the actions of his disciples be focused not on suppressing the wicked, but on saving them. Patience lies here. Today’s Gospel presents two ways of acting and of living history: on the one hand, the master’s vision who sees far; on the other, the vision of the servants who just see the problem. The Lord invites us to adopt his own vision, one that is focused on good wheat, that knows how to protect it even amid the weeds. Those who are always hunting for the limitations and defects of others do not collaborate well with God, but, rather, those who know how to recognize the good that silently grows in the field of the Church and history, cultivating it until it becomes mature. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: ANGELUS, PO Box 306, Congers, NY 10920-0306. For Subscription and Delivery information, please call (844) 245-6630 (Mon - Fri, 7 am-4 pm PT). Papal Prayer Intention for August: We pray for all those who work and live from the sea, among them sailors, fishermen, and their families. 2 • ANGELUS • July 31-August 7, 2020
NEW WORLD OF FAITH BY ARCHBISHOP JOSÉ H. GOMEZ Missionary disciples in a pandemic On Aug. 8, I will ordain eight new priests for the family of God here in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. Every new priest is a sign of God’s love and his care for his people, and our new priests will be sent out to serve in the midst of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic that continues to disrupt our families, economy, schools, and parishes. These months of the pandemic have also disrupted the way our priests live out their vocations and how they minister to people. It has been inspiring for me to see how some of our priests have adapted, with quiet heroism reaching out to parishioners through phone calls or emails, ministering to the sick and those in need, even offering occasions for adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. It is hard to see it now, but the Church will come out of this moment, as she has survived under persecutions and plagues and pandemics in the past. But there is no question that how we minister in the future — not only priests, but all of us in the Church — is going to change. I have been trying to pray and reflect on this a lot in these summer days, thinking not only about the impact on our institutions and ministries, but also about people’s needs in our parishes and society. We must make sure that our social distance does not become emotional distance; we have to stay connected, caring for one another, listening, sharing our stories and our hope in Christ. I have been saying this for many years now, but it becomes more urgent in light of this pandemic: Every one of us in the Church must feel this responsibility to be a missionary disciple. The Church has never been about programs and events. Everything is about this Person, Jesus Christ, fully and truly human and fully and truly divine, who enters into our lives and calls us to follow him and to become “a new creation.” As we navigate the new reality created by this pandemic, we need to be clear about means and ends. Right now, we are all very focused on “means.” That is understandable. The world has changed. Just coming together in person, face-to-face is now much more complicated. How do we reach people, how do we gather them together to teach, to share the faith, to build fellowship? These are important questions. We should be asking these questions in light of our goal, which is bringing people to a personal meeting with Jesus Christ — to see his face, to hear his voice, to know and feel his loving and merciful presence in their lives. That is why we need to think deeply about how we use digital technology and “virtual” solutions, which will obviously play an increasingly important role in our post-pandemic ministry. It has been amazing what we have been able to do in this emergency time when we are still restricted from gathering in large numbers — so many parishes and ministries offering livestreamed liturgies and events. Going forward, we need to see that our websites and social media platforms are far more than simply ways we can “push out” messages to our people. The beauty of these tools is that they are interactive. So, we need to seek creative ways to help people express and share their faith online. We need to give them the resources they need to be living witnesses and missionary disciples on their own platforms. Think of the possibilities if we could help every Catholic in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles to share one message of hope every day on their personal social media platforms. Imagine 5 million messages of love and mercy daily on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook! We could change the tone of these channels, which is so often mean and self-centered, and we could help people to think about all the good and beautiful things that people are doing in the world. And what if every parish organized a daily rosary, not from inside church walls, but with the prayer coming from parishioners’ homes and being shared on their own personal social channels. Again, imagine nearly 300 families each day, each representing one of our parishes, flooding these channels with prayers to Our Lady and reflections on the mysteries of Christ! Pray this week for our new priests. And if you have never attended a priestly ordination, now is your chance! We will be livestreaming the ordinations on Aug. 8. It is a beautiful sacrament, and a moment to feel the beauty of the Church and the love of God. More information is here: lacatholics. org/ordination. Pray for me this week, and I will pray for you. And let us ask our Blessed Mother Mary to pray for our new priests, to bring us more vocations to the priesthood, and to be ever more near to all of us in these difficult days. To read more columns by Archbishop José H. Gomez or to subscribe, visit www.angelusnews.com. July 31-August 7, 2020 • ANGELUS • 3
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Angelus News | July 31-August 7, 2020 | Vol. 5 No. 21

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