Los Angeles, Calif., Mar 1, 2017 / 12:51 pm
The answer to society's dysfunctions can be found in one person: Jesus Christ.
That message is at the core of Archbishop José H. Gomez' new pastoral letter – "For Greater Things You Were Born" – released March 1, Ash Wednesday. The letter is a 16,000-word meditation on human nature, which the archbishop maintains can only be understood in relation to God.
"Jesus Christ alone knows who we are and he is the one teacher of life," he writes. "He alone shows us the way to live in order to lead a truly human life."
The elections revealed rifts in American society. The archbishop notes in particular "the persistence of racist thinking," class divisions, "cruel indifference to the sufferings of immigrants" and efforts to "normalize" abortion and euthanasia. The "divisions and dysfunctions" in American society expose unanswered questions about the meaning of life, the archbishop writes. By forgetting God, society has lost a common foundation on which to build.