Dear sisters and brothers; We often have conversations with our God. We pray. These conversations occur in the many situations in our lives, words such as these taken from the Psalms recur over and over: “Hear and answer my prayer, O Lord; let me not weep in vain.” “O Lord, turn your ear to my cry! Do not be deaf to my tears.”These have been the prayers of God’s people to our God since ancient times.

The psalms are full of such prayers:“O God, come to my assistance.” “O Lord, hurry to help me.” “…my spirit fails, my heart is numb within me. Lord, listen to my prayer; turn your ear to my appeal.”(Ps. 143) In times of need, of desperation, of fear and aloneness, People have turned to God for help, for courage, for strength, for healing. We do this because we believe that God indeed hears us and answers our prayers.

When God’s Son took on our human nature, he entered into our world and our human lives. God became present to us in Jesus. All God’s promises and gifts were found in Jesus. God lived among us in human flesh. Jesus, a man like us in all things but sin, experienced in his own humanity everything we experience in our humanity: our happiness and our joys along with our pains and sorrows. He understood from his own experience what we live. And people found in him tenderness and compassion and healing.

And so we hear in the Gospels of people approaching him, calling out to him:“I am blind, make me see again; I am sick, heal me; my little daughter is dying, please save her; Jesus, son of David, have pity on me!”And Jesus restored sight, healed the sick, saved those in peril and showed all people the good news of God’s great love and tender compassion for everyone who comes to him.

This is who Jesus is for us today, and not only for us but for every person in the world who is weighed down by the burdens of life. Jesus is here to lift those burdens. Jesus is here to free us from the oppression which weighs down upon people. We heard the words of Isaiah the prophet who spoke of the coming of Jesus into our world, words which Jesus himself used to describe what he does for us:

‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
¹⁹ to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.’

This wonderful healing did not end when Jesus ascended into heaven; Jesus continues to heal and save us today. Jesus has not left us alone; he continues to heal and to set us free from oppression today through his body, present in the world, his body which is the Church. Jesus continues to reach out his hand and change our lives with his healing touch.

He does this above all in the sacraments of the Church. Indeed the sacraments are the way that Jesus acts in our world and in our lives. When we need to encounter Jesus, when we need to be healed, when we need to be shown the way, when we need strength and courage and when we need to express our joy, we do all of this in these encounters with the living Son of God, the Sacraments of the Church.

And so that’s why in this Mass we focus our attention today on the Holy Oils which are blessed and in particular on the Oil of Chrism which we use for anointing in the sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation and of Holy Orders, of the Priesthood. Jesus said: “the Spirit of God is upon me, because he has anointed me…”The name ‘Christ’ means the anointed One. “Christ” and “chrism” come from the same word

When we were baptized and confirmed we too were anointed. When the Bishop or priest’s hand touched us with the oil of Chrism, Jesus touched us and we became Christians, Anointed People, followers of Jesus the Anointed One who, by his anointing, was sent to bring good news to the poor and healing and liberation to all people.

In the Eucharist Jesus makes present for us the Sacrifice of Calvary. He does this through the hands of the Priest anointed with Chrism. In the Anointing of the sick, Jesus, by the Oil of the Sick, touches us to heal us of our illness. Jesus forgives us our sins in the Sacrament of Penance through the action of the consecrated and anointed priest. In the Sacrament of Marriage, Jesus joins the husband and wife in a bond of unbreakable love because of the anointing they received in Baptism and Confirmation. Holy Oils indeed!

Since Jesus, by his anointing, was sent to bring good news to the poor and healing and liberation to all people then we by our anointing are also sent to bring good news to the poor and healing and liberation to all people. Isaiah also wrote: “Youyourselves shall be named priests of the LORD, ministers of our God shall you be called.”

Those words are for all who are members of the Church, to all of us. St. John in the Book of Revelation said: “To him who loves us and freed^* us from our sins by his blood, ⁶and made^* us to be a kingdom, priests serving^* his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.” We are the ones whom Jesus has made into a Kingdom, priests for his God and Father. All of us, whoever we are and whatever we do, are called to allow Jesus to work in us and through us.

The lay people are God’s priestly people, called by Christ to bring his Good News to every corner of our world. I hope that you will leave this Mass today more aware that you have the Ordained Priesthood to help you through the sacraments to encounter Jesus, our Christ, daily, if need be, in your lives; to help you to bring Christ’s Good News to your world.

See in your bishop the one anointed to serve you and bring to you the saving life of Jesus Christ so that you can be Christ’s witness wherever you live and work, for that is your priesthood! The bishop has two strong arms to help him in his ministry to you: one arm is the college of priests, the presbyterium in our archdiocese.

This presbyterium, this college of our priests, is especially evident today in this Mass when they stand with me in the blessing of the oils and in concelebrating the Mass. This is a special day for them as priests and for me as bishop. The second arm is the Diaconate, the Deacons of our archdiocese, who are ordained to show you the way to serve others as Christ serves us and so be the priesthood to which Christ calls you.

So my dear sisters and brothers, I hope that we can leave this Mass today with a renewed heart and spirit to be God’s anointed, priestly people in our world, to make our world aware of God’s great love for everyone, particularly the poor and oppressed, and of God’s constant presence with us every day of our lives.