When I was a young boy, I knew that when my mother said something to me twice, it was important. `Danny, you need to be home in time for supper today. Do you understand? You need to be home in time for supper.” I knew I needed to pay attention. Today in the Liturgy of the Word for the Chrism Mass, God says something to us twice. Once in the First Reading from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah and again, from the lips of Jesus in the Gospel:
When I was a young boy, I knew that when my mother said something to me twice, it was important. `Danny, you need to be home in time for supper today. Do you understand? You need to be home in time for supper.” I knew I needed to pay attention. Today in the Liturgy of the Word for the Chrism Mass, God says something to us twice. Once in the First Reading from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah and again, from the lips of Jesus in the Gospel:
‘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.
Mes chères frères et soeurs, c’est rare qu’on trouve une telle répétition dans les lectures d’une Messe. Alors, il nous faut écouter. Dieu nous parle sérieusement ici.
Jesus has come to his home town of Nazareth. He had just been baptized by John the Baptist. The Holy Spirit had descended on him and God the Father spoke from heaven saying that Jesus was indeed God`s Son, the Beloved, and God’s pleasure was upon him. And then after spending forty days in the desert to prepare for the work the Father had given him, Jesus comes to the synagogue in his home town to begin that work. He speaks those words which describe what he sets out to do. It is clearly a mission of healing, of freedom and emancipation.
This is what the world had waited for since the fall of Adam. This is what God had been preparing the people of Israel for two thousand years. Now the darkness that had afflicted the human race, the black night of sin and death, of pain and fear was about to be overthrown. Now light was to overcome the darkness, life would conquer death, justice would crush oppression and peace would wash away the violence of hatred, oppression and war which torments our world.
The world was soon to be saved. That salvation would come in the person of Jesus, the beloved Son of God. In the person of Jesus, that salvation has come to us, to you and to me. As St. Paul wrote to the Colossians: “(God) has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son, 14in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” (Colossians 1: 12-14) Jesus came to heal our brokenness, fill our lives with good news and free us from the fears, weakness and failures that oppress us.
So here we are in this Cathedral Church, about to enter, next week, Holy Week, into the celebration of our salvation from darkness and sin, to remember how we have journeyed from darkness to light, from death to life, from sin to union with God in Jesus Christ who has conquered darkness, oppression and death itself. Yet we are more than aware that the darkness creeps in on us still. We are not fully delivered from fear and worry, nor from pain and sickness and we face death which waits for us.
Perhaps we cry out in our frustration sometimes: “Jesus, where are you?” Jesus, why is life so difficult? Why do I have to endure this pain? Why do I feel so alone?
We have been saved from sin. But we know that we still must journey through a fallen world to come to the fullness of that salvation. We know that we have been saved from death, that our future is a glorious one of fullness of life and joy forever. We have a secure hope. But we must still go through death to reach that life. In this challenging journey we are consoled by Jesus who assures us that he is always with us.
Pope Benedict writes in his book “Jesus of Nazareth:”If you follow the will of God, you know that in spite of all the terrible things that happen to you, you will never lose a final refuge.”Jesus did not immediately transform the world into instant peace and prosperity. Jesus did not make our lives heaven on earth. But Jesus brought us God. And as the Pope says: “and now we know (God’s) face and we can call upon him.” And we know that we are never alone, for Jesus is as close to us as our own heart beat. Always. Through everything.
This Chrism Mass reassures us and reminds us of the constant comfort that Jesus the Saviour gives to us. Jesus is close to us. Jesus is present in and continues to carry out his saving work in a wonderful way through the sacraments of this Church to which we belong. The sacraments are an inexhaustible treasure which comes from God’s presence in our lives. In the sacraments, Jesus gives us strength, guidance, encouragement and constant saving from the darkness that can shroud our life. In the sacraments, Jesus Christ, the head of the Church and our one High Priest is present for us. In the Sacraments, Jesus touches us. The Chrism Mass is about that gentle and loving touch of Jesus.
The Chrism Mass teaches us that in every diocese of the Catholic Church, the bishop possesses the fullness of the sacramental priesthood of Jesus Christ and it celebrates the close unity of the priests with their bishop in this ministry. The Introduction to the Chrism Mass states that “The Bishop is to be considered as the high priest of his flock. The life in Christ of his faithful is in some way derived and dependent upon the bishop.”Through the Bishop, Jesus touches the faithful people entrusted to his spiritual care. That touch heals and gives life.
In this Mass, the Bishop consecrates the Oil of Chrism which is used in the sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation and the Priesthood. Every person receiving these sacraments is touched by the hand of the Bishop or by his hand through the touch of the priest who carries out these sacraments. In this way, Jesus touches them. The Oil of Catechumens will be put on the chest of our catechumens. In that oil and through the hands of the priest Christ touches our catechumens and strengthens them to renounce sin and the devil. By the hand of the Bishop through the touch of the priest, the sick are anointed with the Oil and receive from Christ a remedy for the illness of mind and body through the healing of the soul. Christ touches us through these sacraments. To be touched by Christ is to be healed and made whole.
We see this often in the Gospel: We remember the leper who said: ‘Lord, if you choose, you can make me clean. He stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, ‘I do choose. Be made clean!’ We remember Peter’s mother in law who was lying in bed with a fever; Jesus touched her hand, and the fever left her. We remember the blind men who came to Jesus to be healed and he said to them , ‘Do you believe that I am able to do this?’ They said to him, ‘Yes, Lord.’ 29Then he touched their eyes and said, ‘According to your faith let it be done to you.’ And their eyes were opened.
Jesus said:‘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…’ Jesus touches us with the hand of God. With that touch Jesus heals us and frees us and makes us strong to face the demands of our lives.
The English poet Gerard Manly Hopkins wrote a beautiful line in one of his poems about this touch of God: “… and dost thou touch me afresh? Over again I feel thy finger and find thee.”(“The Wreck of the Deutschland”) When Jesus touches us, we find God and we are healed and filled with life.
Jesus said:‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.’We are reminded in this Chrism Mass of our mission as God’s people. We have been healed and given life and filled with hope not just for ourselves but for others too. The Book of Revelation says :To him who loves us and freed us from our sins by his blood, and made us to be a kingdom, priests serving his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. AmenAll of us who have been baptized share in Jesus priesthood as well.
I cannot help but think of the concern and worry that I hear about as I visit parishes: a worry of parents whose children have given up the practice of their faith, a worry over grandchildren who are not baptized. What can we do in face of this? It is my experience that we seem to have little effect on our own family members in this area. As God’s priestly people we pray for them. But if it is hard to influence our own family members, perhaps we can influence the family members of others. We have hope that when we live our own lives with faith and when we show to others the wonderful hope that we have been given, and the peace which is given to us when we face life’s difficulties, we can indeed help people find their way back to Christ who is present in his Church.
These whom we love are in some sense the poor to whom Jesus has come to bring good news. Poor because they for whatever reason have left behind the richness of having Jesus intimately a part of their lives. Poor because they have turned away from the love God offers them and seek to find meaning in life without God. In addition to our prayers, we must never cease to proclaim our Good News to them.
I know that I cannot bring them all back to the Church. But as their Bishop, I can do what their parents do: I can hold them in my heart – every one of them, throughout the whole diocese. And every time I celebrate Mass, I can lift them up to God and place them in God’s loving hands. I do that and that I will continue to do that. And I do that with the hope that God will in some way, through my imperfect efforts, reach out and touch them, and they will feel the touch of God’s finger and they will find again this God who cannot help but love them over and over and over.
The wonderful thing is that in us, Jesus continues to touch the human brokenness around us.
Again, I would like to quote Gerard Manly Hopkins as he speaks about Jesus continuing his healing work here among us:
For Christ plays in ten thousand places,
Lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his
To the Father through the features of men’s faces.
We are the ten thousand places where Jesus plays to the Father. We are the ones who are lovely in limbs and lovely in eyes that God sees and delights in and it is in the features of our faces that the Father sees Jesus and hears our prayers.
Voici le miracle de notre église, car nous pouvons dire avec Jésus :
L’Esprit du Seigneur est sur moi, il m’a choisi pour apporter la Bonne Nouvelle aux pauvres. Il m’a envoyé pour proclamer la délivrance aux prisonniers, et le don de la vue aux aveugles, pour libérer les opprimés, pour annoncer l’année où le Seigneur manifestera sa faveur.
This is the miracle of our Church, for because of our baptism and our anointing with the Oil of Chrism at Confirmation we can say with Jesus:
‘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.