Editor’s note: This is Bishop Lucia’s homily from the Chrism Mass, celebrated the Tuesday of Holy Week at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception. Holy oils and sacred chrism are blessed for all the diocesan parishes and institutions; all able diocesan-based priests attend and reconfirm their vows during the liturgy.
“The spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord has anointed me … ” (Is. 61:1).
What do Father Stuart Long and Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini have in common? Now I am sure you were not expecting this question to be the opening line of my Chrism Mass homily. And after a moment’s pause to make sure you heard me right, you would probably say they are both in the movie industry, so to speak! And that would be correct!
However, there is another reason I bring up their names this morning in this sacred gathering because the portrayal of their lives on the big screen reveals the true meaning of this morning’s Eucharistic celebration called the “Chrism Mass.” What do they have in common? They both embraced in their lives their “anointed-ness!”
Mother Cabrini testifies that in her own life, it was at the anointing at Confirmation she heard the call of God in her life and wanted to respond to it generously. Father Stu would say that the moment he heard God’s call to be a priest was the day he was baptized and anointed at the Easter Vigil in 1994, although he was in a steady relationship at the time. Now, both would go on to have reasons to abandon these calls due to rejections and ill health, but both persevered, convinced that their “anointed-ness” meant something!
This year as I reflect upon the Sacrament of Confirmation with young people throughout our diocese, I am going to focus on four words: Anointed, Sealed, Marked, and Mission.
Anointed focuses on the fact that through Baptism and Confirmation we are chosen by and dedicated to God. In the words of the prophet Isaiah: “By name I have called you, you are mine … you are precious to me” (Is 43:1).
Sealed – The seal of the gift of the Holy Spirit signifies our authenticity as an adopted child of God. And yet, pardon the weak analogy, but like a postage stamp, it sends us out into the world to be a living Gospel – a living presence of Christ in the world.
Marked speaks of the fact that we are indeed marked men and women, like Stu and Frances came to understand in their lives. They could not escape the fact that their lives had a purpose in God’s eyes, even in the midst of tribulation and suffering. With striking notability, they were meant to be the face of God to those whom they would encounter on the pilgrimage of life.
Mission – There are those who have said that courage in witnessing our faith is one of the best proofs for the existence of God.
Dear sisters and brothers, on this Tuesday of Holy Week, we gather as a diocesan family – before we enter the Sacred Triduum – to focus on the common priestly anointing we share through Baptism and Confirmation, and its accompanying mandate to discipleship and mission in the Name of Jesus. This charge directs us to go out to all the nations to reveal our anointing by being living sacraments; that is, outward signs of Christ’s presence in the world today!
This is what it means to speak of the Church as “Sacrament.” As Vatican II’s Dogmatic Constitution on the Church states: “God gathered together as one all those who in faith look upon Jesus as the author of salvation and the source of unity and peace, and established them as the Church that for each and all it may be the visible sacrament of this saving unity” (#9).
Moreover, brothers and sisters, we are afforded also in our gathering today to appreciate one further anointing, that of the priestly office; and consider the promises of those who are ordained to God’s Service through the invocation of the Holy Spirit and the laying on of hands. The Second Vatican Council in paragraph 9 of the Decree on the Life and Ministry of Priests (Presbyterorum Ordinis) states: “In virtue of the sacrament of orders, priests of the New Testament exercise the most excellent and necessary office of Father and teacher among the People of God and for them. They are nevertheless, together with all of Christ’s faithful, disciples of the Lord, made sharers in His kingdom by the grace of God who calls them. For priests are brothers among brothers (and sisters) with all those who have been reborn in the baptismal font. They are all members of one and the same body of Christ, whose upbuilding is entrusted to all.”
The decree goes on to reflect, “Priests therefore should preside in such a way that they seek the things of Jesus Christ, not the things which are their own … Priests must sincerely acknowledge and promote the dignity of the laity and the role which is proper to them in the mission of the Church … Priests should also confidently entrust to the laity duties in the service of the Church, allowing them freedom and room for action … Finally, priests have been placed in the midst of the laity to lead them to the unity of charity, that they may ‘love one another with fraternal charity, anticipating one another with honor” (Rom 12:10). It is their task, therefore, to reconcile differences of mentality in such a way that no one will feel a stranger in the community of the faithful.”
Sisters and brothers, these words of the Church’s magisterium give you and I renewed purpose as each of us considers the anointings we have received. Especially, I see in the call to reconciling differences, the healing represented by the most frequently used of the Holy Oils – the “Oleum Infirmorum” – “Oil of the Sick.” Again, thinking of Fr. Stu and Mother Cabrini – how this particular anointing with oil gave them support to continue their mission in Christ’s Name to its very end.
Let me leave you this morning with testimonies concerning our two film stars and the difference one’s “anointed-ness” can make. One is from a high school buddy, named Brad, who after many years reconnected with Stu and became his right hand man … the other the words of Pius XII:
“He worked harder than anybody I’ve seen … He worked up almost till the day he died.
“When Stu was no longer able to control his hands enough to do the Anointing of the Sick, Brad would hold his fingers and help him move them properly. He would take Stu to hear confessions. When Stu wasn’t able to leave anymore, people would come to him.
“The room was constantly filled with people. The people, the healthcare workers that worked for him, they all converted to Catholicism and really changed their lives around. That’s just something I noticed as I was going in and out over the few years.”
Mother Cabrini
“Where did she acquire all that strength and the inexhaustible energy by which she was able to perform so many good works and to surmount so many difficulties? She accomplished all this through the faith that was always vibrant in her heart; through the divine love that burned within her; and finally, through the constant prayer by which she was closely united to God … She never let anything turn her aside from striving to please God and to work for his glory for which nothing, aided by grace, seemed too difficult or beyond human strength.”
“The spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord has anointed me … ”
