Homily for Chrism Mass

March 26, 2024
Saint Patrick Cathedral
Fort Worth, Texas

Isaiah 61:1-3, 6a,8-9
Psalm 89:21-22, 25, 27
Revelation 1:5-8
Luke 4:16-21

Bishop Michael Olson’s homily in English begins at paragraph 5.

Cuando Jesús comienza su ministerio público en el evangelio de Lucas, lo sitúa dentro de la profecía de la tercera parte del libro de Isaías —que se refiere a la comunidad de exiliados que ha regresado a la Tierra Prometida. “El espíritu del Señor está sobre mí, por cuanto me ha ungido para anunciar la buena nueva a los pobres,” cita Jesús del profeta Isaías (cf. Lucas 4:18). Así como el Señor Dios ungió al líder lleno del Espíritu para llevar la buena nueva a los pobres y los débiles, Jesús ve y se revela su vida y ministerio de la misma manera. Y espera que aquellos que lo seguirán como discípulos hagan lo mismo, y particularmente aquellos que lo seguirán en el discipulado como sacerdotes.

No creo que sea coincidencia que más adelante en el evangelio de Lucas, cuando el estudioso de la ley le pregunta en qué consiste el amor a Dios y al prójimo, Jesús utilice la imagen del samaritano…el extraño que entra en medio del otro, al que no es familiarizado—pero que sí conoce —y unge sus heridas con aceite y vino (cf. Lc 10:34). Es como si Jesús estuviera dando en forma parabólica (una historia)—que es como enseñó—lo que establece en su declaración de misión cuando cita Isaías 61 (sesenta y uno) al comienzo de su ministerio.

Como el buen samaritano, Jesús va a ungir todas las heridas. Él va a derramar el óleo de la alegría en las heridas, rupturas y rasgones de la vida de las personas. Él traerá sanación porque no simplemente está familiarizado con ellos…los conoce verdaderamente. Y nosotros sacerdotes, ungidos y enviados a la misma misión en Cristo, debemos ungir de la misma manera; debemos derramar el óleo de la alegría en las heridas, rupturas y rasgones de las vidas de nuestro pueblo, especialmente los débiles y pobres.

No somos simplemente buhoneros de aceite de la popularidad barata, vendiendo el último truco que creará espectáculo, pero no engendrará una fe profunda. No, somos ministros del óleo de la alegría, que es la unción que Jesucristo—su mismo título lleva la acción de unción—busca hacer como el Buen Samaritano que vino en medio de nosotros. La renovación de nuestras promesas es una oportunidad bendita para ser fortalecidos en Cristo el Sacerdote y el Buen Samaritano.

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Our Gospel reading at this Mass taken from Luke presents the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry. He reads from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah, the text of which is our first reading at tonight’s liturgy. It is a part of the prophecy of Isaiah that concerns the group of exiles whom God has returned to the promised land as His People. “The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.”

Jesus reveals Himself in this proclamation and throughout His life, ministry, passion, death, and Resurrection to be the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy as the anointed Messiah and the Son of God. Jesus very directly chooses to inaugurate His ministry by making this proclamation in the synagogue in Nazareth, amidst His kinspeople to whom He would have been very familiar. If we were to continue reading from the Gospel where the text leaves off in our liturgy, we would see that the people of Nazareth reject Jesus because in being faithful to His mission as the anointed Christ He calls them to a covenantal relationship as God’s People beyond mere familiarity and tribal loyalty.

People often prefer familiarity over friendship because familiarity does not require any real commitment, honesty, or moral integrity in life. It does not require authentic love. Familiarity with a person implies that I know enough about a person or a leader to reduce that person to a brand which too easily reinforces my own opinions and agenda devoid of any concern for the truth; yet I do not know the person well enough to care for him. Our dominant culture today, including in some areas of the Church, have placed high value on the currency of familiarity especially through the means of social media that foments the tribal polarization of not only political discourse but also discord within the Church and family life. Just as He did in Nazareth, Jesus passes simply through the enraged crowd of today.

I don’t think it is coincidental that later in Luke’s gospel, when asked by the scholar of the law as to the nature of what the love of God and neighbor consists, that Jesus uses the image of the Good Samaritan…the stranger from another tribe who encounters the member of a hostile tribe. The stranger encountered by the Good Samaritan has been ignored by those who are most familiar to him. The Good Samaritan Himself anoints the injured man’s wounds with oil and wine, carries the injured man to the inn and entrusts him to the innkeeper with the promise that if there is any debt, He will settle the account later.

Jesus, the Good Samaritan, anoints the wounded man with the oil of salvation. Jesus, the Good Samaritan, leads him into the inn that represents the Church, a place of healing and belonging on God’s merciful and just terms. Jesus, the Good Samaritan, provides the inn, which is the Church with the sacramental and ordinary means of healing from sin and its evil effects through forgiveness and compassion. As priests, we have been anointed with the oil of gladness, and entrusted with the ministry of sacramental healing and mercy within the Church. We are ordained not only being configured to Christ the Head and Shepherd of the Church but also absorbed into the faithful witness and compassionate ministry of Christ, the Good Samaritan — eschewing the tribalism of today.

Without being anointed by Christ, freeing us from sin, and delivering us from evil, we would remain at odds with God while remaining unchanged from the sinful state inherited from our first parents after the sin of the Garden.

The People of God today need our authentic priestly ministry in a most urgent way. They need us to anoint them with Christ’s eternal oil of gladness as His priests, that together we might reject the snake oil of familiarity that conjures the spectacle of polarization offering a spiritual alchemy but an oil that cannot engender faith, hope, and charity. Through our priestly and sacramental ministry Christ pours the eternal oil of gladness into the wounds of His people that destroy people’s lives. How many times in our priestly ministry have we experienced the intimacy of Christ while anointing those who are unfamiliar with us but who know us only to be priests who represent Christ whom they long for?

Through our faithful priestly ministry Christ brings healing to His people not because He is familiar to them but because He knows them and loves them unconditionally, offering them the intimate bond of His Eternal Covenant sealed by the Blood of His Son. The anointing received at our ordination is not a permission to share familiarity with His people, rather it cleanses us and empties us of familiarity so that His People might not merely be amused by us but rather truly come to know Christ through our faithful witness, our compassionate ministry, our integrated lives, and our paternal love for them as priests.

Through the renewal of our promises of ordination in this liturgy, the Holy Spirit strengthens our identity with Christ and clarifies our own self-understanding as priests of Jesus Christ to reject the world’s temptation for us to be simply social influencers with a particular brand. “The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.”