April 19, 2011

Homily: Chrism Mass, 2011

Most Rev. James D. Conley, S.T.L., Auxiliary Bishop of Denver, delivered the following homily during the 2011 Chrism Mass, celebrated in the Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in Denver, Colorado.

Archbishop Chaput, my brother priests, especially those of you who are celebrating significant anniversaries of ordination this year, our Jubilarians, dear deacons (these four “newly minted” deacons), seminarians, consecrated men and women, my dear brothers and sisters in Christ. I want to extend a particular welcome to those of you who are making your final preparations to receive the Sacrament of Confirmation during this Easter season, as well as those of you representing our parishes throughout the Archdiocese of Denver. The Church in Northern Colorado comes together in a special way to celebrate the Mass of Chrism on this day, Tuesday of Holy Week and the sixth anniversary of the election of Pope Benedict XVI, in communion with our Archbishop to express the unity of the sacred priesthood and Christ’s one sacrifice!

There are two principle actions which take place during this Mass of Chrism which make it unique, which set it apart from every other Mass during the liturgical year.

The first is the renewal by all of the priests here today of our commitment to priestly service in the Church. We renew those promises we made to Christ through the hands of our bishop on our ordination day.

The second action which makes this liturgy unique will be the blessing and consecration of the holy oils and the holy chrism. The Archbishop will consecrate the sacred chrism which will be used to anoint the newly baptized, to seal candidates for confirmation, and to anoint the hands of new priests (eight of whom will be ordained here in this Cathedral Basilica on May 21st), and to anoint the heads of bishops at their ordination, in addition to being used in the rites of anointing pertaining to the dedication of churches and altars.

There will also be the blessing of the oil of catechumens which will be used to anoint those who are to be baptized (and maybe there are some of those who are here today, those who may be converting to the Catholic Church.)

And finally the blessing of the oil of the sick which will be used to sacramentally bring comfort and support and healing to the sick in their infirmity.

And these two actions of the Chrism Mass are inextricably linked together in the one high priesthood of Jesus Christ in whose name and in whose very being we act as priests – in persona Christi.

We as presbyters of the new covenant come together and concelebrate this Mass “as witnesses and cooperators with our bishop in the consecration of the holy chrism because we share in the sacred office of bishop in building up, sanctifying and governing the people of God. This Chrism Mass, therefore, is a clear expression of the unity of the priesthood and sacrifice of Christ, which continues to be present in the Church and will be perpetuated through the hands of priests until the end of time.” (Ceremonial of Bishops #274)

And we priests have been entrusted with the awesome privilege and duty to celebrate these sacred mysteries, the sacraments of the Church, for the sanctification of souls and the salvation of the world. In a few moments we will be asked: “Are you resolved to be faithful ministers of the mysteries of God, to celebrate the Eucharist and the other liturgical services with sincere devotion?”

The bishop will go on to say:  “Are you resolved to imitate Jesus Christ, the head and shepherd of the Church, by teaching the Christian faith without thinking of your own profit, solely for the well-being of the people you were sent to serve?” And we will say, “I am.”

What an awesome privilege to be called and ordained to be stewards of these sacred mysteries of God.

We believe in a God who is transcendent. Yet through a pure gift of His grace, this God has humbled Himself to share in our humanity, so that we might share in His divinity. This is what happens in the sacred liturgy and the celebration of the sacraments. The mission of Christ’s incarnation continues in every celebration of the sacred liturgy. In the sacred liturgy God stoops down from heaven to lift us up to His level. He makes it possible for us, though we are but creatures, to sing and worship with the angels, in praise of our Creator.

Our Holy Father, Pope Benedict, puts it like this: “[In the Sacred Liturgy] it is not primarily we who act, but God comes first to meet us through His action, He looks upon us and He leads us to Himself…God touches us through ordinary material things, through gifts of creation that He takes up into His service, making them instruments of the encounter between us and Himself…water, bread, wine and sacred oil…These elements are gifts of creation, but they also indicate the locality of the history of God with us. They are a synthesis between creation and history; gifts of God that always connect us to those parts of the world where God chose to act with us in historical time, where He chose to become one of us.”

This time next year we will be celebrating the Chrism Mass according to the new English translation of the Roman Missal.

I sincerely believe that the new translation of the Third Typical Edition of the Roman Missal will be a significant and historic moment in the life of the Church, for those of us ordained for sacred ministry and all of the lay faithful. It is a gift to our generation. I hope and pray that this historic event becomes an opportunity for an authentic renewal in the life of the Church’s liturgical worship.

The new English translation of the Roman Missal is a richer, more elevated style of English, but more importantly, it is truer to the original Latin which means it is more accurate and precise in doctrinal content. The new English translation also recovers more explicitly the references to Sacred Scripture and, therefore, is more spiritual and mystical. 

Eighty percent of the prayers in the Roman Missal date back to before the ninth century.

As Pope Benedict has said so often, the sacred liturgy is not a private possession of any particular group or time, but rather it is a treasury of prayer which has been handed down to us as a gift and we who are stewards of this sacred treasure, have an obligation to be obedient and faithful in handing it on to others.

This new English translation of the Roman Missal which will debut on the first Sunday of Advent will be, as I said, a gift to our generation.

What are Catholics in the pews going to make of the changes in the words they pray and the words they hear the priest praying? Will the change make any difference in their experience of the Mass? In the way they worship? In the way they live their faith in the world?

These are important questions. And the answers are going to depend a lot on you and me.

Those of us who are priests and deacons and those preparing to be ordained, we are the keys to the success of this next phase in the Church’s on-going liturgical renewal.

The new translation should gradually deepen the quality and tone of our worship. The new translation will help in some sense to restore the ancient understanding of the Eucharist as a sacred mystery. It renews the vertical and transcendent dimension of the liturgy as a spiritual sacrifice that our heavenly high Priest celebrates unceasingly in the eternal liturgy of heaven.

But as we all know, the transition will not be easy, both for ourselves and for our people. The new texts carry more profound doctrinal content and they will call for careful catechesis and explanation.

But what a marvelous and exciting opportunity and gift this is, my brothers! What an opportunity to deepen our love for the sacred liturgy and an opportunity to encourage our faithful Catholic brothers and sisters to enter more deeply into the mysteries of the liturgy, the mysteries which we as ordained ministers are called to be good stewards.

As we now prepare to renew publicly our priestly promises to be faithful to the gift of our vocation and as we prepare to bless and consecrate the holy oils which will be used in the sacraments we administer, let us remember in the words of St. Paul, “we are co-workers with Christ in His joy” (2 Cor. 1:24), and in the fruit of the olive tree, in the consecrated oil, we are touched by the goodness of the Creator, the love of the Redeemer. Let us pray that His gladness may pervade us ever more deeply and that we may be capable of bringing it anew to a world in such urgent need of the joy that has its source in truth. 

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• To learn more about the new English translation of the Roman Missal, visit www.archden.org/newromanmissal