The Chrism Mass, celebrated March 31, drew men, women and children of all ages, consecrated religious and clergy across the diocese to Westerville St. Paul the Apostle Church on Tuesday of Holy Week.
Bishop Earl Fernandes celebrated the Mass, considered a principal expression of unity and service among a bishop, his priests and people. Concelebrants included Bishop Emeritus Frederick Campbell.
All priests concelebrating the Mass renewed their priestly promises. They vowed to be more united with and conformed to Christ and to be faithful stewards of the mysteries of God. The congregation responded to requests to pray for their priests and bishop.
At the Chrism Mass, the bishop blessed holy oils and consecrated sacred chrism to be used in the diocese throughout the year.
Oils were brought to the altar by deacons during the Liturgy of the Eucharist. Bishop Fernandes blessed the Oil of the Sick for use in the sacrament of Anointing of the Sick.
Following Communion, he blessed the Oil of Catechumens for individuals who will be baptized. He then consecrated chrism for use in the sacraments of baptism, Confirmation and Holy Orders and dedications of churches and altars.
The following is Bishop Fernandes’ complete homily:
My Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
I welcome you all to this Chrism Mass. In a special way, I greet my brother Bishops, the priests, who will renew their priestly promises at this liturgy, permanent deacons, members of the diocesan staff, consecrated religious, and those entering the Church this Easter. It is a beautiful experience for us to be together as the People of God during Holy Week.
At this liturgy, we celebrate a series of rituals that only occur once a year. It is the bishop’s duty, honor and privilege, to sanctify the oils we use for the Church’s most sacred liturgies: first the oil of the sick, which anoints us with salvation when our health breaks down or when death approaches, which restores the body, and which safeguards the body, soul, and spirit; then the oil of catechumens by which those who are to be baptized are freed from evil and granted courage; and finally, the chrism which neophytes receive, and which is used for confirmations, ordinations, and consecrations, including churches and altars.
The oils are prepared in three different ways. The oil of the sick is blessed as part of the Eucharistic Prayer. The healing power of Christ springs from His sacrifice as the Prophet Isaiah says: “By his wounds we are healed.” The oil of catechumens is blessed at the end of Mass with a formula that recalls the baptism of Jesus, so that those who are anointed “courageously can undertake with a generous heart the obligations of the Christian life,” having received “divine wisdom and power” to “understand the Gospel.”
Unlike the blessing of the oil of the infirm and of the catechumens, the oil of chrism is not blessed; rather, it is consecrated. The bishop breathes on the oil, mixed with precious essences, then recites the prayer of consecration, one of the most beautiful liturgical texts. All the priests gathered, who at this liturgy will renew their priestly promises, will extend their hands, at the end of the prayer of the consecration of the chrism. These same hands were once consecrated with chrism at their ordination.
When I was first nominated as Bishop, I made my retreat at the Abbey of the Genesee. The Abbot there put me in touch with another Cistercian, Erik Varden, with whom I corresponded, without realizing that he was a bishop. Bishop Varden once reflected on the ancient tradition surrounding the chrism. According to tradition, he noted, the Apostles concocted the original chrism from the oil and spices which the women had brought to Jesus’s tomb on Easter Morning. They women were supposed to anoint the Lord’s dead body, but they did not find Him. Christ was alive! He is alive! The anointing intended for Jesus’ corpse became the means by which others could know the power of his resurrection.
The tradition continues that the Apostles, who were sent by the Lord to the ends of the earth to proclaim the Gospel, brought along a portion of this original chrism. This tradition was maintained with vigor in Alexandria on the instruction of St. Peter. To this day only the patriarch of Alexandria is empowered to prepare chrism for the whole Coptic Church. At each new consecration, a little of the old chrism is mixed into the new, like a liquid leaven. Thus, the Copts speak of a sacrament in material continuity with apostolic ministry.
We might be a little skeptical, just as we are when people keep filling their bottles of Lourdes water with other holy water when it gets close to half empty, but maybe we shouldn’t be so cynical or skeptical. Even if it would be hard to prove continuity with the chrism, the theological idea holds. For example, our notion of the apostolic succession, which guarantees that those who act as priests and bishops were validly ordained as ministers of the sacred mysteries for the sake of the whole Church and for its edification. Priests and bishops trace their ordination back, by the laying on of hands, to the time of the apostles.
This is a reminder to the priests gathered here. We are not bureaucrats, but stewards of the sacred mysteries, touched by the fire of the Holy Spirit, conferred through the laying on of the hands of the bishop. You are not a social service worker, a bureaucrat, or a historical artifact. You are a living, breathing reminder of Christ, His presence, amidst the People of God. While in recent years we have spoken of the priests needing to have the smell of the sheep, we ought to reflect on the need for the priests to bring the sweet aroma of Christ, the Anointed One, to the People of God. Although as priests, we all have more aches and pains as we age, you are not dead; rather, you are alive and you follow the One who is alive! You bring His life to the People of God.
I invite you to meditate on your hands as priests. You hold the Body of Christ in your hands and feed the children of God with your hands. You raise your hands to bless and sanctify. You not only anoint the hands of the sick with the oil of the infirm, but you also demonstrate the compassion of Christ when you hold or caress a sick or dying person’s hands. At baptism, you anoint the child on the breast with the oil of the catechumenate and the child’s head with chrism.
In an ever more virtual world, touch is important. Your humanity is important. Today, everything seems to be done virtually or in an automated way. People communicate through screens. The Zoom calls and mobile phones make us perpetually available. We order our food, groceries, and everything online. We rely more and more on artificial intelligence, and while some people might be more efficient, people are lonely. In the hours spent in front of screens, we meet only ourselves and a machine. Medicine, which relies heavily on the doctor-patient relationship for successful outcomes, is being replaced by telemedicine. The overuse of technology rather than human contact has produced an “anxious generation” to use the phrase of Jonathan Haidt.
In contrast, humanity was fashioned by the hands of God. The Word became Flesh and made His dwelling among us. The Apostle John testifies: What we have seen with our eyes, we touched with our hands. In the holy oils, God gives us a palpable, sensible sign that His hand touches us tenderly, with healing, as a caress, as a gesture of mercy. In this way, He is also teaching us how to treat one another – not with aggression and violence but with gentleness.
In baptism, we were anointed priest, prophet, and king. We were confirmed with the oil of chrism, being sealed with the gift of the Holy Spirit. That grace is still alive in us. Should we have lost it (or lose it) through sin, we can still turn again to the Lord to be forgiven. The innocence and chastity of touch can be discovered even by those who have failed, sinned, or acted against love. Grace renews us and transforms, if we allow God to be at work in us. Even the invitation to prayer prior to the consecration of chrism, speaks of this renewal, inviting the faithful to pray to God to “bless and sanctify this oil, so that all who are outwardly anointed with it may be inwardly transformed and come to share in eternal salvation.”
For those who will be baptized and confirmed, this is the grace that awaits you – the newness of life that Christ, the Anointed One of the Father, offers you.
For those ordained as priests, the chrism speaks with particular force. To the priests here present: when you were ordained as priests, the Bishop, anointing your hands with chrism, said: “May the Lord Jesus Christ, whom the Father anointed with the Holy Spirit and power, guard and preserve you, that you may sanctify the Christian people and offer sacrifice to God.”
In short, this is the priestly vocation – to sanctify and to offer sacrifice. Jesus began His public ministry, anointed with the Holy Spirit. He overcame the temptations of the devil in the power of the Spirit, and He proclaimed Good News to the poor, healed the broken hearted, declared liberty to captives, release for prisoners and the oppressed. You, my brothers, continue his ministry and share in it. Your lives and ministry make a difference, and I thank you for your service.
You have been appointed to be a bearer of holiness and spiritual fathers. Each day, you make many sacrifices, seen and unseen, and daily you lay down your lives, especially in offering Mass. Msgr. Luigi Giussani once remarked: “To build, it is not enough to last through time – one must give life.”
As spiritual fathers, you must generate life. You must give life as you have received life. Through you, others receive life – they receive the very life of God, to which the Apostles bore witness. Through you, others have been called, chosen, and sent. Through you, others come to faith. This is the mission of your life. To be a missionary means to give life to a people, sent by Christ, just as He was sent by the Father. Christ was sent by the Father to regenerate humanity, dead in its sins, and to generate a new humanity, transformed by the Spirit, so that humanity, in the flesh and transformed by grace, becomes more like God. You will generate this new people, not merely new individuals, but a people of life.
I know that it is not easy to be Catholic today, yet record numbers are entering the Catholic Church. It is still more difficult to be a priest, yet, in our diocese, more men are joining the seminary. Just as the women brought the oil to the tomb to anoint the body of Jesus and the oil was a sign of death, so too the oil that sealed our priestly commission – when we died to ourselves to offer our life to God – was initially a sign of Jesus’ death and only later did it become an expression of His triumph over death. You must be living signs of His triumph – sources of life for the people!
Today you will renew the promises of your ordination, pledging your fidelity to the call God has entrusted to you. You did not choose Him, but, out of His love for you, called and chose you to bear fruit – to generate life.
To those present here, pray for your priests: that they may anoint the people with the oil of gladness and manifest to others the goodness they have received from the Lord, who came to bring, ‘good news to the poor and to heal the broken-hearted.’
With hearts renewed by the oil of gladness, may we all bring, through our humanity and God’s grace, to this anxious generation the gift of peace and the power of the Risen Lord. Amen.