Bishop Fernandes leads Chrism Mass during Holy Week

Bishop Earl Fernandes led his first Chrism Mass during Holy Week as the shepherd of the Diocese of Columbus on Tuesday, April 4 at Westerville St. Paul Church.

Bishop Fernandes was joined by two of his precedessors, Bishop Emeritus James Griffin and Bishop Emeritus Frederick Campbell; the priests of the diocese, who renewed their vows of ordination at the Mass; and was assisted by deacons and seminarians.

In addition to blessing the Holy Oils, the bishop celebrated Mass and presented Msgr. James Walter, a priest of the diocese for 61 years, a decree naming him a monsignor.

The following are excerpts from Bishop Fernandes’ homily:

“My dear friends in Christ, I welcome you all to this Chrism Mass. I welcome not only the priests, but our consecrated religious, our deacons, and all the lay faithful. Last year I recall a priest from Philadelphia telling me, “Next year, you will be blessing at the Chrism.” And now that time is here. I must admit, I am a little bit nervous. I do have two of my predecessors, Bishop Griffin and Bishop Campbell, here watching. Hopefully, I’ll get it right. But I’m also grateful to be with my brother bishops.

“Traditionally, the Chrism Mass was celebrated on Holy Thursday morning and there was a deep connection between the priesthood and the blessing of the Chrism. But before I reflect on that connection, I want to repeat what the order for the blessing of the Oil of the Catechumens, the Oil of the Sick and the consecrating of the Chrism says. It says, ‘Sacred Chrism shows that, through baptism Christians have been incorporated into the paschal mystery of Christ, having died, been buried, and risen with Him, they’re sharers in his kingly and prophetic priesthood. Through confirmation they are given the spiritual anointing of the Holy Spirit.’ This Chrism Mass is offered with and for all the Christian faithful.

“While Chrism is utilized in baptism and confirmation and in the ordination of priests and bishops, at this mass we will also bless the Oil of Catechumens. We pray that the catechumens will understand more deeply the Gospel of Christ, and they undertake with a generous heart the labors of Christian life, and may rejoice to be born anew and live in the Church.

“At this liturgy, too, we will also bless the Oil of the Sick which offers the sick a remedy for infirmity of body and soul so that they can bravely endure and fight against evils, obtain pardon for sins and, God willing, be restored to the Christian community and their families. We ask the Lord that the holy oil be blessed by God, again, for the whole Church.

“The prayer for the consecration of Chrism recalls the oil of gladness. It recalls how Moses poured out this oil on his brother Aaron who served as a priest of the old law. It further recounts Jesus’ own baptism in the Jordan when He was anointed with the Holy Spirit, confirming what David had foretold in song, namely, that the Christ would be anointed with the oil of gladness. The same prayer asks the Lord to pour into the oil the strength of the Holy Spirit, and asks the Lord to confirm the Chrism you have created as a sacred sign of perfect salvation in life for those to be made new in the spiritual waters of baptism.

“Jesus was anointed by the Spirit at His baptism and, filled with the Spirit, He was driven into the desert where he triumphed over the Devil. In our Gospel, Jesus returns in the power of the Spirit to Galilee to the synagogue in Capernaum where He proclaims the passage from Isaiah which constituted our first reading. This passage explains both Jesus’ mission and His identity. He is the spirit-filled Messiah, the Anointed-One of God. 

“Jesus’ mission involves both His words and His deeds. He has been sent to bring glad tidings to the poor and to proclaim. To bring glad tidings and to proclaim, to evangelize and to charismatically announce that salvation is at hand.

“Who are His privileged recipients, but the poor, the ennui, the lowly of the Earth. His mission will extend beyond the materially poor to include the spiritually poor, the wealthy, tax collectors, sinners, and even foreigners. 

“The content of His preaching will be to proclaim liberty to captives, to let the oppressed go free, or literally to be at liberty, and to proclaim a jubilee year to free those burdened with debt.

“He will also help the blind to see, and through the forgiveness of sins He helps the spiritually blind to see.

“ … Jesus has not come to be popular among His people, but to proclaim true liberty to all who will receive Him: that there is forgiveness of sins, there is eternal life in His name. And that remains the entire mission of the Church, the whole Church. To proclaim the Good News of salvation to the ends of the Earth.

“To the priests here present: when you were ordained as priests, the bishop anointing your hands with the Oil of Chrism said, “May the Lord Jesus Christ, whom the Father anointed with the Holy Spirit and power guard and preserve you, that you man sanctify the Christian people and offer sacrifice to God.”

“You were anointed with the sacred Chrism to help you carry out your mission to be priests of Jesus Christ. You were consecrated. You became His. 

“Traditionally, the Chrism Mass was celebrated on Holy Thursday, the day on which the Lord gave the twelve the priestly task of celebrating the sacrament of His Body and Blood until He comes again. Of offering the saving sacrifice for the Christian people.

“The Paschal Lamb, and all the sacrifices of the old Covenant are replaced by gift of His Body and Blood. This new worship was based on the fact that God makes a gift to us. And filled with this gift, we become His. Creation returns to the Creator.

“So it is that the priesthood also became something new. It was no longer a question of lineage, as in the days of Aaron, or in the tribe of Levi, but of discovering oneself in the mystery of Christ. He is the one who gives. He is the one who draws us to Himself. He alone can say, “This is my Body. This is my Blood.”

“The mystery of the priesthood lies in the fact that we, miserable human beings that we are, by virtue of the sacrament can speak with His “I” — “In persona Christi”. He wishes to exercise His priesthood through us.

“At this Mass, with the renewal of our priestly promises, we remember in a special way this moving mystery which moves us anew in every celebration of the Mass. We must return to that hour in which He, through the bishop, placed His hands upon us and made us share in this mystery.

“At the center of ordination is the very ancient rite of the imposition of hands, with which Christ took possession of us saying, “You belong to Me.” But at the same time also saying, “You are under the protection of My hands. You are under the protection of My sacred heart. You are safe in the palm of My hand. It is here in the immensity of My love that you find yourself. Stay in My hands. Give me yours.”

“On our ordination day our hands were anointed with oil. But why the hands? The hands are the instrument human action, a symbol of the capacity to face the world, to take it in hand.

“But the Lord has laid His hand upon us and He now wants our hands so that they may become His own in the world for the sake of the people of God.

“He no longer wants them to be instruments for taking things for ourselves, for taking the people of the world to be used by ourselves, but instead to use our hands by putting ourselves at the service of His love. They can pass on His divine touch, to anoint and heal the sick, to feed the hungry, to baptize and anoint new children of God, to strengthen the Christian people, and to guide them along the path of salvation.

“He wants our hands to be an expression of the mission of the whole person, who vouches for Him and draws men and women to Him. 

“If human hands represent the faculty and skill to dispose of the world, then anointed hands must be a sign of the human capacity for giving, for creativity in shaping the world with love which come to us with the anointing of the Spirit.

“I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.” He is love: the beginning and the end of love. And He has made you His to love and for love. To love His people and to be for His people. To fashion for them a world of love—one better than the one which we are living now.

“Today, let us once again put our hands at His disposal and pray to Him to take us by the hand and lead us, sustain us, and carry us no matter how far we have gone astray.

“Let us allow His hand to take ours so that we will serve the life and the love that is stronger than death, and a love that is stronger than hatred.

“The Lord has laid His hand upon us—priests in a special way, but all the Christian faithful. He expressed the meaning of this gesture in these words, “To the Twelve, no longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing, but I have called you friends. For all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you." 

“The Lord makes us his friends. He entrusts everything to us, including the mystery of His Body and Blood. He places His very life in our hands.

“This is the profound meaning of being a priest — becoming the friend of Jesus Christ — which demands daily renewal, not merely  annual renewal, sharing in His thought and in His will, and imitating His actions. This means knowing Jesus in a personal way, listening to Him, living with Him, staying with Him. Only in this way does friendship develop and can we carry out our priestly service, bringing Christ to others.

Only in this do we learn to live, to suffer, and to act with Him and for Him, and for His people.

“ … My brothers, as we meditate this week on the Lord’s Passion in the flesh, for the sake of His people let us give Him our own flesh so sanctify the Christian people and to offer sacrifice to God. In this way, Christ the Anointed One, can come into the world and transform it. To Him, be glory and praise now and in eternity.”