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Dear brothers in the priesthood, dear brothers and sisters,

We are so blessed to be able to gather in this wonderful Cathedral for this celebration of the Chrism Mass. Indeed, across the diocese, all our parish communities will be celebrating the Triduum and the great feast of Easter in the context of the relative peace that we enjoy. 

Today, our hearts go out to our brothers and sisters who, in so many parts of the world, live with conflict, fear, physical and mental injury and the death of loved ones. Those affected will bear the scars of conflict for the whole of their lives and the impact on society and the stability of the world is grave indeed.

It is into a broken world that the Lord comes. The words of the prophet Isaiah heard in our first reading – taken up by Jesus Himself, as we hear in Luke’s Gospel today – are for our own times as much as they were for those people gathered in the synagogue in Nazareth. Let us listen to them again:  

'The spirit of the Lord has been given to me,

for he has anointed me.  

He has sent me to bring the good news to the poor,

to proclaim liberty to captives,

and to the blind new sight,

to set the downtrodden free,

to proclaim the Lord’s year of favour.' [1] 

Jesus is the Christ – the anointed one. The Chrism that will be consecrated in this Mass is the oil of Christ. At baptism and confirmation, at ordination, we are anointed with this oil. Do we not, therefore, have a share in His anointing? Are we not called, therefore, to bring good news to our own day, to proclaim liberty to present-day captives, to show the light of Christ to those who are blind – especially those in our own time who are blinded by power, worldly might and by the misuse of wealth, to raise up the fallen and to proclaim the favour that comes from the Lord.

The oil of catechumens, with which so many across our diocese will be anointed in preparation for baptism, brings the grace of conversion and the hope of the Gospel message in those who will soon be anointed with Chrism.

The oil of the sick, in particular, brings healing. May these celebrations of the healing power of Christ be a reminder to all of the healing that the Anointed One brings to the whole world.  

Brother priests, your ministry and service is needed now as never before. While I am sure this has been said at every age, I do believe it is true especially today. The ills of our time need the preaching of the Good News with authenticity, the celebration of the Eucharist with every greater fervour and devotion, the continuing call to conversion and the celebration of the Sacrament of Penance to which it leads. The world must hear the message of salvation and the priest is called to be the leader of that proclamation.

As the priests of our diocese renew their promises, we give thanks for the ministry they exercise in perseverance and fidelity. It is the ministry of Christ Himself, the ministry of the Anointed One – for the priesthood is not ours, it is His and we are so blessed that He has called us to share in it.

We give thanks for our seminary students – for deacons Gus and Eddie who will be ordained to the priesthood in a few months time, for Gary and Scott, preparing for diaconate ordination on their journey to priesthood, for Barnabas as he continues his journey of formation, and for Anthony who will commence studies this year.

I ask all in the diocese to continue to pray for vocations to the priesthood, that more will come to join these men in formation and, with God’s grace, the presbyterate of this diocese.  

The world is in need of the peace that is the gift of the Risen Christ, the peace which the world cannot give [2]. It is a peace that we experience in the life of the Church, in the sacraments that are the gift of the Anointed One and, most especially, in the Eucharist offered day by day by our priests – the Eucharist in which all share and which is the summit of the Christian life and the source of the mission to which all of the baptised are called."

 Footnotes: [1] Lk. 4:18. [2] Jn.14:27.