Homily given by Bishop Anthony Randazzo
Bishop of Broken Bay
Chrism Mass 2020
Our Lady of the Rosary Cathedral - 17 September 2020
Without a doubt, no one could have imagined that we would be celebrating the Chrism Mass in September. And yet, these are the uncertain and troubling times in which we live. It seems to me that our community of the Church and the society in which we live, need healing.
In a time of pandemic, it is obvious that there is need for physical healing. Members of the community are burdened by the virus that plagues our world and many have died or are gravely ill. Globally, the sharpest scientific minds are racing to develop a vaccine or to find a cure.
The sometimes ignored or less obvious need is that of spiritual healing. I suspect spiritual sickness, often seen most clearly in people who suffer abandonment, division, despair, and darkness, is the greater challenge for our time.
The COVID environment in which we live has exposed many challenges for us, and yet it has also provided us with opportunities to seek a deeper healing for our world. One might say that there is a great demand for the healing balm of the Spirit.
In our Gospel this evening (Luke 4:16-21), the Evangelist Luke recounts Jesus’ fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah from our first reading (Isaiah 61:1-3, 6, 8-9). Members of the Nazareth synagogue may have thought that Jesus was another prophet like John the Baptist, announcing the coming of the anointed one – the Messiah. However, that is not what Jesus meant.
What Jesus meant in the synagogue was that the day of the Messiah has arrived. The long awaited and hoped-for son of David, the liberator and Saviour, the ruler of the kings of the earth, the incarnation of God’s justice and peace — the Christ has come.
The sweet unction of the Spirit has been poured out upon Jesus, victim and priest, so that He might wash away our sins with His blood and make us priests to serve God (cf Rev 1:5-6).
This annual celebration is a wonderful reminder that we are brothers and sisters in Christ. At our baptism, we were all anointed with oil as a sign that we share in the life of Christ. Through baptism we have all been adorned with a royal priesthood, because in baptism we have become God’s holy people. This priesthood consecrates the community of the Church to the worship and service of God and to the service of humanity.
Unique to this Mass is also the commemoration of the anointing of Christ the priest, that has been given to the Church in the ministerial priesthood. When our priests were ordained their hands were anointed as a sign of their being consecrated anew for the service of God and of God’s people.
Both the baptismal priesthood of the faithful and the ministerial priesthood belong to Christ. It is Christ alone who is good news for the poor. He alone binds up hearts that are broken, and in Christ alone are captives set free. In the outpouring of His Spirit and through the anointing with sacred oil, Christ’s Body is purified, strengthened, and sanctified.
My brothers and sisters, we are living members of this body. We are sons and daughters in the family of God. We are the anointed and chosen people of the New Testament.
This evening, we acclaim our unity in Christ, and we turn once more to the Lord and reject all that might divide us or separate us from Christ. There is one Church – one Body of Christ. The spirit of unity is the foundation of the spirit of our local Church of Broken Bay.
Our Christian vocation to hold fast to the faith; to announce the Good News of Jesus Christ; and to be witnesses of God’s merciful love is only of God if we do all in unity with Christ and with each other.
As we live and die with Christ, may we find inspiration from Saint Paul who ceaselessly stressed the need for unity in the community of the Church. He urged: “I appeal to you, brothers and sisters… that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same purpose” (1 Cor 1:10). Make “every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Eph 4:3). Stand “firm in one spirit, striving side by side with one mind for the faith of the Gospel” (Phil 1:27).
With this in mind, and with one faith in Christ, we are anointed as instruments of the Lord’s spiritual healing for our world. Together, priests and people, may we be steadfast witnesses of faith and love. Amen.