Wednesday 19 March 2008
In the synagogue of Nazareth, Jesus was speaking to the people of his home village. He told them that he had been anointed by the Spirit to bring good news to the poor, release to captives, the recovery of sight to the blind and to proclaim the Lord’s year of favour. When he says, “today this scripture has been fulfilled”, he is not just talking about the day that he visited the synagogue; he is referring to the new day that has dawned in him, the beginning of a new life in which God’s promises of healing and hope will be fulfilled.
He was not speaking to priests who offered sacrifices in the Temple, or to Rabbis who had a deep knowledge of the Scriptures and the law of God. He was speaking to the people of his village and he was saying that the task he had been given was their task too.
The Spirit anointed him for a task that is meant to go on until the end of time. And so, the work he was describing is not only his but theirs – and ours. All of us are meant to carry it on. That is why we were anointed in Baptism and Confirmation and in Ordination. We have been anointed to bring the Good News to those who need to hear it, to bring the healing and hope that come from knowing God’s love for us.
The first and second readings speak to all of us when they say “you shall be called priests of the Lord… ministers of our God”; “He loves us and has made us a line of kings, priests to serve his God and Father.” We are all to be priests, because the fundamental task that each of us has is to offer our lives and our world to God, together with Jesus Christ.
In our lives there are many things that are good; in many ways we are challenged to do better; we encounter many pains that we can ease or heal by our generosity; we meet many situations to which we can bring hope by our faith in Christ’s presence; we experience many sufferings that we can live in union with the suffering of Jesus during the first Holy Week.
We are priests because we Christians are meant to offer all of that – the hopes and the disillusionment, the achievements and the failures to God. We human beings are the only creatures on earth who can do that, who can freely and trustingly take the beauty and the struggles and the hopes of this earth and place them in the hands of God. Our faith tells us that God is the only hope big enough to conquer death and evil ( cf. Spe Salvi 31 ). The anointings of Baptism and Confirmation fill us with the Spirit of God who sends us to live in that hope. We receive God’s Holy Spirit who renews the face of the earth.
That offering is being made in our whole lives, every time we love or forgive or reach out to a brother or sister, every time we care for a person or a group in need, every time we try to share the love we have received in Christ, every time we see ourselves in illness and suffering as sharers in the suffering of Christ, every time we open our hearts to God in prayer.
The high point of our offering is in the Eucharist. Those of us who have been anointed as priests have the role of making it clear that the offerings are not just ours; the priest representing Christ the Head of his Body, makes visible the fact that they are taken up by Christ and offered by Him to his Father. They become part of his offering of himself and his whole Body.
We are here in this Mass of Chrism not just to bless the oils that will be used in the administration of the sacraments in the diocese this year, but to think about what the anointings we have already received demand of us.
All of us are anointed in Baptism and Confirmation to present ourselves and our whole lives as spiritual worship to God ( cf. Rom 12:1 ). We are anointed to be clear signs in the world of the Good News that God is our hope and that our lives find a meaning beyond every human expectation in God’s promise. That task is more important than it ever was. We live in a world that seems, for most of the time, to get on with little or no reference to the Lord who is the source of all we have and are, the Lord who is the great hope who can give us what human effort could never attain ( cf. Spe Salvi, 31 ).
Sadly, this year, like last year, we recognise that the chrism which is blessed today will not be used for the ordination of a priest for this diocese in the coming year.
The sharp decline in the number of vocations raises serious question for all us. The first and inescapable question is whether we are sufficiently clear signs of the Good News; can people see in us the hope that the Good News offers in a society which often seems to live as if it had no overriding principles and no all-embracing hope. The second question is whether we provide an encouraging, supportive community for people who might consider a vocation to priesthood or religious life. What would be the point of praying for vocations if at the same time we would be discourage a family member or a neighbour who wondered if they had a vocation?
The third question that is raised by the lack of vocations is the burden for priests by the expectation that they can provide the service that was given in the past by nearly twice as many priests, often half their age. When I came to the diocese 12 years ago, about one fifth of the parishes were staffed by one priest on his own. Now the figure is well over half and rising steeply. Recent figures suggest that in seven years time the number of priests in Ireland will have fallen by one quarter since 2007. I appeal to all the people of the diocese to recognise that increasing burden this creates and to take seriously the importance of giving encouragement, understanding, support and practical help to their priests. I want to express my thanks to the priests of the diocese for their continued dedication and their willingness to meet the demands of our changing world. Together – priests, religious and lay people – we have to try to do as Pope John Paul asked us: to seek new ways of bringing the message of Christ to the new world, the new continent that surrounds us and is part of us ( cf. Homily at Knock ).
That is the task for which we have all been anointed. It is a task that is as challenging today as at any time in our history. But the oils we bless are signs of strength and joy. We have been anointed with the Spirit who is renewing the face of the earth. We are sent to bring good news, freedom and new sight. We are anointed with the oil of gladness. As we bless the oils in this Mass, we remember who we are – a people loved by God who has washed away our sins and made us a line of kings, priests to serve our God. We are followers of Christ, the Anointed One; we are a people that the Lord has blessed.
+Donal Murray |
