Chrism Homily 2026

St. John’s Cathedral

Homily Notes of Bishop Brendan Leahy

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me”. These words that we have just heard in the Gospel spoken by Jesus in the Synagogue two thousand years ago as he presented his mission statement are ours day at this Chrism Mass. We gather as a portion of the People of God with the Spirit of the Lord upon us. It is through the Holy Spirit that we have the possibility of encounter with Jesus Christ in the ministry of the ordained priests who will renew their ordination promises this evening. It is through the Spirit the sacraments – we bless the oils this evening – gain their power to give new life, nourish and unite us as well as bestowing forgiveness and healing. All of these gifts are bestowed upon us so that we can carry out our mission with the Spirit upon us, radiating the beauty of Christ and his Kingdom.

A Person to Inspire Us

But how are we to carry out our mission? Of course, the essential means are always going to be preaching the Word of God, celebrating sacraments and building community. But I would like us to reflect this evening on a person who can inspire us greatly in how we go about all this. Perhaps I haven’t always spoken sufficiently of this person. It is someone who accompanies us day by day in a hidden and discrete way, present in our assemblies any time we gather in the name of Jesus. That person is Mary, the woman upon whom the Holy Spirit came at the Annunciation and again at Pentecost.

In what way does Mary inspire us? In the first place, she inspires each of us personally in our spiritual life. I don’t need to remind you or myself of the need to cultivate our relationship with Mary, dedicating ourselves to her, visiting her shrines, praying the Rosary, conversing with her, seeking her advice and help and protection.

What I want to propose here this evening, however, is that we also need to keep before our eyes the person of Mary in order to see and understand more deeply who we are as the People of God and how as a community we are to carry out our mission. To state the obvious, the Church has organisational aspects, yes, but it is not just an organisation. The Church does many good deeds, but it is not simply an NGO. The Church distributes sacraments, of course, but it is not some kind of a vending machine. The Church, and we need the eyes of faith to see this, is a person. The Church is a mother. The Church is the community of faith, hope and love that continues Mary’s mission in generating Christ in our world.

As presented in Scripture, Mary is certainly humble but not a submissive, passive woman. She is very much active, creative and generative. She generated the Author of life within this world and co-operated with Christ in generating a new humanity. Just as Mary gave birth to Jesus physically, the Church, now continuing Mary in history, gives birth to Jesus spiritually in the hearts of each baptised person and in the community as a whole gathered in love for one another.

The greatest honour we can give Mary is to imitate her, to re-live her in our own lives and ministries. Let’s just take two scenes from the Gospel to help us see how Mary is for us a model of the Church.

The Magnificat – Seeing the Bigger Picture and the Hour of Charity

Straight after her “yes” at the Annunciation, Mary took the initiative of going in haste to visit her cousin Elizabeth. We are told in Luke’s Gospel that she went to the hill country, symbol of bringing Christ to the world.  It was, in a sense, a simple act of love, and yet its outcome was the great song of the Magnificat. Mary shared with Elizabeth her experience of God, recognising the revolution God is bringing about in the world, grateful for her part in this: “He has scattered the proud in their conceit. He has cast down the mighty from their thrones, and has lifted up the lowly. He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty.”

With her Magnificat, Mary prompts us to lift up our eyes to the bigger picture of God’s work among us. Yes, of course, there are so many routine elements of church ministry and life to attend to, daily and weekly sacramental celebrations, funeral services, involvement in schools, finances, safeguarding and umpteen other tasks that consume us. But it is good for us to remember that what we are doing is an expression of the Church’s overall mission to be a sign and instrument of unity, fostering universal fraternity and peace. All the bits and pieces of our lives and ministries can seem at times humdrum or limited but they fit into this bigger picture. And this is so relevant today in a world at war. Over 60 wars are going on. Together with all who are interconnected in Christ, we are involved in a worldwide Gospel-inspired project of peace, justice and truth, letting God’s word reach a world in turmoil.

Looking to Mary, those of us who are ordained ministers with a specific charism, as well members of religious congregations with their charisms, pastoral ministers and all the baptised, especially families, who share in the royal priesthood, are instruments of this great project. Let’s remember, above all, however, that this great project always starts with simple small everyday acts of love, just like Mary’s visit to Elizabeth. Pope Leo never tires of underlining this – the Church is charity, the Church is love. This is the hour of charity, Pope Leo says. That needs to be the central Church mission question that Mary would surely remind us to ask: “have I loved? Have we loved one another? Am I alive and active in love? Is the flame of pastoral zeal and pastoral charity alight in me?”.

The Wedding Feast of Cana - Listening to what Jesus is telling us today

The second scene that I invite you to reflect on is the Wedding Feast of Cana as recounted in the Fourth Gospel. Mary, in her vigilance, the vigilance of love, sees a problem and seeks to resolve it. We see her interaction with Jesus. She has her idea which she expresses to Jesus but then lets it be expanded by the Holy Spirit to the measure of divine logic. She utters the word that will echo throughout the centuries: “do whatever he tells you”. These are the last words we hear from Mary in the Gospel.

Here again, we draw inspiration from Mary. There are many problems and challenges facing us. We might all have our own ideas and perspectives about how things should be. But we need to let our minds and hearts and pastoral outreach be transformed by what Jesus Christ tells us as we read the signs of the times guided by the Holy Spirit. I think of the words of Pope Leo to the Diocese of Rome last September: “we must not delude ourselves that it is enough to carry on with a few traditional activities to maintain the vitality of our Christian communities”. Our ordinary pastoral care is structured according to a classic model that is concerned primarily with ensuring that the sacraments are administered and the catechesis of young people is looked after. That model presupposes that faith is transmitted by the surrounding environment, by society as well as by families. In reality, however, the cultural transformation and the changes in how we view the human being that have taken place in recent decades tell us that this is no longer the case; on the contrary, we are witnessing a constant erosion of religious practice.

It is therefore urgent to take up Mary’s advice and be attentive to what Jesus, in the power of the Spirit, wants us to tell us today about how to bring forward his mission. To transmit the faith in the way Jesus wants us to do in our time is the priority of priorities. It’s not easy. We need to experiment with new ways of transmitting the faith outside the traditional paths that we’ve had in the past. This is what the synodal pathway and the parish consultations we’ve engaged in across the Diocese are helping us to do. I was particularly pleased to hear very positive feedback about the role of the lay women and men facilitators at the gatherings. I was happy this year to see here and there new steps in encouraging altar servers, new steps in favour of pastoral ministry to and with families, new steps in parish retreats, outreach to local shopping centres, the re-launching the RCIA programme and steps in reaching out to young people, and to the LGBTQ+ and others who feel excluded.

Conclusion

The Visitation and the Wedding Feast of Cana are just wo episodes from the life of Mary. They have so much to say to us about our life and ministry. I invite you to continue to reflect on other episodes of her life and see they can inspire your vision of Church and mission today.

Soon the priests gathered here in great number will renew their priestly promises and the pastoral ministers will renew their commitment. Let us pray for them. As I conclude I make my own words Pope Francis addressed to priests in one of his last Chrism Masses: “Thank you for service. Thank you for the hidden good you do. … Thank you for your ministry, which is often carried out with great effort, with little recognition and is not always understood”. (Homily at the Chrism Mass, 6 April 2023).

Yes, there is much hidden good being done in so many ways throughout the Diocese. Thank you. Let’s be grateful too that Mary, the woman upon whom the Spirit has come, is close to us. At this Chrism Mass, let’s all renew our decision to be close to her and inspired by her.