t eanc 0 VOL. 43, NO. 13 • Friday, April 2, 1999
FALL RIVER DIOCESAN NEWSPAPER FOR SOUTHEAST MASSACHUSETTS CAPE COD & THE ISLANDS
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The Chrism Mass: A sign of unity and life ~
In his homily on Tuesday Bishop O'Malley talked of communion with his priests and the effects of Holy Oils and Chrism in the Christian life.
Today, I, your Bishop, together with the priests of the Diocese, gather for this Chrism Mass. For me, personally, it is very important to have opportunities to gather with my priests to pray. For me, it is a source ofstrength and joy. I also see it as part of our vocation - to pray together as a means of deepening our union with Christ and with one another. The restoration of concelebration is a wonderful gift to priests because it allows us the joy of being united at a single Mass around Christ's altar. This concelebrated Mass is especially fraught with significance because here we will bless the oils that are so much a part of the sacramental ministry that we share. This Chrism and Holy Oils will be used for some 6,000 Baptisms, 4,000 Confirmations, thousands of Anointings of the Sick, and our Ordinations to the Priesthood in June in this very Cathedral. Pope John Paul II, in his Encyclical "Dives in Mise- ~ ricordia" (Nov. 30, 1980), It gives us a letter on God the Ii Father. It forms part of a tril- II ogy of Encychcals on the . I Trinity, with "Redemptor I' Hominis" and "Dominum et. \ ; Vivificantem." i The Holy Father quotes 1\' John's Gospel, "He who sees \ Me, sees the Father." (In. 14:9) God the Father becomes visible through Christ, especially through His mercy. In "Dives in Misericordia," the Holy Father reflects on the Gospel of Luke we have just listened to where Jesus at the beginning of His messianic mission goes to the synagogue of Nazareth and reads from the scroll from the Book ofIsaiah: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because He has anointed me to preach the good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed." These phrases, according to Luke, are Jesus' first messianic declaration. They are followed by His actions and words throughout the Gospel. By these actions, Jesus makes the Father present among men. The Messia'l's love for the little ones, the suffering, the sick, "the blind, lame and the halt," is a clear sign of God the Father. Our priests are also anointed by the Spirit to continue the messianic mission of Jesus and to continue to make the Father present
by their love and mercy. Today, I would like ing him with· oil in the Lord's name. Prayer to reflect on that sacrament of God's mercy offered in faith will restore the sick man and that affords us priests a beautiful opportu- the Lord will give him relief; if he is guilty nity to m*e tl)e FatI:termore visible and of sins, they will be pardoned." (Js. 5: 113-6) more present in our world. I refer to the SacThe Scriptures tell us that this sacrament rament of the "Anointing of the Sick," the is to heal our bodies and to forgive our sins. sacrament by which priests imitate Jesus' It is unique in that this Sacrament of Anointlove for the sick and suffering and make ing is addressed to both our body and our present the invisible Father who is rich in soul. As in all priestly ministry, we are concerned, not just with the spiritual aspects of mercy. There are two important Scripture refer- people's lives, but with their entire well-being. That is why the Catholic Church ences associated with this sacrament. _ _. . . . .,.._~___ is always involved in a The first is from the Gospel of St. Mark plethora of activities when Jesus to address the needs of sends the the
Apostles out to evangelize and the Scriptures record how, "they went out and preached, and many who were sick they anointed with oil and healed them." The other very important Scripture text is from Chapter 5 of the Letter of St. James: "Is one of you unhappy? Let him turn to prayer. Is one of you sick? Let him send for the priests and let them pray over him, anoint-
The healing of the sick in the Gospel often goes hand in hand with the forgiveness of sins. When Jesus saw the faith of the paralytic, He said: "As for you, your sins are forgiven." The Pharisees began to murmur. In reply, Jesus said, "But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins," He said to the many who was paralyzed, "I say to you, rise, pick up your stretcher, and go home." On another occasion, after curing the man at the pool of Bethsaida, Jesus said: "Go and sin no more lest something worse befall you." Jesus did not always relate personal sin with sickness. In the case of the man born blind, the apostles asked if his affliction was a result of his sins or those of his parents. Jesus replied that the blindness was not a result of his sins or those of his parents, but rather, "so that the works of God might be made manifest." The Anointing of the Sick is a sacrament for the sick and the elderly ... it must not be considered simply as part of the Last Rites of the Church. In the Scripture text St. James writes, "Is there anyone sick among you?" He does not say, "Is anyone among you dying?" The liturgy for prayers for the sacrament makes no reference to imminent death. During the first 10 centuries of the Church, the sacrament was clearly the Sacrament of the Sick, not the Sacrament of the Dying. The real Sacrament of the Dying is Viaticum (our last Holy Communion: food for the journey); and in the Last Rites of the Church Viaticum is . now given after the anointing, as it was in the first 10 centuries of the Church. We no longer call this sacrament, "Extreme Unction," but rather the "Anointing of the Sick." So the Anointing is the Sacrament for the Sick - not necessarily the dying. It is too bad that oftentimes people put off the Sacrament of the Sick because they believe it is only a deathbed sacrament. As believers, we approach sickness from the prospective of faith. Pope John Paul II in his letter on "The Christian Meaning ofSuffering" (1989) said that through suffering a who I e person is destined to go beyond the self. Suffering, then, is the doorway to transcendence. person schools, health An illness - whether acute, chronic, or t~r care, cultural pursuits, minal- forces a person to confront the Iimisocial services, besides the reli- tatiuns that bodyIi ness imposes on our souls, gious activities that are at the heart of our our hopes, our dreams, our desire for meanmission. The priest's pastoral love extends ing, for independence. True healing consists to the whole person as well. In the Anointing less in a cure than in a conversion. In the Gospels, Christ does not cure every of the Sick, the priest, like Christ, is reaching· out to the sick person with love and concern sick person; he cures some as a sign to othto bring comfort to body and forgiveness of ers. Christ does come, however, to forgive Tum to page 13 - Chrism sin.