Chrism Mass Homily

By Bishop Paul S. Loverde
Herald Columnist
(From the issue of 4/12/07)

This homily was given by Arlington Bishop Paul S. Loverde for the Chrism Mass at the Cathedral of St. Thomas More in Arlington, April 5.

“Sacramentum Caritatis”: these are the opening words of Pope Benedict XVI’s recent Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation. I wish to use these opening words as a prism for our reflection during this Chrism Mass. “Sacramentum Caritatis” means “the Sacrament of Charity.” In its theological sense, the word “sacrament” refers to an outward or visible sign of a hidden or invisible reality (cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 774). Given this context, “sacramentum caritatis” can be understood as “an outward or visible sign of charity, of God’s love.” As the disciples of Christ, we are called and missioned to be the living signs of God’s love, each one of us a living “sacramentum caritatis.” It is precisely through our participation in the Holy Eucharist, both Sacrament and Sacrifice, that we are able to be living signs — sacraments — of God’s love.
The Catholic Church is eucharistic at her core. The servant of God, Pope John Paul II, stated this so clearly in his encyclical letter “Ecclesia de Eucharistia: “The Church draws her life from the Eucharist” (no. 1)… “The Church was born of the paschal mystery. For this very reason the Eucharist, which is in an outstanding way the sacrament of the paschal mystery, stands at the center of the Church’s life.… At every celebration of the Eucharist, we are spiritually brought back to the paschal Triduum: to the events of the evening of Holy Thursday, to the Last Supper and to what followed it” (no. 3). Because we are so uniquely united to Christ in the celebration of the Eucharist, to Christ Who Himself is the Sacrament of the Father’s love, we become, we are and we remain living signs of God’s love, each one of us a living “sacramentum caritatis.”
At Baptism, we were inserted into Christ and made members of His Body the Church. Oils will soon be blessed in this Chrism Mass: the Oil of the Sick and the Oil of Catechumens. Moreover, a third oil, the Chrism, will be consecrated. Both the Oil of Catechumens and the Sacred Chrism were used to anoint us when we were born again of water and the Holy Spirit in the Sacrament of Baptism. By being anointed with the Oil of Catechumens, we were given wisdom and strength, so that we would acquire a deeper understanding of the Gospel and assistance to accept the challenge of Christian living (cf. Prayer of Blessing). By being anointed with Sacred Chrism, we were transformed into the likeness of Christ and given a share in his royal, priestly and prophetic work (cf. Prayer of Consecration, B). So, in, with and through Christ, each of the baptized, each one of us, is anointed and sent forth to bring the glad tidings of God’s love to everyone.
Again, the Eucharist empowers us to understand this and to do this — to be living signs of God’s love. Pope Benedict XVI writes in Sacramentum Caritatis: “In the sacrament of the Eucharist, Jesus shows us in particular the truth about the love which is the very essence of God. It is this evangelical truth which challenges each of us and our whole being. For this reason, the Church, which finds in the Eucharist the very centre of her life, is constantly concerned to proclaim to all, opportune importune (cf. 2 Tim 4:2), that God is love” (no. 2).
Yes, I repeat, we are all to proclaim God’s love and to be living signs of His love precisely by taking part in the Eucharist. Our Holy Father reminds us: “Jesus ‘draws us into himself’.  The substantial conversion of bread and wine into his body and blood introduces within creation the principle of a radical change, a sort of ‘nuclear fission,’ to use an image familiar to us today, which penetrates to the heart of all beings…” (no. 11). Therefore, we experience a new power, the power of Christ’s love, so that we can witness and live this love within the family circle, the workplace, the parish and the community. Yes, each of us must be a living sign of God’s love as members of the Church, the Community of Christ’s Disciples, exercising the common priesthood of the faithful.
Yet, there is an essential difference between the common priesthood of the faithful and the ministerial or hierarchical priesthood. I now turn to my brother priests who do exercise the ministerial priesthood.
Dear brothers, if all the baptized are to be living signs of God’s love, a living “sacramentum caritatis,” how much more must we be such a living sign! After all, through the Sacrament of Holy Orders we are conformed in a unique way to Christ, Priest, Teacher and Pastor (cf. Catechism, no. 1585).
There is an intrinsic relationship between the Eucharist and the Sacrament of Holy Orders. Speaking to the clergy of Rome on May 13, 2005, Pope Benedict XVI stated: “Therefore our ministry is amoris officium (St. Augustine, In Johannis Evangelium Tractatus, 123, 5), it is the office of the Good Shepherd, who offers his life for the sheep (cf. Jn 10: 14-15). In the Eucharistic mystery, Christ gives himself ever anew, and it is precisely in the Eucharist that we learn love of Christ, hence love for the Church” (L’Osservatore Romano, n. 20, 18 May 2005). St. John Vianney so beautifully tells us: “The Priesthood is the love of the heart of Jesus.” Yes, we above all must be living signs of God’s love, each one of us a living “sacramentum caritatis.” And we can be, we will be, if we are rooted in the Mystery of the Holy Eucharist.
In the first place, our priestly spirituality is eucharistic. In Sacramentum Caritatis, our Holy Father tells us: “Priestly spirituality is intrinsically eucharistic. The seeds of this spirituality are already found in the words spoken by the Bishop during the ordination liturgy: ‘Receive the oblation of the holy people to be offered to God. Understand what you do, imitate what you celebrate, and conform your life to the mystery of the Lord’s Cross.’…[The priest] is called to seek God tirelessly, while remaining attuned to the concerns of his brothers and sisters. An intense spiritual life will enable him to enter more deeply into communion with the Lord and to let himself be possessed by God’s love, bearing witness to that love at all times, even the darkest and most difficult” (no. 80). Priestly spirituality centered in the Eucharist empowers us to be living signs of God’s love, each one of us a living “sacramentum caritatis.”
Moreover, we are to be these living signs in our priestly ministry. Do you ask, my brothers, as I often do, what does it really mean to “understand what you do, imitate what you celebrate, and conform your life to the mystery of the Lord’s Cross”? Do not these directives from the ordination liturgy tell us that every day we must die to self in order to live for others, in imitation of Jesus Christ the Priest and Victim? Yes, Christ acts through us when we speak the words of Consecration: “...this is my body which will be given up for you….this is the cup of my blood….It will be shed for you and for all so that sins may be forgiven.” Conformed to Him and united to Him, are we not also saying, “this is my body broken and this is my blood poured out in loving service of God’s people”? Yes, we are broken and poured out in the living out of our priestly ministry, in the pastoral charity we willingly and gladly offer in our sacramental ministry, in teaching and preaching, in giving pastoral guidance, in visiting the sick and the elderly, in bearing with the limitations and foibles of our brothers and sisters, and yes, even of each other within the presbyterate. When we respond with patience rather than with impatience, with gentleness and kindness rather than with sarcasm and anger, with forgiveness rather than with a refusal to do so, with enduring love rather than with stark pessimism, are we not living signs of God’s love, each one of us a living “sacramentum caritatis”?
The love to which we endeavor to witness and, indeed, to live is surely not our purely human love, fragile and limited. It must be love transformed by Christ Himself in the Eucharist. It must be love marked by humility and obedience.
Humility is truth. The truth is that no one of us as a priest can be the primary focus in our life and ministry. The priesthood is not about us, it is about Christ and the love He reveals for the salvation of His people to whom He sends us. We must be like clear glass, through which God’s people see Christ. We must be a meeting-point, where the people encounter, not us, but Christ in us. Hans Urs von Balthasar wrote: “In Christ, person and mission coincide.” My brother priests, we must be like Christ. Our person and our mission must coincide; our person cannot eclipse our mission. Pope Benedict XVI puts it this way in his Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation: “…priests should be conscious of the fact that in their ministry they must never put themselves or their personal opinions in first place, but Jesus Christ…. The priest is above all a servant of others, and he must continually work at being a sign pointing to Christ, a docile instrument in the Lord’s hands” (no 23).
Obedience is rooted in our willingness to listen. As priests, we listen to Christ and to those He appoints to guide and direct us, to the Pope and to the Bishops. Each one of us recalls our ordination when we placed our hands between those of the ordaining bishop and responded “I do” to the question he asked us: “Do you promise respect and obedience to me and my successors?”  In that May 2005 address to the clergy of Rome, our Holy Father said: “Likewise, obedience to Christ…is in practice expressed in ecclesial obedience, which for the priest in daily life means first and foremost obedience to his Bishop. In the Church, however, obedience is not something formalistic; it is obedience to the one who, in turn, obeys and personifies the obedient Christ. All this neither frustrates nor even attenuates the practical requirements of obedience, but guarantees theological depth and its Catholic tone: in the Bishop we obey Christ and the whole Church which he represents in this place” (Ibid).
Obedience means listening as well to the needs of God’s people made visible by this diocesan Church. Priests are ordained for the service of God’s people in the work of salvation. Obedience includes the willingness to go where the priest is needed, whether the assignment be convenient or inconvenient.
Yes, my brothers, if we truly take to heart the fact that we are called to point others to Christ, to be living signs of God’s love, and if we do this with humility and obedience, dying to self and living for Christ and His people, then our person and mission will coincide and our priestly ministry will be truly fruitful. The Renewal of Priestly Commitment, which God’s people here present will soon hear and witness, makes clear to all our united willingness to be living signs of God’s love, each one of us a living “sacramentum caritatis.”
Yes, all of us — priests, deacons, women and men living the consecrated life and members of the lay faithful — are being called and sent forth to be living signs of God’s love, each one of us an authentic “sacramentum caritatis.” Through our active participation in the Eucharistic Sacrifice and in frequent, even daily prayer before Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, let us allow Christ to empower us with a spiritual “nuclear fission,” with the power of His love, so that we may be His instruments in transforming our diocesan Church of Arlington into becoming more and more His “other Presence in this world,” a vibrant and authentic “sacramentum caritatis.”

(c) Copyright 2007 by Arlington Catholic Herald