Chrism Mass Homily
Cathedral of Mary Our Queen
April 14, 2025
God Hopes in Us
I often look back fondly on bishops and priests who were my mentors: my high school principal, Fr. John Lesousky, my seminary rector, then-Fr. Harry J. Flynn, Bishop Curlin and Cardinal Hickey, and upon my arrival here in Baltimore, Msgr. Art Valenzano. My mentors were very different from one another, but each shared this one trait: they believed in me, trusted me, and hoped in me – not that I’d become someone I am not, but that I would become the person God created me to be.
This Jubilee Year of Hope reminds us that God hopes in us. Because God hoped in us he sent his only Son among us, and in the Nazareth Synagogue, Jesus proclaims what God’s hopes for us: that the poor would hear the glad tidings of his love; that those held captive by sin would be set free; that those blinded by passion would gaze upon his truth and beauty; that those oppressed by injustice would find dignity and freedom.
Notice that God is not trying to make us into angels or into someone we are not. He sent his Son to be one of us because he wants to redeem our human nature, not just human nature in the abstract, but each of us in our uniqueness. The Lord knows us; he knows we need to grow and sometimes to grow up. Gazing upon us without illusion, God is patient in his hopes for us, as he seeks to heal our wounded humanity, and to lift our gaze towards the eternal destiny for which he created us. Thus did God’s Son preach the Good News, cure the sick, raise the dead, and in our human nature vanquish sin and death. In Christ Jesus, God’s hope for us and for all humanity is fulfilled.
Witnesses of Hope
Dear brother priests: Isn’t this why we became priests in the first place — to proclaim a message of hope, God’s hope in us and our hope in God? As we know so well, this is not a message to be proclaimed theoretically. Rather, in the way we pray and search the Scriptures, in the way we preach, celebrate the sacraments, interact with others, make decisions, handle setbacks and frustrations – in these ways and more – we are to be witnesses to the hope that is ours in Christ Jesus. Indeed, the people we serve hope in us – they hope to see Christ in us. They need to see that we know Jesus and trust in the liberating power of his love to set us free, to open our eyes, to loosen our tongue.
Pope Francis reminds us that everyone knows what it is to hope, despite the anxiety, discouragement, and pessimism all around us. We need not fear any such barriers to the Gospel. Rather, we are confident in the liberating power of the message we preach and in the efficacy of the graces which, in God’s mercy, we dispense. Through the grace of the Spirit active in our ministry, lives are changed: fate gives way to freedom; constraint to love; loss to fruitfulness. We are liberators only because Christ first has set us free.
As messengers of hope, we do not hesitate to take the Lord’s words literally. That is why we bring the Lord’s message into prisons, inviting the incarcerated to look to the future with hope. We bring the Lord’s message of hope to the sick, especially the chronically and terminally ill: praying with them, hearing their confessions, anointing them, and sharing the Eucharist. In this time of stress, we offer immigrants a word of encouragement as we partner with them in the Church’s life and mission. In neighborhoods with abandoned row houses, high crime, and drug use, and in places where rural poverty persists, we shine the light of Christ by our presence, our engagement, and by partnering to meet the basic needs of those we encounter. It is for us to offer a word of hope to young people, showing them by our lives that in Christ there is nothing to lose and everything to gain, challenging them to embrace the vocation God has in mind for them, including vocations to the priesthood and religious life. To the unchurched, our lives and ministry are to be like a standing invitation to rediscover in the Church the hope and joy that only Christ Jesus offers. Thank you, dear brother priests, for all the many ways you serve God’s People, together with our deacons, religious, and lay leadership. We are blessed!
More Than Messengers
Dear friends, when Jesus finished speaking in the synagogue he said, “Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.” Jesus did not merely offer a message of hope; he offered actual deliverance, for in his words and deeds are contained the liberating power of God’s love. Tonight we rejoice, for that same liberating power has passed over into the sacraments of the Church. That is why we bless the holy oils used the Church’s sacramental life: the Oil of the Sick, the Oil of Catechumens, and the Oil of Sacred Chrism. The oils we bless impart the strength of the Holy Spirit, the same Spirit who is forever one with the Father and the Son, the same Spirit with whom Jesus’ humanity was anointed.
In this Jubilee Year of Hope, we re-affirm our trust and hope in the saving power of the Church’s sacraments, in Baptism, Confirmation, Holy Orders, and the Anointing of the Sick, together with Holy Matrimony, the Sacrament of Reconciliation, and above all, the Most Holy Eucharist. Faith is needed to unlock the power of these sacraments in our life but also hope and trust by which we gradually surrender our illusions and give ourselves over to God so that he may truly set us free.
With us this evening are those who will enter the Church at the Easter Vigil. Many of you are young and others of you young at heart. Your search for the fullness of faith inspires fresh hope in those of us who have been members of the Church our whole life long. Thank you! Together with you, may we, the People of God be credible witnesses to hope, indeed, ‘a light brightly visible’ in every community & corner of this Premier See. May God bless us and keep us always in his love.