Chrism Mass 2026
Cathedral of Mary Our Queen
March 30, 2026
I. Introduction
A. In the 1920’s, a scientist named Edwin Hubble discovered that
galaxies are moving farther apart from one another as the universe expands.
Ministry can be like that . . . an ever expanding universe.
Sometimes it seems there is no limit
to the type and number of pastoral needs that are before us,
and no limit to the expectations that are placed upon us.
And as pastoral needs are met,
more pastoral needs seem to present themselves!
B. As human and pastoral need crowds in upon our minds and hearts,
we can sometimes feel as though we are hemmed in,
victims of circumstance, operating in an environment beyond our control.
Our day is spoken for almost as soon as we get out of bed in the morning.
The demands of ministry can absorb the time we try to set aside
for prayer, reading, and study, for exercise and for rest.
While the universe of ministry keeps on expanding
our private world sometimes seems to be shrinking.
Unless we are vigilant, anger and frustration may overtake us,
or we may even find ourselves simply going through the motions.
C. Of course, it’s also possible to avoid the demands of ministry,
to protect ourselves by becoming unavailable to those who need us.
In my experience here in the Archdiocese of Baltimore
that is surely the rare exception and not the rule.
But in either case – being run ragged by expanding ministerial demand,
or sheltering in place lest the demands of ministry get the better of us –
in either case we may be missing out on the liberating message
that Jesus, quoting Isaiah, preached in his hometown synagogue.
II. The Spirit of the Lord Is Upon Me
A. We’ve heard that message a thousand times or more.
In fact, I have preached twenty-five Chrism Mass homilies on this same Gospel:
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives, & recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.”
B. After all these years, I still say to myself, ‘What a message!’
It’s brimming with the liberating power of God
over human infirmity, sinfulness, and self-imposed captivity.
It’s brimming with hope and joy and the promise of true freedom.
And since tonight’s Gospel is read at other moments in the Church’s year,
I sometimes find myself sometimes asking,
“Is my ministry anything like the ministry of Jesus as Messiah and Lord?”
Immediately the thought crosses my mind . . . “Well, not exactly!
But after all, the Lord wasn’t hemmed in by finances, legalities, schedules, etc.!
He was an iterant preacher and besides that he was the Incarnate Son of God!”
. . . It doesn’t take much discernment to see how unworthy that thought is!
Jesus was hemmed in by crowds who were like sheep without a shepherd,
by authorities seeking to kill him,
by the slowness of his apostles to understand,
and by the unbelief he encountered, including in his own hometown.
Jesus proclaimed those words of Isaiah
not because the path before him was easy, painless, or without frustration,
but because in the power of the Spirit he possessed true interior freedom.
It is to that same interior freedom that you and I in God’s grace should aspire.
C. Have you ever encountered a person beset by illness or financial hardship,
or perhaps a fellow priest who has one of the toughest jobs in the Church –
and walked away from the encounter thinking, ‘That person is truly free!’
I had that experience early on here in the Archdiocese of Baltimore.
I had the privilege of living with Msgr. Art Valenzano,
one of the finest priests I have ever met in my life.
Walking into my new home fourteen years ago,
I couldn’t believe my good fortune in meeting such a kind and joyful priest.
The next day I learned he was suffering from leukemia.
Over the next few years he underwent all kinds of medical treatments.
His prognoses were up and down, until it became apparent
that the disease would get the better of him.
Never did he complain. Never did melancholy cloud his message of hope.
People he encountered in the waiting room at Johns Hopkins
as well as the doctors and nurses who treated him
started coming to Mass at the Basilica – and why?
Because they met in this excellent priest a man of true interior freedom.
III. Anointed by the Spirit
A. When Jesus was anointed by the Spirit,
he began to preach, teach, heal the sick, cast out demons, raise the dead.
He waded into human situations that most would avoid –
with the lepers, tax collectors, sinners.
Jesus did not wait until these people were aligned with him
before he encountered them, spoke to them, saw them, and loved them.
Overshadowed by the Spirit, the Incarnate Savior was inwardly free,
free to meet these people on their own ground,
free to fulfill in them the mission for which his heavenly Father sent him.
B. Dear brothers, we too have been anointed by the Spirit
and sent to continue the healing and liberating mission of Jesus.
The headwinds can be strong and the obstacles many
but when we allow the Lord to liberate us
from sin, from fear, from egotism, from attachments –
then we are credible witnesses,
for we have internalized the Gospel of freedom we preach.
Then do we radiate to our good co-workers in ministry and to all we serve
a joy, a peace, a loving presence unconquered by external circumstances.
Then it is that the ever-expanding demands of ministry no longer daunt us,
for the Spirit of God is at work in us enlarging our hearts
to embrace God’s People and to attract new companions in ministry.
C. Christ has come to set us free! For freedom Christ has set us free!
The anointing we received and promises we made on the day of ordination
are not strictures upon our freedom but liberation itself.
As we celebrate this Chrism Mass might we all—clergy, religious, & laity—
pray for the gift of interior freedom, not the freedom to do whatever we want,
but the freedom to follow Christ unreservedly and to share in his mission
of serving our sisters and brothers with unbounded generosity of spirit.
Thank you, brothers and sisters, I thank you with all my heart,
and may God bless us and keep us always in his love!