Homily of Bishop Earl Boyea, Chrism Mass, Holy Thursday, March 28, 2013
(Is 61:1-3a, 6a, 8b-9; Rev 1:5-8; Lk 4:16-21)
My sisters and brothers, it is important that we recognize all those here who carry out the various works of God in our midst. First of all, the Cathedral community which hosts us today; all the married; all the consecrated women and men; all those who are engaged in lay ecclesial ministry; all the diocesan staff; all our pastoral coordinators; all our deacons and their wives and the deacon candidates and their wives; all our seminarians; all our priests. I thank you for assuming co-responsibility for the mission of Jesus Christ in this great Diocese of Lansing as this is the duty of all of us by our baptism and especially of those ordained for that purpose. We need to thank Fr. Nonatus Lakra of the Diocese of Purnea. He will be leaving us and moving on to service in the Diocese of Baker, Oregon. He has been with us since 2006 and we are very grateful for his ministry in our midst. Next, I would like to thank Fr. Larry Delaney, who, we are now all convinced, if we had any doubts, has a heart (because of yet another surgery) for his untiring service as the director of our Retreat Center. Also let us recognize all the elect who will be baptized this Saturday as well as those who will be received into full communion in the Catholic Church. I again, as in the past, beg your forbearance as I speak particularly to my brother priests today.
Jesus reads a section of the prophet Isaiah in the synagogue in his home town of Nazareth. He seeks out and reads the text in which Isaiah speaks about his being anointed as a prophet or herald of God’s message. Jesus uses this text to describe his own mission. Recall that in the previous chapter of Luke’s Gospel, Jesus was baptized and thus anointed in the Jordan by John. We are told there that the Holy Spirit descended upon him and a voice from heaven cried out, “You are my beloved Son, with you I am well pleased.” Then at the beginning of chapter four, Jesus is driven by this same Holy Spirit into the desert to be tempted. Luke immediately has Jesus go to his home of Nazareth for his inaugural homily. He reads Isaiah to note that the Spirit of the Lord is upon him and that he has been anointed. St Peter, in the Acts of the Apostles (10:38) draws out this reality when he preaches to Cornelius and his family: “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power.”
It is very appropriate to recall anointing as we prepare to bless and consecrate these oils today. While we are anointed as we prepare for Baptism with the Oil of the Catechumens and we are anointed when we are ill with the Oil of the Sick, it is the Oil of Chrism which particularly bears the image of Jesus’ own anointing at his Baptism, for it is an anointing with a mission.
Recall what was said when your own hands were anointed with this Sacred Chrism: “The Lord Jesus Christ, whom the Father anointed with the Holy Spirit and power, guard and preserve you, that you may sanctify the Christian people and offer sacrifice to God.” What are the implications of this anointing for us priests?
Two verbs are included in the quotation from Isaiah which Jesus cites: “He has sent me”, AND “to proclaim glad tidings”. These are the two active parts of the title of the Pastoral Letter I issued last Holy Thursday, “Go AND Announce the Gospel of the Lord.”
My brothers, our lives are not meant to be sedentary. I would here like to highlight only one aspect of what is meant by this statement. Our first aim as shepherds after the heart of Christ is to go out and search for the lost sheep. St. Cyprian, writing to Pope Stephen in 255 AD, wanted him to correct the heartless treatment of penitents being committed by the Bishop of Arles in Gaul: “What then, dearly beloved brother, ought we to be doing but exercising every zeal in gathering in and nursing back to health the sheep of Christ, and applying the salve of his father’s compassion for healing the wounds of the fallen?” (Letter 68; 4:2). This compassion for the wounded, the fallen, the sinner, is clearly the attitude of Christ and must be ours as the anointed of the Lord.
Thus, just as Jesus went out, took risks, extended himself, and searched, so must that be our attitude. We can never be someone who merely sits and waits; we are always seeking out the fallen. For some of us, I recognize that this can be difficult. We are more inclined to reclusiveness, to the sedentary life. We must challenge ourselves; no, we must allow ourselves to be challenged by the heart of the Christ to go out to others, even when we find that inconvenient or discomforting. I have always maintained that visiting is one of the most important activities in which we engage as priests; it is a ministry of presence. We go to people’s homes, to their gatherings, to their assemblies. We cannot have the attitude that I will sit in the rectory and wait for someone to call upon me or to come and see me. That will not do.
My first assignment was as a deacon for one year. There was not a lot to do at first, especially since I began in the summer. So I grabbed a handful of registration cards and began to walk the streets around the Church and knocked on the doors of our parishioners and introduced myself. This was tiresome and tedious but it demonstrated that there was someone who cared for these people. Another of my assignments saw me similarly with some free time. The parish had just completed a census. So I volunteered to call all those who were in problematic marriages. I did so and offered my help to get these situations straightened out. Not many took me up on the offer, but they would never be able to say that they had not been asked. For some of us who are a bit more introverted, this kind of activity can be difficult. Nonetheless, we must go out in search.
Then we must also proclaim the good news. We must speak the Word of God, both when convenient and inconvenient. Thus there is a positive side to this and a more critical side. The positive side is stressed so clearly in the Gospel today: liberty to captives, recovery of sight, freedom for the oppressed, all in all, proclaiming a year of favor of the Lord. Jesus told the assembly that this passage was fulfilled in their hearing. He was the Good News, the news that God was in their midst to save. This is where, my brothers, we need to do a better job of pointing to the presence of God at work in our midst. This is what is meant by reading the signs of the times. It is not so much to determine what society and our world is telling us, but what God is telling our world and our society. Our Governor, Rick Snyder, has often used the phrase, “Relentless positive action.” It is really God who is engaged in relentless positive action for our salvation if we are but open to it. It is our call to bring this to people’s minds and hearts.
This is where the critical aspect, or the “when inconvenient” may come in. Some do not know they are lost and they must be informed so that they may be found and allow themselves to be found. The Roman clergy in 250 wrote to the Carthaginian clergy reminding them of this responsibility: “And so, dearly beloved brothers, our desire is that you are found to be not hirelings but good shepherds. You are aware that there is risk of extreme peril should you fail to exhort our brothers to stand steadfast in the faith” (Cyprian, Letter 8; 2:1). John Chrysostom even reminds us that we cannot use inexperience or ignorance as an excuse for not speaking the truth when it must be said, “For [the priest][ is set for that very purpose, says Ezekiel, that he may sound the trumpet for others, and warn them of the dangers at hand” (On the Priesthood, Book 6, Chapter 1). Being accountable is becoming a difficult trait in our society today and even among us, my brothers. Yet, being not only accountable for ourselves but also for all the people we are sent to proclaim the good news can seem in our age to be an impossibility. Nonetheless, that is to what we are called—to be accountable for ourselves and for many others. Of course, prudence is always the virtue which must inform all of our proclamation of the Good News in its fullness.
Now, in fact, my sisters and brothers of this great Diocese of Lansing, we have all been anointed (and there are some among us who will be so anointed at the Easter Vigil). None of us is exempt from the challenge of that anointing. We all are to become more aware of God’s active presence in our midst; we are all to seek out our sisters and brothers who are lost sheep; we are all called to challenge our world and its values as we seek the salvation of all men and women. But I also know how you need us priests to live out our anointings and so remind you of yours. Let us pray for one another and support one another as we Go and announce the Gospel of the Lord.
God bless you all.