Chrism Mass Homily 2011

Bishop Philip Boyce, OCD

St Eunan's Cathedral, Letterkenny

Today reminds us of the first Holy Thursday, the day before Christ laid down his life to save us and make us his friends. Despite the foreboding atmosphere that surrounded the little group of disciples, Jesus began to prepare for the celebration of the Paschal Feast. He gathered his chosen twelve apostles into an Upper Room in Jerusalem, and gave his Church the gifts of the Holy Eucharist and of the ordained priesthood.

 Jesus gathers those who believe in Him. They prepare everything for the institution of the first Eucharist and, we can say, the celebration of the first holy Mass. When they are assembled, he speaks to them with words that come from his Heart and reveals the deepest secrets of his love and of his life with his Father and the Holy Spirit. He then takes bread, breaks and blesses it transforms it and gives it to his disciples, saying: “Take this, all of you, and eat of it: this is my body which will be given up for you”. Similarly with the chalice of wine. His words transform the wine into his own blood. “The blood of the new and everlasting covenant”, to be shed for the forgiveness of sins.

Something similar happens on the day of his Resurrection. Towards evening two disciples are walking on a journey to a village called Emmaus. Jesus joins them on the way. When they come to the village, they are gathered together in a little assembly. “He went in and stayed with them” (Lk 24:29). Indeed they had been together for part of the way and he had spoken to them. His words touched the depth of their heart: “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?” (Lk 24:32). This shows us the penetrating power of his words. Then, as he took bread, blessed and broke it, giving it to them, they recognized in whose presence they had been.

These simple steps of coming together in a place of worship, of listening to his inspired words and of sharing in his Body and Blood, the fruits of his sacrifice, are still the parts that make up every Mass. They have been taken as a help to reflect on the theme of the International Eucharistic Congress which will take place in Ireland in June of next year. The main theme of the Congress is centred on the Eucharist as “Communion with Christ and with one Another”.

We are in Communion with Christ when we share in his life and friendship. We are in communion with each other when we share in similar ideas, values and truths. This implies a certain unity of heart and mind, so that in many ways we come to like the same things, and dislike the same things. “The Communion among the faithful in Christ is based on a sharing in holy things. There is communion in the faith, communion in the sacraments, communion of charisms and, above all, a communion in charity. Communion extends to the sharing of goods, both spiritual and material. Our communion is not limited to those on earth, it is also with those who have gone before us and especially with the saints” (The Eucharist: Communion with Christ and with One Another, Dublin 2011,  p. 10).

Gathering together as a Community of Prayer

As mentioned already, the parts that form the structure of the Mass, can lead us into the theme of the Eucharistic Congress and help us to prepare for it. The first is the gathering together in a Church or chapel, where the Lord, the Crucified and Risen Saviour assembles us for prayer. We are drawn together by Christ. Here we are united with the Risen Lord, in communion with Him through our brothers and sisters. We sing together, we make the sign of the Cross, we form the one body of the Church, we confess our sins and entrust ourselves as a community to God’s mercy. With the angels we glorify Him and give thanks. Then all the prayers and intentions we have are expressed in the Opening Prayer or Collect of the Mass, the “Collective” prayer to God the Father, through Christ, in the Holy Spirit. It sums up the important prayer intentions of the day or feast or liturgical season.

The Church bell is the traditional sound that rings out some minutes before a celebration calling the faithful to assemble for Mass and divine worship. Bells have a long history and were used down the centuries to gather the people for prayer. When one of his monks was dying, St. Columcille is said to have assembled the community by ringing a bell. For many years after the 8^th century, bells were blessed or consecrated and anointed. Before the days of watches or clocks bells were very necessary in order to announce the hour of church services, either gathering parishioners for Mass or calling the monks to the community chapel to sing the Divine Office. The differences in the way of ringing the bell, or the number of bells used, indicate the type of service or the different degree of solemnity of a particular feast. Then there is a set of short peals for a burial; there is a bell still rung for the Elevation of host and chalice at the Consecration during Mass, and we have the bells of the Angelus.

For all these reasons we have a special Congress bell, blessed by Cardinal Brady on St. Patrick’s Day this year. It is being brought to all the Dioceses of the country. It comes to Raphoe Diocese next Wednesday, 28^th April, when the parish of Stranorlar gets it from Derry. It will be welcomed into twenty two parishes of the Diocese. We shall have it in the Cathedral from Saturday evening 30^th April until the afternoon of the following day, Divine Mercy Sunday, 1^st May. We shall hand it on to the Clogher Diocese after Confirmations in Ballyshannon on 8^th May. A procession will leave the church after Mass and go to the bridge where it will be handed on to Bishop Liam MacDaid.

The bell reminds us that we are called together for prayer by the Risen and Victorious Lord. It is good to assemble together in these days when we are tempted by individualism to stay apart. Television and internet, facebook and twitter can easily cause us to be busy with ourselves and not come together. The bell calls us together for Mass where we are assembled with people of all ages and backgrounds, young and old; rich and poor, healthy and sickly, natives and foreigners. We are brought together in one, in unity, by our common prayer and our worship of Christ, our Saviour and our God.

Listening to God’s Word that forms us into a Community

Then we listen to his words. This is a second important part of the Mass. We listen to a reading from the prophets of the Old Testament foretelling the future coming of a Saviour. We listen to passages from one of the Letters of St. Paul or of an Apostle. We stand in reverence to hear the words of the Gospel proclaimed and explained.

The Word of God in Scripture is powerful. It can touch the mind and heart. It can change a person’s life. It prepares us to meet the living Christ and welcome Him into our souls in Holy Communion. Before giving them the Bread of Life and revealing himself to the two disciples walking on the road to Emmaus, Jesus “interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself” (Lk 24:27). Their hearts were burning within them with joy and understanding.

We should listen with attention to the reading of God’s word in church. Scripture is the greatest book we have. It was written under the inspiration of the Holy Sprit, and reveals to us the life of God and what we ourselves must do in order to lead holy lives and be saved. As St. Jerome famously said: “Ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ” (Commentary on Isaiah, Prologue).

“The Liturgy of the Word is an important moment in that it provides the gathered community with a rich and effective encounter with Jesus Christ in his Word building up our communion with him and with one another. This encounter takes place in the power of the Holy Spirit. As we read in the General Introduction to the Lectionary: “the Word of God constantly proclaimed in the Liturgy is always, then, a living and effective word through the power of the Holy Sprit. It expresses the Father’s love that never fails in its effectiveness toward us.” The Liturgy of the Word leads us into an active dialogue in which the Sprit is at work. Indeed the Holy Spirit makes possible our effective response to the Word of God, so that we identify with what is heard in the celebration of the Liturgy and want to do what the Word tells us (cf. Jas 1:22). (The Eucharist, Ibid., p. 33)

The homily explains and comments on the word of God that had been proclaimed. It helps people to put the word into practice in daily life. One of the most important duties of the priest is to preach the word of God. The homily at his Sunday Mass should come from his heart. Then it will touch the heart of his listeners. For “heart speaks unto heart.” The word is not his own. It is not a personal opinion. It is the living Word of God, “sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit” (Hebs. 4:11).

By means of the homily, the priest instructs, catechises, evangelises. He carries out what he promised on the day of his Ordination, when the ordaining Bishop asked him: “Are you resolved to exercise the ministry of the word worthily and wisely, preaching the Gospel and explaining the Catholic faith?”, and he answered: “I am”.

Every priest can find himself in the painful situation which John Henry Newman put into words for himself, namely, by his office having to “preach a perfection and holiness of life which with all his efforts he cannot himself reach and thus failings in him seem doubly conspicuous as being condemned by the very doctrine which he is continually delivering … And thus we are in a strait, we cannot but preach, yet we cannot live up to our preaching.”

The solution he finds, and that each priest will find for himself, is to trust in divine providence and in the grace of his Ordination. “And wherever His good providence may lead me I trust I shall never forget that I am dedicated and made over entirely to Him as the minister of Christ, and that the grand and blessed object of my life must be to promote the interests of His cause, and to serve His Church, and to contribute to the strength of His kingdom, and make use of all my powers of mind and body, external and acquired, to bring sinners to Him, and to help in purifying a corrupt world” (Sermon, 23 April, 1826).

If the priest gives himself sincerely to his ministry of serving Christ and the Church, then he will make his own the words of the Gospel and reflect them in his life and actions. In this sense, Pope Benedict XVI writes in his recent Apostolic Exhortation: “The faithful should be able to perceive clearly that the preacher has a compelling desire to present Christ, who must stand at the centre of every homily” (Verbum Domini, 2010, No. 59).

Nourished with the Bread of Life

The third and central part of the Mass is the table of the Eucharist. At the words of the consecration by the priest, the bread and wine are changed into the Body and Blood of Christ. His Sacrifice on the Cross is made present sacramentally. Those who are present and who are prepared receive the fruit of his Sacrifice in Holy Communion. His glorified life is communicated to us under the form or species of bread and wine. We are united with Him and with one another in a bond of love and life. We are drawn into a deep communion with one another; because Christ makes us One with himself. As St. Paul teaches: “The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a communion in the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not a communion in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread” (I Cor. 10:16-17).

As priests, our hands were anointed so that we could bless and serve others. We were given the spiritual power to transform bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ. With Christ we are priests and victims for the salvation of the world. Pope Benedict says: “The nourishment that man needs in his deepest self is communion with God himself. Giving thanks and praise, Jesus transforms the bread, he no longer gives earthly bread but communion with himself. This transformation, though, seeks to be the transformation of the world – into a world of Resurrection, a world of God” (9 April 2009).

Thus from Mass we are sent forth on Mission to announce the Gospel and glorify the Lord by our lives.

I thank you all, my brother priests, for your dedication and faithful service of the people of the Diocese. Continue to be what you are – and that always better, always more generously. I thank all who came to the Cathedral for this Chrism Mass, and for your support of priests and your prayers for vocations.

May the Eucharistic Congress next year deepen our love for the Mass, for it is the Mass that matters. May it deepen our union with Christ and with One Another and become ever more effectively a source of evangelisation and holiness. Amen.