HOLY CHRISM MASS
HOMILY OF POPE FRANCIS
Vatican Basilica
Holy Thursday, 17 April 2014
Anointed with the oil of gladness
Dear Brother Priests,
In the eternal “today” of Holy
Thursday, when Christ showed his love for us to the end (cf. Jn 13:1),
we recall the happy day of the institution of the priesthood, as well as the
day of our own priestly ordination. The Lord anointed us in Christ with the oil
of gladness, and this anointing invites us to accept and appreciate this great
gift: the gladness, the joy of being a priest. Priestly joy is a priceless
treasure, not only for the priest himself but for the entire faithful people of
God: that faithful people from which he is called to be anointed and which he,
in turn, is sent to anoint.
Anointed with the oil of
gladness so as to anoint others with the oil of gladness. Priestly joy has its
source in the Father’s love, and the Lord wishes the joy of this Love to be
“ours” and to be “complete” (Jn 15:11). I like to reflect on joy by
contemplating Our Lady, for Mary, the “Mother of the living Gospel, is a
wellspring of joy for God’s little ones” (Evangelii Gaudium, 288). I do
not think it is an exaggeration to say that priest is very little indeed: the
incomparable grandeur of the gift granted us for the ministry sets us among the
least of men. The priest is the poorest of men unless Jesus enriches him
by his poverty, the most useless of servants unless Jesus calls him his friend,
the most ignorant of men unless Jesus patiently teaches him as he did Peter,
the frailest of Christians unless the Good Shepherd strengthens him in the
midst of the flock. No one is more “little” than a priest left to his own
devices; and so our prayer of protection against every snare of the Evil One is
the prayer of our Mother: I am a priest because he has regarded my littleness
(cf. Lk 1:48). And in that littleness we find our joy. Joy in
our littleness!
For me, there are three
significant features of our priestly joy. It is a joy which anoints us (not
one which “greases” us, making us unctuous, sumptuous and presumptuous), it is
a joy which is imperishable and it is a missionary joy
which spreads and attracts, starting backwards – with those farthest away from
us.
A joy which anoints us. In a word: it has
penetrated deep within our hearts, it has shaped them and strengthened them
sacramentally. The signs of the ordination liturgy speak to us of the
Church’s maternal desire to pass on and share with others all that the Lord has
given us: the laying on of hands, the anointing with sacred chrism, the
clothing with sacred vestments, the first consecration which immediately
follows… Grace fills us to the brim and overflows, fully, abundantly and
entirely in each priest. We are anointed down to our very bones… and our joy,
which wells up from deep within, is the echo of this anointing.
An imperishable joy. The
fullness of the Gift, which no one can take away or increase, is an unfailing
source of joy: an imperishable joy which the Lord has promised no one can take
from us (Jn 16:22). It can lie dormant, or be clogged by sin or by
life’s troubles, yet deep down it remains intact, like the embers of a burnt
log beneath the ashes, and it can always be renewed. Paul’s exhortation to
Timothy remains ever timely: I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God
that is within you through the laying on of my hands (cf. 2 Tim 1:6).
A missionary joy. I would like
especially to share with you and to stress this third feature: priestly joy is
deeply bound up with God’s holy and faithful people, for it is an eminently
missionary joy. Our anointing is meant for anointing God’s holy and faithful
people: for baptizing and confirming them, healing and sanctifying them,
blessing, comforting and evangelizing them.
And since this joy is one
which only springs up when the shepherd is in the midst of his flock (for even
in the silence of his prayer, the shepherd who worships the Father is with his
sheep), it is a “guarded joy”, watched over by the flock itself. Even in those
gloomy moments when everything looks dark and a feeling of isolation takes hold
of us, in those moments of listlessness and boredom which at times overcome us
in our priestly life (and which I too have experienced), even in those moments
God’s people are able to “guard” that joy; they are able to protect you, to
embrace you and to help you open your heart to find renewed joy.
A “guarded joy”: one guarded
by the flock but also guarded by three sisters who surround it, tend it and
defend it: sister poverty, sister fidelity and sister obedience.
The joy of priests is a joy
which is sister to poverty. The priest is poor in terms of purely human joy. He
has given up so much! And because he is poor, he, who gives so much to others,
has to seek his joy from the Lord and from God’s faithful people. He doesn’t
need to try to create it for himself. We know that our people are very generous
in thanking priests for their slightest blessing and especially for the
sacraments. Many people, in speaking of the crisis of priestly identity, fail
to realize that identity presupposes belonging. There is no identity –
and consequently joy of life – without an active and unwavering sense of
belonging to God’s faithful people (cf. Evangelii Gaudium,
268). The priest who tries to find his priestly identity by
soul-searching and introspection may well encounter nothing more than “exit”
signs, signs that say: exit from yourself, exit to seek God in adoration, go
out and give your people what was entrusted to you, for your people will make
you feel and taste who you are, what your name is, what your identity is, and
they will make you rejoice in that hundredfold which the Lord has promised to
those who serve him. Unless you “exit” from yourself, the oil grows rancid and
the anointing cannot be fruitful. Going out from ourselves presupposes
self-denial; it means poverty.
Priestly joy is a joy which is
sister to fidelity. Not primarily in the sense that we are all
“immaculate” (would that by God’s grace we were!), for we are sinners, but in
the sense of an ever renewed fidelity to the one Bride, to the Church. Here
fruitfulness is key. The spiritual children which the Lord gives each
priest, the children he has baptized, the families he has blessed and helped on
their way, the sick he has comforted, the young people he catechizes and helps
to grow, the poor he assists… all these are the “Bride” whom he rejoices to
treat as his supreme and only love and to whom he is constantly faithful. It is
the living Church, with a first name and a last name, which the priest
shepherds in his parish or in the mission entrusted to him. That mission brings
him joy whenever he is faithful to it, whenever he does all that he has to do
and lets go of everything that he has to let go of, as long as he stands firm
amid the flock which the Lord has entrusted to him: Feed my sheep (cf. Jn 21:16,17).
Priestly joy is a joy which is
sister to obedience. An obedience to the Church in the hierarchy which
gives us, as it were, not simply the external framework for our obedience: the
parish to which I am sent, my ministerial assignments, my particular work … but
also union with God the Father, the source of all fatherhood. It is
likewise an obedience to the Church in service: in availability and readiness
to serve everyone, always and as best I can, following the example of “Our Lady
of Promptness” (cf. Lk 1:39, meta spoudes), who
hastens to serve Elizabeth her kinswoman and is concerned for the kitchen of
Cana when the wine runs out. The availability of her priests makes the Church a
house with open doors, a refuge for sinners, a home for people living on the
streets, a place of loving care for the sick, a camp for the young, a classroom
for catechizing children about to make their First Communion… Wherever God’s
people have desires or needs, there is the priest, who knows how to listen (ob-audire)
and feels a loving mandate from Christ who sends him to relieve that need with
mercy or to encourage those good desires with resourceful charity.
All who are called should know
that genuine and complete joy does exist in this world: it is the joy of being
taken from the people we love and then being sent back to them as dispensers of
the gifts and counsels of Jesus, the one Good Shepherd who, with deep
compassion for all the little ones and the outcasts of this earth, wearied and
oppressed like sheep without a shepherd, wants to associate many others to his
ministry, so as himself to remain with us and to work, in the person of his
priests, for the good of his people.
On this Holy Thursday, I ask
the Lord Jesus to enable many young people to discover that burning zeal which
joy kindles in our hearts as soon as we have the stroke of boldness needed to
respond willingly to his call.
On this Holy Thursday, I ask
the Lord Jesus to preserve the joy sparkling in the eyes of the recently
ordained who go forth to devour the world, to spend themselves fully in the
midst of God's faithful people, rejoicing as they prepare their first homily,
their first Mass, their first Baptism, their first confession… It is the
joy of being able to share with wonder, and for the first time as God’s
anointed, the treasure of the Gospel and to feel the faithful people anointing
you again and in yet another way: by their requests, by bowing their heads for
your blessing, by taking your hands, by bringing you their children, by
pleading for their sick… Preserve, Lord, in your young priests the joy of going
forth, of doing everything as if for the first time, the joy of spending their
lives fully for you.
On this Thursday of the
priesthood, I ask the Lord Jesus to confirm the priestly joy of those who have
already ministered for some years. The joy which, without leaving their eyes,
is also found on the shoulders of those who bear the burden of the ministry,
those priests who, having experienced the labours of the apostolate, gather
their strength and rearm themselves: “get a second wind”, as the athletes say.
Lord, preserve the depth, wisdom and maturity of the joy felt by these older
priests. May they be able to pray with Nehemiah: “the joy of the Lord is my
strength” (cf. Neh 8:10).
Finally, on this Thursday of
the priesthood, I ask the Lord Jesus to make better known the joy of elderly
priests, whether healthy or infirm. It is the joy of the Cross, which
springs from the knowledge that we possess an imperishable treasure in
perishable earthen vessels. May these priests find happiness wherever they are;
may they experience already, in the passage of the years, a taste of eternity (Guardini).
May they know, Lord, the joy of handing on the torch, the joy of seeing new
generations of their spiritual children, and of hailing the promises from afar,
smiling and at peace, in that hope which does not disappoint.
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