Leading priests in renewing their ordination promises and then blessing sacramental oils that will be used in parishes throughout The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington, Cardinal Wilton Gregory celebrated a March 25 Chrism Mass at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle in Washington, D.C.
The consecrated oils are used at Baptism, Confirmation, the anointing of the sick and Holy Orders, Cardinal Gregory said, and “those anointings were intended to configure us all to Christ, the Anointed One.”
“Christ was anointed by the Holy Spirit, and not with the oils we will soon bless and consecrate… His anointing designated Him Messiah,” Cardinal Gregory said. “The Anointed One has also commissioned some of us, unworthy as we all are, to share in His priestly office and to offer the rituals that sanctify all of God’s people and God’s creation.”
The bilingual Mass – which is traditionally offered during Holy Week – commemorates the founding of the priesthood and the institution of the Eucharist. Usually, the Chrism Mass is offered on Holy Thursday, the day the Church celebrates the fact that at the Last Supper, Jesus Christ instituted the Eucharist and the priesthood. Because of pastoral reasons, the Mass is often celebrated earlier during Holy Week.
“The Anointed One this afternoon authorizes us to continue His redemptive work in our world,” Cardinal Gregory said. “We are to become His ministers of compassion and mercy … continuing His messianic ministry of salvation,” especially caring for the forgotten, the neglected and the overlooked.
In attendance at this year’s Mass were Washington Auxiliary Bishops Roy E. Campbell Jr., Evelio Menjivar-Ayala and Juan Esposito-Garcia, who also serves as Vicar General and Moderator of the Curia of The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington; Cardinal Donald Wuerl, the archbishop emeritus of Washington; and Cardinal Christophe Pierre, the papal nuncio to the United States.
Also attending the Mass – which was open to the public, and livestreamed on social media – were nearly 200 priests, and numerous deacons, seminarians, and men and women religious.
“We priests and bishops are anointed as other Christi, not because we are so much better than other men or women or more deserving or more worthy of this anointing – we are anointed simply because the Anointed One has chosen us, and in spite of ourselves,” Cardinal Gregory said.
He told the priests that “our commission, our anointing is ultimately to follow Him in the sacrificial offering of Himself,” and reminded them that ordination “does not intend any one of us to be treated as though we are privileged or exalted or to claim an honor He (Jesus) Himself never sought.”
“The Anointed One chose to wash the feet of His disciples. We are to follow Him in our humble service to our sisters and brothers,” Cardinal Gregory said. “The Anointed One invites us to be His emissaries, His stand-in and His icon for the light of His people.”
Calling the priests his “beloved brothers,” Cardinal Gregory led them in renewing their ordination vows and asked them if they are resolved to be “more united with the Lord Jesus and more closely conformed to Him” and to be “faithful stewards of the mysteries of God in the Holy Eucharist and the other liturgical rites.”
Addressing the laity, whom he called “dearest sons and daughters,” Cardinal Gregory asked the faithful to pray for priests that “the Lord may pour out His gifts abundantly upon them, and keep them faithful as ministers of Christ, the High Priest, so that they may lead you to Him, who is the source of salvation.”
The cardinal also asked prayers for himself that “I may be faithful to the apostolic office entrusted to me … and that in your midst I may be made day by day a living and more perfect image of Christ, the priest, the Good Shepherd, the teacher, and the servant of all.”
Calling the Chrism Mass a time to “gather on this wonderous day to celebrate the gift of the oils that will sanctify our people,” Cardinal Gregory said that the blessed and consecrated oils “derive their power from the Holy Spirit … who resides within the Church and continually makes her fruitful and holy and the very wellspring of truth.”
He also prayed that when the oils are applied “our people may be more perfectly transformed into Christ’s own people.”
“May your holy oil, O Lord, be blessed by you for our sake,” Cardinal Gregory prayed. “Bless and sanctify this oil, so that all who are outwardly anointed with it may be inwardly transformed and come to share in eternal life.”
After the Mass, Cardinal Gregory remained in the cathedral sanctuary to greet the bishops, priests, deacons, seminarians, those in religious life and the lay faithful who were present.
The Chrism Mass was one of several Holy Week and Easter liturgies to be celebrated by the cardinal at the cathedral that will be livestreamed. The day before, he celebrated a March 24 Palm Sunday Mass at the cathedral (https://youtube.com/live/Jrc-gKF0wGs?feature=share).
Cardinal Gregory’s Holy Thursday Mass of the Lord’s Supper will be livestreamed from the cathedral at 5:30 p.m. Thursday March 28 (https://youtube.com/live/cxBBmanl2Vk?feature=share).
On Good Friday, March 29, Cardinal Gregory’s will celebrate a livestreamed Liturgy of the Passion of the Lord at 1 p.m. (https://youtube.com/live/79q219hnrXo?feature=share). It will be preceded at noon by a reflection on the Seven Last Words of Christ
On Holy Saturday March 30, Cardinal Gregory will celebrate a livestreamed Easter Vigil Mass at St. Matthew’s Cathedral at 8 p.m. (https://youtube.com/live/Vsv6e2tMhdU?feature=share)
Then on Easter Sunday March 31, the cardinal will celebrate a livestreamed Mass at the cathedral at 9 a.m. (https://youtube.com/live/fIEvDmNpfaM?feature=share)
Later on Easter Sunday, Cardinal Gregory will celebrate a noon Mass at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception that will be televised on the Eternal Word Television Network and livestreamed on the basilica’s YouTube channel that can be linked through the National Shrine’s website at www.nationalshrine.org.
