I am sincerely happy and grateful to be celebrating this Chrism Mass with you, especially with you, my brother priests. Up until this morning when I vested for our Mass, I was not sure I could make it. But the Lord is kind...and I stand here before you.
Sometime ago, I circularized my sincere gratitude to all of you. Everyday for more than fifty days in the hospital as a patient alongside other patients I felt in my pains to be carried on the wings of your prayers. I stands here as a concrete evidence of the power of your prayers especially to Ina.
During the long period of confinement in the hospital, I learned many lessons about life: that life becomes fruitful only when death is faced and folded into our lives. I experienced solitude which is the furnace of transformation and realized how we all need to fashion our own solitude; mine was imposed by sickness. I was excited to have long moments of reflection on the meaning of my journey here one earth. My journey, I realized is a humble return to the ground of who and what I am actually, and in that return, a discerning that I am greater, more mysterious, and more beloved that I thought. Something and some greater than myself shares and mirrors exactly what I am, enlarging and blessing me infinitely.
But I will be happy to share these reflections with you on another occasion. For now, I feel, given the solemn occasion which brought us together, I should rather share with you about the Mass.
The doctors were very good and kind, so with the many caregivers. But the most crucial, the most important in keeping me alive is the daily Mass that I celebrated at first standing and then seated. There was something in the Mass that continued to allow me to focus on the meaning of my life within the walls of the hospital room. The Mass did not take away the pain of my situation; it allowed me to befriend it by making me gradually understand and accept that my pain is the concrete way in which I participate in the pain of humanity. So far from creating an abyss between Christ and myself, my trials, my weaknesses have become during those days in the hospital the privileged place of my encounter with Jesus, and not only with Him, but with the Father Himself.
Beyond this, I realized even more that the words of Eucharistic consecration, which we say every Mass in order to make present on our altars the sacrifice made once and for all on Calvary, are more than a formula of consecration; they must be a "formula of life" for us, priests. The formula of consecration becoming at the same time a formula of how to live the priestly life authentically. Bear with me as I explain how.
A life of gratitude
"He gave you thanks." At every Mass we remember and relive the first sentiment expressed by Jesus as He broke the bread: that of gratitude. Gratitude is the disposition which lies at the root of the very word "Eucharist". This sentiment summarizes the whole Biblical spirituality of praise for the marvels of God: God loves us, He goes before us in His Providence, and He accompanies us with His continuous saving acts.
I asked myself: how could this thanksgiving of Jesus fail to shape my life as a priest ? I have my crosses - as we all do - to bear -and we are certainly not the only ones! - but the gifts we have received are so great that we cannot fail to sing from the depths of our hearts our own Magnificat.
A life that is given
"Take this and eat it; take this and drink from it." When I say the words "take and eat", I must learn to apply them to myself, and to speak them with truth and generosity. If I am able to offer myself as a gift, placing myself at the disposal of the community and at the service of anyone in need, my life takes on its true meaning.
This is exactly what Jesus expected of His apostles, as the Evangelist John emphasizes in his account of the washing of the feet. It is also what the People of God expect of us, priests. If we think about it more fully, the priest's promise of obedience, which he made on the day of Ordination and is asked to renew at the Chrism Mass, is illuminated by this relationship with the Eucharist. Obeying out love, sacrificing even a certain legitimate freedom when the authoritative discernment of the Bishop so requires, we priests live out in our own flesh that "take and eat' with which Christ, in the Last Supper, gave Himself to the Church.
A life that is saved
"This is my body which will be given up for you." When I repeat these venerable words in the recollected silence of the liturgical assembly, I become a privileged herald of this mystery of salvation. Yet unless I sense that I myself am saved, how can I be a convincing herald? We priests are the first to be touched inwardly by the grace which raises us from our frailty and makes us cry "Abba, Father" with the confidence of God's children (cf. Gal. 4:6). This in turn commits us to advance along the path of perfection. Holiness, in fact, is the full expression of salvation. My dear priests, only if our lives manifest the fact that we are saved do we become credible heralds of salvation. Not only this; a constant awareness of Christ's will to offer salvation to all cannot fail to inspire with fresh missionary fervor, spurring each of us on to become "all things to all men, in order to save at least some of them" (I Cor. 9:22).
A life that "remembers"
"Do this in memory of me." Note, Jesus said:" Do this memory of ME." Every time I pronounced these words, I should be careful to note that the Eucharist does not simply commemorate a fact; it commemorates Him! Through my daily repetition of these words of the "memorial", I am invited to develop a "spirituality of remembrance". At a time when rapid social and cultural changes are weakening the sense of tradition and leading the people to risk losing touch with their roots, I, as priest, am called to be, within the community entrusted to me, the man who faithfully remembers the entire mystery of Christ : prefigured in the OT, fulfilled in the NT, and understood ever more deeply, under the guidance of the Spirit, as Jesus explicitly promised:" He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you" ( Jn. 14:26).
A "consecrated" life
"The mystery of faith!" Every time I proclaim these words after consecrating the bread and wine, I express an ever-renewed amazement at the extraordinary miracle worked at my hands! It is a miracle which only the eyes of faith can perceive. The natural elements do not lose their external characteristics, since the "species" remain those of bread and wine; but their "substance", through the power of Christ word and the action of the Holy Spirit, is changed into the substance of the body and blood of Christ. On the altar, then, Christ crucified and risen is "truly, really and substantially" present in the fullness of his humanity and divinity. What an eminently sacred reality!
And we priests are the celebrants; but we are also the guardians of this most sacred mystery. It is our relationship to the Eucharist that most clearly challenges us to lead a "sacred" life. This must shine forth from our whole way of being, but above all by the way we celebrate Mass.
Many beatified and canonized priests have given exemplary testimony in this regard, enkindling fervor among the faithful present at their celebration of Mass. Many of them were known for their prolonged Eucharistic adoration. To place ourselves before Jesus in the Eucharist, to take advantage of our "moments of solitude" and to fill them with this Presence, is to enliven our consecration by our personal relationship with Christ, from whom our life derives its joy and its meaning.
Mary
In the Roman Canon we say:"In union with the whole Church we honor Mary, the ever-virgin Mother of Jesus Christ our Lord and God." In the other Eucharistic Prayers, honor leads to petition, as for example in Prayer II:"Make us worthy to share eternal life with Mary, the virgin Mother of God."
Who more than Mary can help us taste the greatness of the Eucharistic mystery? She more than anyone can teach us how to celebrate the sacred mysteries with due fervor and to commune with her Son, hidden in the Eucharist. I pray
, then, for all of you, and I entrust to Her especially the elderly, the sick, and those in difficulty. This Easter I gladly repeat to each of you the gentle and consoling words of Jesus: "Behold your Mother" (Jn 19:27).
To each of you, my brother priests:"Congratulation! Happy sacerdotal anniversary!