Chrism Mass: the power of the Holy Spirit



Chrism Mass Homily (Part 2)

A COVID19 third wave is on its way. We pray to be spared but it might not be so. What are we going to do? What are we – bishop and priests – going to do? Will we just sit down until it passes? I think this Chrism Mass should be – particularly for us priests – a call to renew our faith in the power of the Holy Spirit, to renew our faith in the power of that Spirit that is upon us!
  • As Isaiah and the Gospel says: the Spirit IS upon us. It is not something of the past;
  • The Spirit is alive and active and therefore we need to ask the Spirit to lead us;
I personally believe there is no going back to how things were in the past and therefore:

  • we need to ask the Holy Spirit to help us give shape to a new normal. It is always tempting to stick to what we know. “We have always done it this way” is a familiar statement in our Church which sometimes hides our own fear to change or to do things in different ways.
There is an image I heard many years’ ago. In fact, it was decades’ ago when I was a novice! The preacher said: "Think of a fisherman going daily to fish at the river. With time the river changes its course but the fisherman keeps going to the same place, even though there is no water anymore". That is our risk. It should not happen to us.

Soon we will be celebrating Easter. The Apostles did not have any reference aside of the physical presence of Jesus. They had to trust in the Spirit to lead them. That was their “new normal”: proclaiming the Gospel without the physical presence of the one who called them.  
 
We are a Church who has been called to live a new normal
from the very first day of Easter!

  • We need to ask the Holy Spirit to help us find ways to reach the people entrusted to us. We remain sent to those entrusted to us. COVID19 has not changed our identity. As I said last October: we are not caretakers and I hope no one thinks he is an undertaker. We are shepherds. Shepherds who go out, shepherds who leave the 99 to look for the lost one and we need the Spirit to help us see how to do that in the midst of this pandemic.
Last December when I was in Mozambique, the bishop of Pemba gave me a “Good Shepherd” (carrying a sheep on his shoulders) done locally. It is in my chapel. I daily look at it and ask myself in prayer: “who is this sheep for me today?”, “who is in need of being carried?”, “how can I do it?”

We need to do it in new ways. We need the Spirit to open our eyes and hearts regarding how to do it. How can we reach out to the people entrusted to us in the midst of a pandemic?
    • I still remember the beginning of the pandemic when St Peter & Paul parish put the names of their parishioners on the benches. It was powerful! People felt remembered, cared, prayed for...
    • The media office has developed our diocesan social media channels offering things we have never done before: recorded Masses, daily podcasts, live streaming… Some of our priests were shaking when they came to the recordings because they had never done it before, but they did it!
    • Parishes are finding ways to have two services on Friday. I believe no one ever had two services on Good Friday before but we want to reach as many people as possible on such an important day!

Are we doing enough? Is it enough? It is not because only a tiny percentage is being reached. I always wonder how to reach the children who have not been in church for a year!

The question remains: How can we reach out to the people entrusted to us in the midst of a pandemic?

If we believe that the Spirit of the Lord is upon us because of our ordination, we need to believe that the same Spirit who led the apostles at the beginning of the Church, would lead us today. We cannot sit down and wait. May the Spirit make you and me shepherds according to the heart of Jesus.


Click HERE for the photo album of the celebration