Bishop O'Connell's Homily for the 2015 Chrism Mass

Bishop O'Connell's Homily for the 

2015 Chrism Mass

   Last night was the Chrism Mass for the Trenton Dioceses. I will go into more detail of the night next week but I wanted to post the Homily that Bishop O'Connell gave. It was amazing to say the least. 

St.Robert Bellarmine Church, Freehold | March 30, 2015

At critical moments in our life, we find ourselves asking the question, “What does it all mean?”  And when we find an answer, psychologists tell us, we have arrived at maturity.  Finding an answer, however, is no easy task.  It does not simply come with age or the passing of years.  It does not simply happen nor do we simply stumble upon it.  Discovering “Meaning” or purpose in life takes work, takes effort, takes reflection and for those who believe in God, takes prayer.

Some people find the answer to life’s meaning and purpose early on.  Some others, later in life.  Still some others never grasp it.  For most people, however, a significant event or life experience — good or bad, profound or simple — helps reveal life’s meaning and purpose: love and marriage or the birth of a child and raising a family; success at something important or failure to achieve; getting the job or promotion we worked for or losing it; realizing our vocation, taking vows or ordination; transfer to a new assignment; sickness, the death of someone we love or confronting our own mortality.  Life’s experiences hand to us the potential of seeking, knowing, grasping “what it all means.”  At critical moments such as these we can put it all together and understand and out lives change… or not.

For believers, faith in God is the thing gives meaning and purpose to life during these times.  Faith reveals the difference between meaning and absurdity. Faith “connects the dots” so to speak, leading us back to our Creator who made us who and what we are and what we become.  Faith instills within us a sense of meaning and purpose that directs what we do.  The deeper and stronger our faith in God and in his Christ, the more we relate our lives to their essential, God-given meaning and purpose.  For believers, it is hard to imagine life without faith and, yet, so many daily events in our world argue strongly against the convictions of faith.  The Lord Jesus Christ, in whom we place our faith and trust, however, asks only one thing of us: that we believe in him.  That faith, he knew, if it were real and true, would inspire hope and result in love.  For the Christian, for all of us here tonight, that is our purpose, that is the meaning of life: faith, hope and love.

The Lord Jesus Christ founded his Church as a community of faith and prayed the night before he died for its unity: one, holy, Catholic and apostolic faith.  The community of faith that we are and into which we have been baptized as Church reflects the community that is a Blessed Trinity of Persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, distinct in personhood yet one in divine reality.  As Church, we are each distinct in our personhood, rich in differences, roles and responsibilities, yet united in what the Letter to the Hebrews describes as “confident assurance in things hoped for and conviction about things we do not see (Hebrews 11: 1).”  What a great gift is our faith.  What a grace!

The Chrism Mass is an ancient tradition in the Catholic Church when the richness of our differences, roles and responsibilities in a diocese — the clergy, the religious, the lay faithful — come together in unity around its bishop to affirm what we believe.  This occasion has “meaning” especially for priests.  And, so, in the midst of the faithful, as your bishop, I would like to share a few thoughts with you, my brother priests.

As priests, we find meaning and purpose in what lies before us , what I, as bishop,  will bless and consecrate, and what you will take home with you tonight for your ministry: oil.  The oil of catechumens.  The oil of the sick.  The oil of chrism.  For you, as priests, the hands of the bishop were laid upon your head in silence followed by the awesome words of the consecrating prayer. You knelt before him and the people of God, a man taken from among them; you rose from your knees a priest of God ordained for them, you become their representative before God. And then the bishop took your folded hands in his, opened them and anointed them with oil, with sacred chrism.  From that moment on, your lives would never be the same again.  The meaning and purpose of your life was changed, transformed and consecrated forever.  Again and again you anoint with the oil of catechumens, bringing the newly baptized into the Church, giving their lives new meaning and purpose.  With delegation from the bishop, you anoint with chrism, confirming their baptismal faith and giving their lives deeper meaning and purpose. You anoint with the oil of the sick, those afflicted with illness, praying for healing or, for others, opening the doors to heaven with final meaning and purpose.  When we raise the host and lift the chalice, we do so with hands anointed with oil.  When we impart absolution, we do so with a hand anointed with oil.  When we witness a marriage, we bless that union with hands anointed with oil.  And when we place our hands on the head of a new priest, we do so with hands anointed with oil, sending men on their way to find for themselves and to lead others to their meaning and purpose.  This is no casual gathering that brings us together tonight, this Chrism Mass, no.  This is a celebration of meaning and purpose that unites us as one priesthood in this our Diocese, anointed as those who came before us, anointed as those who sit beside us, anointed as those yet to fulfill Christ’s call hope to be.  The Spirit of the Lord is upon us.  And in that Spirit, we priests find our truest and deepest meaning and purpose: to bring good news to the poor; to heal the broken-hearted; to proclaim liberty and release to the captive whatever that captivity may be; to announce a year of favor, a year of mercy from the Lord.

The oil I bless and you take  is for the sacraments of our Church.  The sacraments are for the people entrusted to our pastoral care.  And the people entrusted to our pastoral care need you, good priests, faithful priests, holy priests.  Priests quick to show forgiveness and mercy.  Priests prepared to preach the God’s Word effectively and well and to move hearts and minds.  Priests ready to give advice born of wisdom and prayer.  Priests who laugh and cry with them.  Priests who know when it’s time to speak and time to listen.  Priests who stand next to them even when there are no words to offer.  Priests who empower them to share their ministry.  Priests who give and do not count the cost.  Priests on whose hands, the oil never dries.  Priests who are truly brothers to one another.  And when we, as priests, close our eyes for the last time on this world, we hope that because o all that our people will say of us: his life meant something; his life had a purpose; his life made a difference; his life was a real, lived witness to that of the Good Shepherd, the Eternal High Priest.

Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion Lectionary: 37 and 38

Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion

Lectionary: 37 and 38

At The Procession With Palms - Gospel

MK 11:1-10

When Jesus and his disciples drew near to Jerusalem,

to Bethphage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives, 

he sent two of his disciples and said to them, 

“Go into the village opposite you,

and immediately on entering it, 

you will find a colt tethered on which no one has ever sat.

Untie it and bring it here.

If anyone should say to you,

‘Why are you doing this?’ reply,

‘The Master has need of it

and will send it back here at once.’”

So they went off 

and found a colt tethered at a gate outside on the street, 

and they untied it.

Some of the bystanders said to them, 

“What are you doing, untying the colt?”

They answered them just as Jesus had told them to, 

and they permitted them to do it.

So they brought the colt to Jesus

and put their cloaks over it.

And he sat on it.

Many people spread their cloaks on the road, 

and others spread leafy branches 

that they had cut from the fields.

Those preceding him as well as those following kept crying out:

“Hosanna!

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!

Blessed is the kingdom of our father David that is to come!

Hosanna in the highest!”

Or

JN 12:12-16

When the great crowd that had come to the feast heard 

that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, 

they took palm branches and went out to meet him, and cried out:

“Hosanna!

“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord,

the king of Israel.”

Jesus found an ass and sat upon it, as is written:

Fear no more, O daughter Zion;

see, your king comes, seated upon an ass’s colt.

His disciples did not understand this at first, 

but when Jesus had been glorified 

they remembered that these things were written about him 

and that they had done this for him.

At The Mass - Reading 1

IS 50:4-7

The Lord GOD has given me

a well-trained tongue,

that I might know how to speak to the weary

a word that will rouse them.

Morning after morning

he opens my ear that I may hear;

and I have not rebelled,

have not turned back.

I gave my back to those who beat me,

my cheeks to those who plucked my beard;

my face I did not shield

from buffets and spitting.

The Lord GOD is my help,

therefore I am not disgraced;

I have set my face like flint,

knowing that I shall not be put to shame.

Responsorial Psalm

PS 22:8-9, 17-18, 19-20, 23-24

R. (2a) My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?

All who see me scoff at me;

they mock me with parted lips, they wag their heads:

“He relied on the LORD; let him deliver him,

let him rescue him, if he loves him.”

R. My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?

Indeed, many dogs surround me,

a pack of evildoers closes in upon me;

They have pierced my hands and my feet;

I can count all my bones.

R. My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?

They divide my garments among them,

and for my vesture they cast lots.

But you, O LORD, be not far from me;

O my help, hasten to aid me.

R. My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?

I will proclaim your name to my brethren;

in the midst of the assembly I will praise you:

“You who fear the LORD, praise him;

all you descendants of Jacob, give glory to him;

revere him, all you descendants of Israel!”

R. My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?

Reading 2

PHIL 2:6-11

Christ Jesus, though he was in the form of God,

did not regard equality with God

something to be grasped.

Rather, he emptied himself,

taking the form of a slave,

coming in human likeness;

and found human in appearance,

he humbled himself,

becoming obedient to the point of death,

even death on a cross.

Because of this, God greatly exalted him

and bestowed on him the name

which is above every name,

that at the name of Jesus

every knee should bend,

of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

and every tongue confess that

Jesus Christ is Lord,

to the glory of God the Father.

Verse Before The Gospel

PHIL 2:8-9

Christ became obedient to the point of death,

even death on a cross.

Because of this, God greatly exalted him

and bestowed on him the name which is above every name.

Gospel

MK 14:1—15:47

The Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread 

were to take place in two days’ time.

So the chief priests and the scribes were seeking a way 

to arrest him by treachery and put him to death.

They said, “Not during the festival, 

for fear that there may be a riot among the people.”

When he was in Bethany reclining at table 

in the house of Simon the leper, 

a woman came with an alabaster jar of perfumed oil,

costly genuine spikenard.

She broke the alabaster jar and poured it on his head.

There were some who were indignant.

“Why has there been this waste of perfumed oil?

It could have been sold for more than three hundred days’ wages 

and the money given to the poor.”

They were infuriated with her.

Jesus said, “Let her alone.

Why do you make trouble for her?

She has done a good thing for me.

The poor you will always have with you, 

and whenever you wish you can do good to them, 

but you will not always have me.

She has done what she could.

She has anticipated anointing my body for burial.

Amen, I say to you,

wherever the gospel is proclaimed to the whole world,

what she has done will be told in memory of her.”

Then Judas Iscariot, one of the Twelve, 

went off to the chief priests to hand him over to them.

When they heard him they were pleased and promised to pay him money.

Then he looked for an opportunity to hand him over.

On the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, 

when they sacrificed the Passover lamb, 

his disciples said to him,

“Where do you want us to go

and prepare for you to eat the Passover?”

He sent two of his disciples and said to them, 

“Go into the city and a man will meet you,

carrying a jar of water.

Follow him.

Wherever he enters, say to the master of the house,

‘The Teacher says, “Where is my guest room

where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?”’

Then he will show you a large upper room furnished and ready.

Make the preparations for us there.”

The disciples then went off, entered the city, 

and found it just as he had told them; 

and they prepared the Passover.

When it was evening, he came with the Twelve. 

And as they reclined at table and were eating, Jesus said,

“Amen, I say to you, one of you will betray me, 

one who is eating with me.”

They began to be distressed and to say to him, one by one,

“Surely it is not I?”

He said to them,

“One of the Twelve, the one who dips with me into the dish.

For the Son of Man indeed goes, as it is written of him,

but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed.

It would be better for that man if he had never been born.”

While they were eating,

he took bread, said the blessing,

broke it, and gave it to them, and said, 

“Take it; this is my body.”

Then he took a cup, gave thanks, and gave it to them, 

and they all drank from it.

He said to them,

“This is my blood of the covenant,

which will be shed for many.

Amen, I say to you,

I shall not drink again the fruit of the vine 

until the day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.”

Then, after singing a hymn,

they went out to the Mount of Olives.

Then Jesus said to them, 

“All of you will have your faith shaken, for it is written:

I will strike the shepherd,

and the sheep will be dispersed.

But after I have been raised up,

I shall go before you to Galilee.”

Peter said to him, 

“Even though all should have their faith shaken,

mine will not be.”

Then Jesus said to him,

“Amen, I say to you, 

this very night before the cock crows twice

you will deny me three times.”

But he vehemently replied, 

“Even though I should have to die with you,

I will not deny you.”

And they all spoke similarly.

Then they came to a place named Gethsemane, 

and he said to his disciples,

“Sit here while I pray.”

He took with him Peter, James, and John, 

and began to be troubled and distressed.

Then he said to them, “My soul is sorrowful even to death.

Remain here and keep watch.”

He advanced a little and fell to the ground and prayed

that if it were possible the hour might pass by him; 

he said, “Abba, Father, all things are possible to you.

Take this cup away from me,

but not what I will but what you will.”

When he returned he found them asleep.

He said to Peter, “Simon, are you asleep?

Could you not keep watch for one hour?

Watch and pray that you may not undergo the test.

The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.”

Withdrawing again, he prayed, saying the same thing.

Then he returned once more and found them asleep, 

for they could not keep their eyes open 

and did not know what to answer him.

He returned a third time and said to them, 

“Are you still sleeping and taking your rest?

It is enough. The hour has come.

Behold, the Son of Man is to be handed over to sinners.

Get up, let us go.

See, my betrayer is at hand.”

Then, while he was still speaking,

Judas, one of the Twelve, arrived, 

accompanied by a crowd with swords and clubs 

who had come from the chief priests,

the scribes, and the elders.

His betrayer had arranged a signal with them, saying, 

“The man I shall kiss is the one; 

arrest him and lead him away securely.”

He came and immediately went over to him and said,

“Rabbi.” And he kissed him.

At this they laid hands on him and arrested him.

One of the bystanders drew his sword,

struck the high priest’s servant, and cut off his ear.

Jesus said to them in reply,

“Have you come out as against a robber, 

with swords and clubs, to seize me?

Day after day I was with you teaching in the temple area, 

yet you did not arrest me; 

but that the Scriptures may be fulfilled.”

And they all left him and fled.

Now a young man followed him

wearing nothing but a linen cloth about his body.

They seized him,

but he left the cloth behind and ran off naked.

They led Jesus away to the high priest,

and all the chief priests and the elders and the scribes came together.

Peter followed him at a distance into the high priest’s courtyard 

and was seated with the guards, warming himself at the fire.

The chief priests and the entire Sanhedrin

kept trying to obtain testimony against Jesus 

in order to put him to death, but they found none.

Many gave false witness against him,

but their testimony did not agree.

Some took the stand and testified falsely against him,

alleging, “We heard him say,

‘I will destroy this temple made with hands

and within three days I will build another

not made with hands.’”

Even so their testimony did not agree.

The high priest rose before the assembly and questioned Jesus,

saying, “Have you no answer?

What are these men testifying against you?”

But he was silent and answered nothing.

Again the high priest asked him and said to him, 

“Are you the Christ, the son of the Blessed One?”

Then Jesus answered, “I am;

and ‘you will see the Son of Man

seated at the right hand of the Power

and coming with the clouds of heaven.’”

At that the high priest tore his garments and said,

“hat further need have we of witnesses?

You have heard the blasphemy.

What do you think?”

They all condemned him as deserving to die.

Some began to spit on him.

They blindfolded him and struck him and said to him, “Prophesy!”

And the guards greeted him with blows.

While Peter was below in the courtyard, 

one of the high priest’s maids came along.

Seeing Peter warming himself,

she looked intently at him and said,

“You too were with the Nazarene, Jesus.”

But he denied it saying,

“I neither know nor understand what you are talking about.”

So he went out into the outer court.

Then the cock crowed.

The maid saw him and began again to say to the bystanders,

“This man is one of them.”

Once again he denied it.

A little later the bystanders said to Peter once more, 

“Surely you are one of them; for you too are a Galilean.”

He began to curse and to swear, 

“I do not know this man about whom you are talking.”

And immediately a cock crowed a second time.

Then Peter remembered the word that Jesus had said to him, 

“Before the cock crows twice you will deny me three times.”

He broke down and wept.

As soon as morning came, 

the chief priests with the elders and the scribes, 

that is, the whole Sanhedrin held a council.

They bound Jesus, led him away, and handed him over to Pilate.

Pilate questioned him,

“Are you the king of the Jews?”

He said to him in reply, “You say so.”

The chief priests accused him of many things.

Again Pilate questioned him,

“Have you no answer?

See how many things they accuse you of.”

Jesus gave him no further answer, so that Pilate was amazed.

Now on the occasion of the feast he used to release to them

one prisoner whom they requested.

A man called Barabbas was then in prison 

along with the rebels who had committed murder in a rebellion.

The crowd came forward and began to ask him

to do for them as he was accustomed.

Pilate answered, 

“Do you want me to release to you the king of the Jews?”

For he knew that it was out of envy 

that the chief priests had handed him over.

But the chief priests stirred up the crowd 

to have him release Barabbas for them instead.

Pilate again said to them in reply,

“Then what do you want me to do 

with the man you call the king of the Jews?”

They shouted again, “Crucify him.”

Pilate said to them, “Why? What evil has he done?”

They only shouted the louder, “Crucify him.”

So Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd,

released Barabbas to them and, after he had Jesus scourged,

handed him over to be crucified.

The soldiers led him away inside the palace, 

that is, the praetorium, and assembled the whole cohort.

They clothed him in purple and, 

weaving a crown of thorns, placed it on him.

They began to salute him with, AHail, King of the Jews!” 

and kept striking his head with a reed and spitting upon him.

They knelt before him in homage.

And when they had mocked him,

they stripped him of the purple cloak,

dressed him in his own clothes,

and led him out to crucify him.

They pressed into service a passer-by, Simon,

a Cyrenian, who was coming in from the country,

the father of Alexander and Rufus,

to carry his cross.

They brought him to the place of Golgotha

— which is translated Place of the Skull —

They gave him wine drugged with myrrh,

but he did not take it.

Then they crucified him and divided his garments 

by casting lots for them to see what each should take.

It was nine o’clock in the morning when they crucified him.

The inscription of the charge against him read,

“The King of the Jews.”

With him they crucified two revolutionaries, 

one on his right and one on his left.

Those passing by reviled him,

shaking their heads and saying,

“Aha! You who would destroy the temple

and rebuild it in three days,

save yourself by coming down from the cross.”

Likewise the chief priests, with the scribes, 

mocked him among themselves and said, 

“He saved others; he cannot save himself.

Let the Christ, the King of Israel,

come down now from the cross

that we may see and believe.”

Those who were crucified with him also kept abusing him.

At noon darkness came over the whole land

until three in the afternoon.

And at three o’clock Jesus cried out in a loud voice, 

“Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?”

which is translated,

“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

Some of the bystanders who heard it said, 

“Look, he is calling Elijah.”

One of them ran, soaked a sponge with wine, put it on a reed 

and gave it to him to drink saying, 

“Wait, let us see if Elijah comes to take him down.”

Jesus gave a loud cry and breathed his last.

Here all kneel and pause for a short time.

The veil of the sanctuary was torn in two from top to bottom.

When the centurion who stood facing him

saw how he breathed his last he said, 

“Truly this man was the Son of God!”

There were also women looking on from a distance.

Among them were Mary Magdalene, 

Mary the mother of the younger James and of Joses, and Salome.

These women had followed him when he was in Galilee

and ministered to him.

There were also many other women

who had come up with him to Jerusalem.

When it was already evening,

since it was the day of preparation,

the day before the sabbath, Joseph of Arimathea,

a distinguished member of the council,

who was himself awaiting the kingdom of God,

came and courageously went to Pilate

and asked for the body of Jesus.

Pilate was amazed that he was already dead.

He summoned the centurion

and asked him if Jesus had already died.

And when he learned of it from the centurion, 

he gave the body to Joseph.

Having bought a linen cloth, he took him down,

wrapped him in the linen cloth,

and laid him in a tomb that had been hewn out of the rock.

Then he rolled a stone against the entrance to the tomb.

Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses

watched where he was laid.

Or

MK 15:1-39

As soon as morning came, 

the chief priests with the elders and the scribes, 

that is, the whole Sanhedrin held a council.

They bound Jesus, led him away, and handed him over to Pilate.

Pilate questioned him,

“Are you the king of the Jews?”

He said to him in reply, “You say so.”

The chief priests accused him of many things.

Again Pilate questioned him,

“Have you no answer?

See how many things they accuse you of.”

Jesus gave him no further answer, so that Pilate was amazed.

Now on the occasion of the feast he used to release to them

one prisoner whom they requested.

A man called Barabbas was then in prison 

along with the rebels who had committed murder in a rebellion.

The crowd came forward and began to ask him

to do for them as he was accustomed.

Pilate answered, 

“Do you want me to release to you the king of the Jews?”

For he knew that it was out of envy 

that the chief priests had handed him over.

But the chief priests stirred up the crowd 

to have him release Barabbas for them instead.

Pilate again said to them in reply,

“Then what do you want me to do 

with the man you call the king of the Jews?”

They shouted again, “Crucify him.”

Pilate said to them, “Why? What evil has he done?”

They only shouted the louder, “Crucify him.”

So Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd,

released Barabbas to them and, after he had Jesus scourged,

handed him over to be crucified.

The soldiers led him away inside the palace, 

that is, the praetorium, and assembled the whole cohort.

They clothed him in purple and, 

weaving a crown of thorns, placed it on him.

They began to salute him with, “Hail, King of the Jews!” 

and kept striking his head with a reed and spitting upon him.

They knelt before him in homage.

And when they had mocked him,

they stripped him of the purple cloak,

dressed him in his own clothes,

and led him out to crucify him.

They pressed into service a passer-by, Simon,

a Cyrenian, who was coming in from the country,

the father of Alexander and Rufus,

to carry his cross.

They brought him to the place of Golgotha

—which is translated Place of the Skull —

They gave him wine drugged with myrrh,

but he did not take it.

Then they crucified him and divided his garments 

by casting lots for them to see what each should take.

It was nine o’clock in the morning when they crucified him.

The inscription of the charge against him read,

“The King of the Jews.”

With him they crucified two revolutionaries, 

one on his right and one on his left.

Those passing by reviled him,

shaking their heads and saying,

“Aha! You who would destroy the temple

and rebuild it in three days,

save yourself by coming down from the cross.”

Likewise the chief priests, with the scribes, 

mocked him among themselves and said, 

“He saved others; he cannot save himself.

Let the Christ, the King of Israel,

come down now from the cross

that we may see and believe.”

Those who were crucified with him also kept abusing him.

At noon darkness came over the whole land

until three in the afternoon.

And at three o’clock Jesus cried out in a loud voice, 

“Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?”

which is translated,

“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

Some of the bystanders who heard it said, 

“Look, he is calling Elijah.”

One of them ran, soaked a sponge with wine, put it on a reed 

and gave it to him to drink saying, 

“Wait, let us see if Elijah comes to take him down.”

Jesus gave a loud cry and breathed his last.

Here all kneel and pause for a short time.

The veil of the sanctuary was torn in two from top to bottom.

When the centurion who stood facing him

saw how he breathed his last he said, 

“Truly this man was the Son of God!”