By Archbishop Thomas Wenski - The Archdiocese of Miami

Archbishop Thomas Wenski preached this homily at the annual chrism Mass, where priests renew their vows, those marking milestone anniversaries of ordination are honored, and the holy oils that will be used in parishes throughout the coming year are blessed. The Mass was celebrated the Tuesday of Holy Week, March 30, 2021, at St. Mary Cathedral.

“Psalm 133 proclaims: “How good and how pleasant it is, when brothers dwell together as one.” And then the psalmist adds: “It is as fragrant as fine oil running down the beard of Aaron.” Today we gather to bless the oils – those fragrant oils used in our sacramental ministry.

It is wonderful to see all of you here – and in greater numbers than last year. In a special way, I greet our jubilarians – I won’t call out all their names now for fear of lengthening the homily, but their example inspires us today as we renew our commitment to serve God’s people as his ordained ministers.

We are also joined by our seminarians, those men in black and those serving the altar. We are blessed with 55 young men studying for the priesthood for this Archdiocese, including eight deacons who will be ordained on May 8. (That ordination, in order to accommodate the greatest possible participation of their families and friends as well as the priests [because of social distancing], will take place at St. Thomas University’s sports’ center on Saturday, May 8.)

About this time last year, a couple of seminarians were said to have experienced a bit of a vocation crisis because it seemed that priests were not being considered as “essential.” But, even when because of the “lockdown” we did not have public Masses, you priests continued to offer the people of God the essential service of your prayers. Even when we were “locked down” we were still open – and I applaud not only the resilience but also the creativity of the priests of this Archdiocese to adapt to the circumstances and to serve and to find new ways of being present to your people. One priest told me that he worked harder during the lockdown – making phone calls, sending emails, learning new skills with livestream Masses and ZOOM – than he had worked prior to the pandemic. If the Lord takes us to it, he will see us through it.

And praise God, he has. Since our public Masses resumed at the end of May, no one has claimed to have been infected by COVID-19 because he or she attended Mass or received Holy Communion – whether in the hand or on the tongue. I thank you for your hard work, I thank you for your efforts to follow our protocols. Let’s keep it up until we put the coronavirus pandemic in our rear-view mirrors.

This year the participation of members of Christ’s faithful at this chrism Mass is reduced because we still must observe social distancing – but in previous years one of the highlights of the chrism Mass was the recessional, when as the priests exited the Church, the people expressed their love and appreciation for all of you with sustained applause. That was always a big shot in the arm for all of us.

And the people of God do love their priests (and hopefully their bishops – despite what you might read on those blogs). If it was once true that the people placed us on a pedestal as if we were some plaster saints, it is certainly not true now. But they genuinely do love us “warts and all.”

When necessary, they will – and they should – offer us their fraternal correction, which we should receive with humility. The People of God tolerate our accents, but they do expect us to try to communicate clearly; they endure patiently our homilies, but they do want us to put in the effort to prepare well. Most understand that we were not trained as MBAs and so they want us to know what we don’t know and to count on their expertise to assist us in our stewardship of their parishes. They will generally forgive most of our faults and foibles but not arrogance or greed.

And, brothers, they are scandalized when a priest to whom they turn to forgive their sins is himself not forgiving of others. Yes, it is a scandal to the people of God when a priest contradicts what he preaches by holding on to grudges; by nursing his anger over slights whether imagined or real. Such churlish behavior does not befit a Christian man or woman, much less a priest. Such corrosive resentment undermines the effectiveness of our priestly ministry. As somebody once said: “Resentment is like taking poison yourself and then expecting the other person to die.”

Since shortly we will renew the promises we professed on the day of our ordinations, I offer for your reflection and prayer the words of St. Ignatius of Antioch who, shortly before his being fed to the lions, offered these words of exhortation to the presbyters of his time:

“So, then it behooves you to run in harmony with the mind of the bishop, as you are already doing. For your honorable presbytery, which is worthy of God, is attuned to the bishop, even as its strings to a harp. Therefore, in your concord and harmonious love, Jesus Christ is sung.”

Let us resolve that in our ministry that Jesus Christ be sung. For the Church has no song, no identity as the people of God apart from our communion with the presbyterate, and the presbyterate has no identity apart from its internal unity as “attuned” to the bishop. Together, and only together, can we sing Jesus Christ; that is, proclaim the Gospel in authentic word and deed.

If everyone in the Church presumed to act in his or her own name or on his or her own authority, we would have only cacophony and not harmony. Likewise, a priest is not a lone agent, a long ranger – with his own agenda. As the Second Vatican Council taught: “In the name of the bishop, (priests) gather the family of God as sisters and brothers endowed with the spirit of unity and lead it in Christ through the Spirit to God the Father” (PO #6). Again, the Council exhorts priests to “help each other” so that they all are “united with their brother priests by the bond of charity, prayer and total cooperation.”

We may not sing in unison to be sure; but only through our unity can we sing in harmony.

We achieve this harmony, by God’s grace, if we remember that we are not to preach ourselves but Christ. If the mantra of the rapper Tupac Shakur was “All Eyez on Me,” ours should be: “All eyes on Jesus.”

Brothers, it is good for us to be here!