By Archbishop Thomas Wenski - The Archdiocese of Miami
Homily by Archbishop Thomas Wenski at 2026 Chrism Mass at St. Mary Cathedral. March 31, 2026.
It is wonderful to see all of you here – priests, deacons, religious and members of Christ’s faithful. In a special way, I greet our jubilarians – and actually I am one of them. I celebrate 50 years of priesthood. And next year, God willing, I will celebrate another jubilee: 30 years of episcopal ministry.
I am privileged to be a member of this presbyterate and to be your Archbishop. The example of these jubilarians should inspires me and should inspire all of us today as we priests 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 almost 60 young men studying for the priesthood for this Archdiocese, including nine deacons who will be ordained to the priesthood in May.
“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.
The word “Christian” simply means “anointed one” – our anointing means that we belong to Christ. But, as St. Ignatius of Antioch once said, “It is not enough to be called Christians, we must be Christians.
Hopefully, the prayers and practices of our Lenten observances have helped us to be better Christians.
“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord has anointed me”. May that Holy Spirit be newly effective in all of us so that we will be joyful witnesses of the good news, “to bring glad tidings to the lowly, to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives... to comfort all who mourn...”
Today, in our communities, in our parishes, we find ourselves in the midst of people desperately in need of “glad tidings”. An ill-conceived and blindly executed policy of “mass deportation” rounds up hundreds, thousands really, who have not committed serious crimes, breaking up families, sowing fear and distrust in our neighborhoods. Immigration status of thousands of our Haitian, Venezuelan, Nicaraguan, and yes even Cuban brothers and sisters hangs in the balance. We see gang violence in Haiti and continued repression in Cuba which teeters on a humanitarian crisis and in Nicaragua, a country that has expelled more than 300 bishops, priests, seminarians and religious, the regime has forbidden ordinations to the priesthood in four dioceses. The war in the Middle East worries all of us, especially those of our parishioners with sons and daughters in harm’s way as they serve in our nation’s armed forces.
Yes, we live in a world of fragile peace and of broken promises, a world in which hope is in short supply for too many. It is a world desperately in need of “glad tidings”.
As we prepare for the Sacred Triduum, the commemoration of the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Our Lord, let us remember that we cannot look at the crucified Christ without looking at those crucified before our very eyes – and see him in them. Sin can harden our hearts and blind us to the sufferings of those around us. To celebrate the passion of the Lord means to rekindle in our hearts compassion – compassion for the poor among us, for the lonely; compassion for the sick, for the imprisoned, for the irregular migrant; compassion for those of broken hearts or broken spirits.
Since shortly we, priests, 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 lone 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.
Brothers, we were anointed not for privilege but for mission.
My brothers and sisters in Christ, today, all priests feel a special stirring in our hearts as we recall the events that transpired in that upper room on the eve of Christ’s passion. Like Peter when Jesus drew near him to wash his feet, we can protest our unworthiness. And, if we don’t, you, God’s holy people, will. You will no doubt remind us of our unworthiness. And this is perhaps fitting – for our gift – the gift of priesthood – is not given to us for our sakes but for yours.
Please do remember our unworthiness – but not to throw it in our faces, for most of us, most of the time, are acutely aware of our faults and shortcomings. But do remember our unworthiness – and so pray for us. Pray for your priests. All of you want and need good and faithful priests. You must never tire of asking this of God on your behalf and on ours. Pray that we be the priests you need, the priests you deserve. Pray that you will never lack for such priests.
