Homilies

Chrism Mass (Maundy Thursday) , St Mary’s Cathedral, Sydney

29 Mar 2018
  

HOMILY FOR THE CHRISM MASS
St Mary’s Cathedral, Sydney, Maundy Thursday

The first thing we do as we enter the world, we do through our mouths: we scream our lungs out. The next thing we do is breathe through them. Soon after we suckle with them. It’s said that infants think of the universe as an enormous teat just for them, and only gradually come to terms with the fact that there are rivals for the attention and resources of the cosmos, other people wanting to be fed! Some never seem to learn that lesson…

Soon infants put almost anything they can into their mouths. They giggle and babble, and yell like sirens at dinner time, changing time and especially homily time. Ultimately the noises become speech, that precious instrument of thought and communication. But their every sound matters to their parents especially that first mum-mum-mum and da-da. Eventually the child learns to use their mouth to eat solids, taste, make faces, sing and kiss. As time goes on speech, tastes and kisses become more discerning, sophisticated, powerful – and so mouths even more significant.

It was an important organ in the biblical world as well. Some ate and drank well but others too much or greedily. Some kissed those they should and others those they should not. Some were judged slow-tongued and others too quick to speak; some said too little and others too much. Some the Scriptures warned spoke with forked tongue or empty words; they flattered or defamed, murmured or lied; others uttered blasphemy, filth and curses.1

St James thought that was why so few are called to be preachers or teachers. While the gift of speech can be used to speak to God or about God, he thought the tongue restless, poisonous, untameable, more often inclined to curse than bless. He called it “that small organ that makes great boasts”, that small spark that sets bushfires in people’s lives (Jas ch. 3). His assessment was rather bleak, but in an age of fake news and character assassination, it’s good to be reminded about people’s rights to reputation and to truth. James, for one, had heard too much gossip, whether about priests or by them, among Christians or against them.

The Bible is not always so biting. It counts some as people of clean lips, who praise God with their mouth or are moved by the Spirit’s gift of tongues: “I will bless the Lord at all times, his praise always on my lips”.2 Some speak truth and goodness, edifying words, words that reveal a noble heart within.3 God puts His words into some mouths that they might be His mouthpieces, revealing “every word that comes from the mouth of God”.4 “The Lord has given me a disciple’s tongue; so that I may know what to say to the weary, he provides me with speech” – so Isaiah declared at the beginning of Holy Week (Isa 50:4-7 Palm Sunday).

The mouth is in fact key to Holy Week. “Take this, eat; take this, drink” Jesus says, as He institutes His Eucharist and priesthood. After His portentous speech about receiving His broken Body and spilled Blood, they sing psalms and repair to the garden. More prayers are mouthed, now with deep sighs from our troubled Lord – and snoring from the newly-ordained. Then one appears and gives Jesus the kiss of death. As the story progresses we see all the uses and abuses of the tongue that James warned of. The authorities threaten. The witnesses lie. The crowd bays for blood. The soldiers spit. The by-standers jeer.

Jesus spoke little at this time. When He opened His mouth it was mostly to recite Psalms, praying His Divine Office. Psalm 22: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Psalm 31: “Into your hands I commend my spirit”. Psalm 69: “For my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.” As man He thirsted for water, as His tongue cleaved to His mouth; as God He thirsted for souls, as He gave Himself up for our sake. And having taken the vinegar the mouth of the man-God cried out “It is completed” and breathed its last.

Bishops, priests and deacons of Sydney: St James thought few were called to our ministry because the tongue is so unreliable. Through the Triduum we see what he means. Yet the Lord has given you disciples’ tongues, that you might speak to the weary. Your charge in today’s readings is to speak glad tidings to the down-hearted, healing words to the broken-hearted, liberating words to the heavy-hearted (Isa 61:1-9; Lk 4:16-21). So yours is a ministry of mouth to mouth.

At Baptism you bless the mouths of the little ones, as Christ did at the first Ephpheta (Mk 7:31-7). This the faithful renew each week when before the Gospel they sign their lips with the cross. Then they receive the Word of God from you. Before you proclaim it, however, you ask the Lord to cleanse your heart and lips. You kiss the Gospel book, kissing the One whose Word you give voice. Here in the Word of God truth and love are perfectly united: the same worthy lips that proclaim Christ then kiss Him devoutly.

To maintain your People on their spiritual journey, you feed them Christ’s words but also His Body. To celebrate that sacrament of love, you go up to the altar of Christ, and kiss Him, not with the kiss of Judas but with that of the devout woman who anointed him. At Communion time you pass that affection for God and from God to His people in the Sign of Peace. St Augustine, in an Easter sermon, explained that the Kiss of Peace testifies to the power of this sacrament to draw brothers and sisters in the Lord ever closer.5 That God would kiss you and your people could not be told more powerfully than when you place Him upon your tongue and theirs. As in the Word of God so here, in the Sacraments of God, love and truth are perfectly united: the same mouth that declares a Great Amen to His presence, devoutly receives His loving kiss in Holy Communion.

Lips and tongue have their place in every priestly ministry that our oils represent today: in mouthing readings, absolutions and blessings; in giving form to the matter of the sacraments; in preaching and praising, counselling and consoling; even speaking in parish meetings! In everything you must love truthfully, never offering less that the whole of Catholic truth, never tickling ears or compromising the faith for popularity sake, but making your words a foretaste of that beatific vision of divine truth to which we are called in heaven. And if in everything you must love truthfully, you must also communicate lovingly, never treating your sheep harshly, but always making your pastoral life an embrace from our affectionate God, an experience of that beatific union with divine love to which we are also called eternally. With your mouths, dear brothers, always speak the truth in love.

WORD OF THANKS AFTER THE CHRISM MASS
St Mary’s Cathedral, Sydney

My thanks to our bishops and priests who renewed their priestly vows today and daily renew that commitment by their service to God’s people. The oils we consecrated today also highlight the daily work of our priests and on behalf of the Bishops and the People of Sydney I thank them for that service. I thank also our deacons, seminarians, servers and choir.

I am grateful also to the people of Sydney who join with their priests in celebrating these holiest feasts, but also in celebrating the sacraments all year round. May God bless you fathers and your people in the Sacred Triduum ahead.

INTRODUCTION TO THE CHRISM MASS
St Mary’s Cathedral, Sydney, Maundy Thursday

Welcome to this year’s Chrism Mass. Our bishops and priests will today renew their priestly promises, as testimony to their communion with Christ the Priest; they will concelebrate with their bishop and each other, as testimony to their communion with each other; and they will consecrate the oils for the sacraments, as testimony to their communion with the people they serve sacramentally and in other ways.

I acknowledge the presence of auxiliary Bishops Terry Brady, Tony Randazzo and Richard Umbers, Vicar-General Gerry Gleeson, Dean Don Richardson, our seminary Rectors Danny Meagher and Eric Skruzny, our several vicars and deans, my dear brother priests, deacons and religious, and our beloved seminarians. I also welcome representatives of our parishes and schools.

We pray for those of our brothers who could not be with us today, especially due to sickness and frailty; and we pray for the repose of our brother priests who have died since our last Chrism Mass: Monsignors John Lyne, Eugene Harley and Greg Weaver, and Fathers John George, Kevin Muldoon and Peter Neville. Several religious priests who worked for or around our archdiocese also died: Redemptorist Fathers Frank Pidgeon and Peter Ryan, MSCs Mark McGuinness, Aubrey Collins and John Shallvey, Marist Father John Hill, Paulist Claude Borg, Vincentian Father Paul Dryden, Benedictine Simon Aloisi, Jesuit Fathers Paul Coleman, Ken McNamara and Tony Smith, and Passionists Tim O’Toole, Gerard Mahony and Peter McGrath.

We also celebrate with gratitude those priests who have passed major milestones. This we celebrate an extraordinary number of diamond jubilarians: David Coffey, John Ford, Michael Kelly, Paul Ryan, Ken Sargent, Don Willoughby and Brian Yates. Our golden boys are Canut Nguyen and Dan Donovan; forty years ordained are Gewrry Gleeson and Peni Folaumetu’i; our silver jubilarians Dinesh Macwan and Richard Gates; and any others I’ve missed! Between them 650 years of priestly service have been rendered to God and His people; add what the rest of you have given, and the vineyard of Sydney is truly blessed in its labourers! Since our last Chrism Mass we’ve also welcomed several new priests to Sydney, including the newly ordained Fathers Sebastian Hew and Gerard Woo Ling. You are all most welcome.

1 E.g. Isa 57:4; Ps 5:9; 12:3-4; 35:21;78:36; 64:3; 109:2; Prov 6:17; 15:4; 25:18; Sir 5:9; 28:13; Mt 15:17-18; Rom 3:13-14; Eph 5:4; Col 3:8; 1Tim 3:8; 1Jn 3:18.

2 E.g. Ps 34:1; 71:24; Isa 6:7; Acts 2:4; 1Cor 14:18-21; Phil 2:11; Jas 3:10.

3 E.g. Job 6:30; Prov 10:20-21; 12:19; 15:4; Mt 12:34; Acts 2:26; Eph 4:29.

4 E.g. Dt 8:3; 18:18; Jer 1:9;9:12; Isa 51:16; Mic 3:5; Prov 16:1; Mt 4:4; Lk 1:70; Acts 1:16.

5 St Augustine, Sermon 227.