Chrism Mass 2022

Most Reverend José H. Gomez
Archbishop of Los Angeles

Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels
April 11, 2022

My dear brother priests, my brothers and sisters in Christ,¹

It is a special joy for all of us to gather this evening and especially that we can get together — can be together in person. Thanks be to God!

Today we continue to pray for the people of Ukraine. Yesterday Pope Francis asked us to pray this week in a special way for the end of the war. In his Angelus Address, Pope Francis said, asking the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, he said: “Nothing is impossible for God.”²

We entrust this to him through the intercession of the Virgin Mary. And let us especially keep praying for that intention today and this week.

These days, starting especially with yesterday as we started Holy Week — these days, but in the last few weeks also, we are having beautiful signs that the Church is alive in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.

About a week ago, as you probably know, we held our Jubilee Year Camino. About two thousand of us made the 11-mile procession from Mission San Gabriel Arcángel to the Cathedral.

It was a beautiful celebration. It was a spiritual pilgrimage. I’m sure that some of you were there. Some of us went throughout the 11 miles and we are still alive. But it was a spiritual pilgrimage. People were so happy, praying the Rosary, singing. And the  people we met along all along the way were excited and happy that we were doing it because they knew that we were doing it for Jesus.

Yesterday, Palm Sunday, had great attendance here at the Cathedral and I’m sure that it was the same at many parishes in the Archdiocese. Again, thanks be to God!

The Church is all of us together — bishops and priests and deacons, religious and consecrated men and women, seminarians, the lay faithful. We are, as we know, the family of God. And that is what we celebrate tonight in the Chrism Mass.

The second reading tonight tells us: “Jesus Christ … loves us, and has freed us from our sins by his Blood,” and he “has made us into a kingdom, priests for his God and Father.”

So this ancient rite that we celebrate tonight, bringing the oils to the bishop for blessing and consecration — the oils of catechumens, the oil of the sick, the sacred chrism — is a sign of our priestly mission.

When we consecrate something, we are asking God to take it, and to make it sacred; we are dedicating something for God to use for his purposes.

So we offer God these oils tonight, we also offer him our hearts. We ask God to take our hearts and to make us holy; we ask God to make us instruments in the service of his kingdom of love.

This is the meaning of our common priesthood, the priesthood that belongs to all of us, by our baptism. We were reflecting on that this afternoon in our time of prayer.

We are anointed in baptism into the joy of the Gospel, the joy of God, who rejoices that we are his children. Our baptism gives our lives direction and mission.

God calls us to be servants of his joy and to bring his joy to everyone we meet — the “oil of gladness in place of mourning,” as the prophet says in the first reading of today’s Mass.

So my dear brothers and sisters, our neighbors need us! Our families need us. Our society needs us. Especially now when there is so much trouble in our world.

So let us rededicate ourselves tonight to our “priestly” mission as the family of God.

Let us ask for the grace to make everyday our altar, offering everything we do for Jesus! Always looking to find new ways to bring others to meet him and to know our joy!

My brother priests, for you and for me, this is also a joyful night, when we renew the promises that we made in our ordination!

And I will say that the Chrism Mass is always special for me, and I know it is for you. On this night, I personally remember my vocation, especially the time when I first heard God’s voice calling me to the priesthood. I was thinking:  Why me? And I think this is a question that we have all asked ourselves.

And our Lord does not call us because we are perfect, and sometimes it is true that we cannot see what he sees in us, why is he calling us. But that does not stop Jesus. He finds us where we are, and he leads us to where he wants us to be.

Pope Francis reminds us that even the apostles were just ordinary men. But our Holy Father says, nothing will “discourage [Jesus] from using each of us to write the history of salvation."³

Brothers, that is true! The history of salvation continues in your priesthood, and in mine.

Jesus calls us to be apostles, missionaries. And our people need us right now — in these times of war, these times of social change and division, in this world that is struggling after the pandemic.

And as we heard in the Gospel tonight, Jesus anoints us, as he was anointed — to bring glad tidings to the poor.

This is why he called us to be his priests!

He calls us now, once again, to proclaim the good news that he gave his life on the cross for us; that by his tender mercies we can know forgiveness; that by his love, we can leave the past behind, and make a new beginning in him.

So my brothers, Jesus is sending us in this moment in salvation history — to help our people to hope again, to become saints, to go to heaven!

So let’s proclaim the call to holiness, a life lived in harmony with the Gospel — this is what our people are looking for! And I know that’s what is in our heart too. So let us dedicate ourselves tonight to bring our people back to a new encounter with the living Lord who meets us in the Eucharist and the sacraments!

So my dear brothers and sisters, in a moment our priests will renew publicly their priestly promises. Let us pray for them. I know that we do it, but let us pray for them again one more time. Let us be close to our priests as they are close to us.

The Church is, as I said, all of us. And it is beautiful to see the Church alive! The Church is alive, because Jesus Christ is alive, and because he is walking with us. Let us never forget that!

Jesus goes with us in all our hopes and in all the struggles of our daily lives, in all the little ways that we are striving for holiness, trying to do our best, giving glory to God and loving our neighbors.

So let us praise God tonight for all his blessings! It is a day of joy — a day when we are together, giving thanks to God and when we are renewing our commitment to become missionary disciples.

And let us ask Our Lady, Queen of the Angels, to help us to keep going, always forward in our mission.