Chrism Mass 2025

 Most Reverend José H. Gomez
 Archbishop of Los Angeles
 
 Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels
 April 14, 2025

 My brothers and sisters in Christ, and my brother priests:^[1] 
 
It’s always a joy that we gather for this Chrism Mass as the whole family of God here in Los Angeles.
 
And this night is special, as we celebrate during this Jubilee Year, this Year of Hope.
 
And as I was reflecting, in this beautiful night, I was thinking that this Chrism Mass is always a celebration of our hope and the Church’s hope.
 
The oils that we bring for blessing and consecration — the oils of catechumens, the oil of the sick, the sacred chrism — these are signs of our hope, signs of our anointing at Baptism and Confirmation.
 
We have been anointed with the “oil of gladness in place of mourning,” the prophet tells us in the first reading.
 
We share in the anointing that Jesus speaks of in tonight’s Gospel, when he says: “The Spirit the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me.”
 
By this anointing, each of us has received the Spirit and been made a child of God and an heir of Jesus and the hope of his resurrection — the hope of eternal life, the hope of the kingdom that he promises to those who love him.^[2]
 
The Book of Revelation tells us tonight that Jesus “loves us and has freed us from our sins by his Blood.”
 
My dear brothers and sisters, we can build our whole lives on this strong foundation, on the hope that he has shown to us by his love, and the shedding of his Blood!
 
And this hope means that whatever happens in our lives — whatever sufferings we’re asked to endure, whatever dark valleys we’re called to walk — we can be certain that Jesus is walking with us, and that he will always give us the strength we need.
 
This hope means we can know that Jesus will love us until the end. It means that when our earthly life is over, we can be sure that the God who is Love will be waiting to welcome us.
 
It is, indeed, a moment of special grace when we reflect on this Chrism Mass, on the joy of hope.
 
My dear brother priests: Jesus has entrusted us with the duty to be guardians and ministers of this great hope.
 
Once again in the Chrism Mass, Our Lord is calling us to renew the vows of our priestly ordination, and our priestly identity which is rooted in his love.
 
Tonight, we are invited to reflect on the nobility of our priestly calling.
 
As his priests, we are called to be men whose hearts are shaped by our friendship with Jesus and by the ministry that he has entrusted to us: by the sacred mysteries that we celebrate every day at the altar, and by our care and compassion for the people we serve.
 
With Jesus, we preach the word of hope, and at the altar we make that hope real. With Jesus, we walk with our people, guiding them along the pathway of hope.
 
So brothers, this Jubilee Year is a special time for all of us to become more intentional about helping our people to live as people of hope.
 
In our preaching and teaching, in our pastoral counseling and accompaniment, let’s keep building our people up, let’s keep helping them to grow in their trust and confidence in God’s plan for their lives.
 
Let’s keep walking with them, helping them to know that Jesus is with us and that he wants to bring us to the promised land, to the blessed life with God in heaven!
 
I’ve also been reflecting, on how we have a foretaste, a promise of heaven, every time we celebrate the Holy Eucharist.
 
As we know, the apostles and early Church Fathers had a great awareness that in the Eucharist our worship participates in the heavenly liturgy, and that every time we celebrate the Mass here on earth we anticipate the glory of the world to come.
 
They used to call the Eucharist, as we probably know, “the medicine of immortality, the antidote of death, and the food that makes us live forever in Jesus Christ.”^[3]
 
So, my dear brothers, as we renew our vows tonight, let us ask for the grace to bring that same awareness, that same intense longing for heaven, to our celebrations of the Eucharist.
 
And my dear brothers and sisters: let us all be renewed tonight in our blessed hope that as we share in his Body and Blood, we will have eternal life, and he will raise us up on the last day.^[4]
 
It is really a moment to think on the presence of God in our lives and how we are called to have hope be set in the goal of our life in going to heaven.
 
May our Blessed Mother Mary, the Mother of Hope, help us tonight and always to be people of hope, living our anointing with joy and confidence, and sharing with everyone the hope that we have in her Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.

^[1] Readings: Isa. 61:1–3a, 6a, 8b–9; Ps. 89:21–22, 25, 27; Rev. 1:5–8; Luke 4:16–21.
^[2] Rom. 8:17; Titus 3:7; James 2:5.
^[3] Catechism, 1402–1405, 1419. 
^[4] John 6:51, 54.