Chrism Mass 2023

Most Reverend José H. Gomez
Archbishop of Los Angeles

Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels
April 3, 2023

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ,¹

It’s beautiful to see all of you here tonight. It is always very special to be together for our Chrism Mass at the beginning of Holy Week.

But as we gather tonight, we are missing someone. Our dear friend, Bishop Dave O’Connell.

It has been a long, sad Lent since he was called to God, and this is, I think, the first Chrism Mass without him that any of us can remember.

We miss our friend, but tonight we praise God for the beautiful priestly life that he led.

Bishop Dave was a “priest’s priest,” who gave his heart to Jesus and loved him to the end; a man of prayer and a man who cared for the salvation of every soul.

He touched all of us with the simplicity and authenticity of his life and ministry. And I know that he is praying for us tonight, but especially for our priests, as we prepare to renew the promises we made on our ordination day.

Each year, the Chrism Mass is a liturgy of renewal. Not only for priests, but for every one of us in the Church. Tonight we renew our identity as Catholics, as believers and followers of Jesus Christ, and as sons and daughters in the family of God, his Church.

The holy oils that we are blessing and that will be sent to your parishes are the sign of that identity.

In the sacraments, the Lord uses the holy oils and holy chrism to anoint his people, to put his Spirit upon us.

Each of us who has been baptized and confirmed can say, as Our Lord says in the Gospel: “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me.”

By this anointing, Jesus gives our lives a new destiny and mission.

If we follow Jesus, he promises that we can become holy as he is holy, that we can live in friendship with the One who made us, that we can know a love that never ends.²

This is the goal of our lives: to become holy men and women, to become saints!

But of course we know: we will never be made perfect, this side of heaven. One of the saints said: “Conversion is the task of a moment; sanctification is the work of a lifetime.”³And we know that that is true.

Holiness is not our work, but Our Lord’s work in us. So, we pray tonight for the courage to let Jesus change us! And we ask for the grace to renew our excitement for this great work of striving for holiness, which is the work of our lifetimes!

The prophet tells us in the first reading: “You yourselves shall be named priests of the Lord, ministers of our God shall you be called.”

This is who we are. All of us! Not only those who are ordained. Every one of us in the Church is called to be a priest of the Lord and a minister of God.

So my dear brothers and sisters, you are called to be priests and ministers of everyday life! You are called to bring God into the world and to reveal his love to the people around you.

So many people in our world today are longing to find God! And they are looking for us, for the Church, to show them the way.

So, this is the Church’s mission.

We have been given the gift of faith. We know that Jesus is real, that his love is real, that he really died for us, and that it is worth everything to give our lives to him.

So we need to share that beautiful reality, that truth with everyone we meet. We need to show them, too, by the example of our lives, that our faith in Jesus is the most precious thing in our lives, the pearl of great price.⁴

And my dear brother priests, in God’s plan you are the ones who are called to lead us in this beautiful mission.

Tonight we will renew the promises we made when we first gave our lives to Jesus, when he first anointed us with the holy chrism.⁵

The Lord gave us the Eucharist as his farewell gift on his last night on earth, the night we remember as Holy Thursday. On that night, he also gave us the gift of the priesthood.  

And my dear brothers, there is no Eucharist without the priesthood. Your ministry is absolutely essential to the Lord’s plan for the world’s redemption.

Before he ascended into heaven, Jesus promised: “Behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.”⁶

In his holy Eucharist, Jesus keeps his promise. And brothers, he can only keep his promise through you — through the sacred mysteries that he places in your hands at the altar.

You are “priests for his God and Father.” Now and forever.⁷ There is no more important calling in all the world.

The priesthood is a sacred fraternity. We are brothers in spiritual arms, and our beautiful mission is to bring Jesus into the world, to open the world to the promise of his love.

So my dear brothers, let us ask the Lord tonight to strengthen the bonds of our priestly fraternity and the bonds of unity in the Church.

Let us pray for that unity and fraternity in every Eucharist that we celebrate — that the world may come to know that Jesus is real and that his love for us is true!

And my dear brothers and sisters, let us keep praying for our priests — tonight and always. Because only our priests can bring us Jesus in the power of the Most Holy Eucharist.

And tonight we entrust ourselves to Blessed Mary, mother of the Church and mother of priests. 

May she guide as we continue to walk in friendship with her Son, striving for holiness and to bring everyone to know the reality of his love.