Oil of anointing should overflow to people, pope says

Pope Francis blesses the oil during the Chrism Mass at St. Peter's Basilica.
(Photo grabbed from Vatican Radio's Facebook page)

The oil of anointing a priest received on his ordination should overflow to the people whom he is sent to serve and love, Pope Francis said. 

More than simply lending fragrance to the person, the oil that a priest is anointed with on his ordination is meant for the poor, prisoners and the sick, for those who are sorrowing and alone, said the Holy Father in his homily during the first Chrism Mass he celebrated as bishop of Rome at St. Peter’s Basilica. 

He said that as ordained ministers, priests carry upon their shoulders and in their hearts, the burdens and faces of the people they are called to serve.  

The redemptive efficacy of the priests’ anointing can only be experienced by going “to the ‘outskirts’ where there is suffering, bloodshed, blindness that longs for sight, and prisoners in thrall to many evil masters,” he said. 

When people are anointed with the oil of gladness, they leave the Mass looking as if they heard the good news, the pontiff said. 

The pope said people like to hear the gospel preached in a way that touches the reality of their lives. 

“People thank us because they feel that we have prayed over the realities of their everyday lives, their troubles, their joys, their burdens and their hopes,” he said. 

He said people are encouraged to ask for prayers and entrust their cares and burdens to priests because “they feel that the fragrance of the Anointed One, of Christ, has come to them through us, they feel encouraged to entrust to us everything they want to bring before the Lord,” the pope said. 

“When we have this relationship with God and with his people, and grace passes through us, then we are priests, mediators between God and men,” the pope said.  

But priests become mediators only if they go out of themselves and bring the Gospel to others, the pontiff said. 

He said too much introspection will not lead one to encounter the Lord but in giving oneself and the Gospel to others. 

“A priest who seldom goes out of himself, who anoints little, misses out on the best of our people, on what can stir the depths of his priestly heart,” said the pope. 

The pope also noted that the threat of the “so-called crisis of priestly identity threatens us all and adds to the broader cultural crisis; but if we can resist its onslaught, we will be able to put out in the name of the Lord and cast our nets.” 

He said “it is not a bad thing that reality itself forces us to ‘put out into the deep’, where what we are by grace is clearly seen as pure grace, out into the deep of the contemporary world, where the only thing that counts is ‘unction’ – not function – and the nets which overflow with fish are those cast solely in the name of the One in whom we have put our trust: Jesus.”

The pope also exhorted the faithful to care for the priests and offer prayers for them “that they may always be shepherds according to God’s heart.” (CBCPNews)

Bishop urges priests to live simply, humbly

Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas

The clergy would be more effective ministers to their flocks if their lives are lived with greater humility and simplicity, a Catholic bishop said. 

The Church has been hurt a lot because of some priests’ arrogance and lifestyle that contrasts with their calling as ministers of Christ, Archbishop Socrates Villegas of Lingayen-Dagupan said on Holy Thursday during a Chrism Mass celebrated at St. John Evangelist Cathedral. 

As ordained ministers, Villegas said, priests act in the person of Christ when they preside the sacraments and offer the Holy Mass. 

“[But] what kind of priests who act in the person of Christ the head must we be? Are we really signs of Christ the head for his body the Church?” Villegas asked. 

As signs of Christ the head, priests must mirror in their lives the love and care Jesus has for his body, the Church.  

Explaining the analogy of the spiritual headship to that of a physical head, the prelate pointed out that whether “bald or hairy, grey or black, all heads need a body,” and “a head that has no body is dead”, in the same way “a body that has no head is dead.”  

“In other words, the first duty of a good head is to remember that it is only part of a body; that cut off from the body, the head loses life. The head cannot go right while the body goes the other way,” the archbishop further explained. 

He said ears and eyes have been put in the same level on the head to show that “the duty of the head is to watch with love and care.” 

According to him, the strength of a good leader lies in his capacity to listen with respect and obedience to those under his care. 

And this explains why the lips have been put below the eyes and ears, “because talking is the least of all our duties,” he said. 

Villegas told his priests to preach through actions more than words since “the most important role of headship is watching with care and listening with love.”  

When a priest has lost the capacity to listen patiently and lovingly to his flock, he is like a head without a body, the prelate said. 

“If we have lost the capacity to watch lovingly and listen tenderly, to keep quiet respectfully, to stop senseless murmurings trying to sound funny, and to resist useless chatter, we have in fact beheaded the body,” said Villegas. 

He urged the clergy to think with their hearts as “it is only love can save people from sin” and “only with the heart that we can see rightly.” 

“See the sinner in the confessional not with the mind of canon law but with the mercy of the heart of Jesus. See the beggar at the church door not with the eyes of first impression but with love and first intuition,” he stressed.  

He urged the priests to avoid the temptation of egoism by deepening their prayer life and frequenting the sacrament of confession.

Recalling the rite of ordination, Villegas said “the laying of hands over our heads continues to this day.” 

He said “the good priest must always remember that his head is under the hands of the Church, under the hands of the Lord. The head must learn how to kneel. The head must know how to bow.” 

He told them “humility is the only crown that the head must wear” as it is “the crown of all virtues.”  

In the same way, Villegas observed, the bishop wears his miter not a crown but as the “roof of God’s power” and “we are all under it” not as bosses but servants. 

“When you renew your priestly promises, promise also to be humble signs of Christ the head—always one with the body, always one with the heart, always under the power of the Lord,” the prelate said. “The sign cannot be the head itself. We must decrease so that Christ the head may increase.”  (CBCPNews)

Pope to young people: See you in Rio

Pope Francis toured around St. Peter's Square and greeted pilgrims after  presiding the Palm Sunday celebration on March 24. (Photo: Vatican Radio Facebook Page)

Pope Francis has announced his attendance to the 14^th international World Youth Day celebration set in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in July this year.

Addressing the youth among the hundreds of thousands of pilgrims present during the Palm Sunday celebration in St. Peter’s Square, the pope said he is set to go to Brazil for the World Youth Day celebrations following the footsteps of his two predecessors— Blessed John Paul II and Benedict XVI.

“I will see you in that great city in Brazil! Prepare well – prepare spiritually above all – in your communities, so that our gathering in Rio may be a sign of faith for the whole world,” the pope declared.

In his homily, the pope lauded the enthusiasm of the young in living their Christian faith, saying adults can learn a lot from their examples.

  

“You bring us the joy of faith and you tell us that we must live the faith with a young heart, always, even at the age of seventy or eighty,” the pope said.

Praising the youth’s fervor in sharing and living the faith, the pontiff said the young truly understood that only by giving oneself in loving service that one can find true joy.

He noted the young people’s devotion in carrying the pilgrim Cross across continents in response to Jesus’ call to “make disciples of all nations.”

“You carry it so as to tell everyone that on the Cross Jesus knocked down the wall of enmity that divides people and nations, and he brought reconciliation and peace,” the Holy Father said.

Young people have to proclaim the message of the good news of Jesus to all in the world, the pope continued.

"It is good to follow Jesus, it is good to go with Jesus, the message of Jesus is good, it is good to come out of ourselves, from the edges of existence of the world and to bring Jesus to others!" he said. (CBCPNews)