Chrism Mass 2009 - Sermon
CHRISM MASS HOMILY 2009
The Spirit of the Lord has been given to me
For he has anointed me Luke 4:16
Dogs have a nose which is about a million times more sensitive than humans – at least that is what Wikapedia told me. That is just as well because if we were more like dogs we might have stranger ways of greeting people than just shaking hands. Though not as important as it is for other animals, our sense of smell does have the ability to recall half forgotten memories. A particular smell can unlock memories from the recesses of or minds whether it is the smell of cakes baking in the kitchen oven reminding us of childhood, a musty smell reminding us of grandma’s front room, or perfume reminding us of a particular person who wore it. Personally I cannot smell wood smoke with out being transported thousands of miles back to the middle of Africa. Smells can remind us of good or bad experiences; that is because the part of the brain that deals with smells also deals with memories and emotions.
Every year as a nation we spend millions of pounds on potions and lotions, after shave and soaps to make us smell fragrant. Other smells, of course, are not quite so agreeable. Some of us will remember the life boy advert when a courageous person whispered those terrifying words BO in his friend’s ear! Our sense of smell is important not least in our worship, yet it is strange how the beautiful smell of incense can so easily upset the protestant heart. You may know the quip to someone who complains about incense – there are only two smells in the after life, incense and brimstone and you ought to get used to one.
The bible too also speaks about fragrance. After the flood Noah offered up sacrifices to God that were said to be a pleasing aroma. (Gen 8:20) In the book of Leviticus God commanded the Israelites to put oil and incense in the grain offering so that it would be a sweet fragrance to the Lord. (Lev 2:1-3)
The Epistle of to the Ephesians describes the Cross of our Lord in similar terms. as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God, linking it back to those earlier sacrifices. As we approach the commemoration of the Lord’s Passion we might ask how such a barbaric death could be enjoyed by God. The answer is found when we contemplate the perfect offering of love Christ made to the Father. For many centuries there was a pious belief that the cross was made of the sweet smelling cedar wood. Just as the wood, made into an instrument of torture and death, could produce a sweet smell so suffering and death could by God be transformed into a supreme act of love and redemption.
Today’s Mass, in which the oils of Catechumens and Healing are also blessed, gets its name from the most noble of the three- Chrism. The oil of Chrism is named after Christ ‘the anointed one’. Like the other two it is pure olive oil but with a difference, it is mixed with sweet smelling perfume - often balsam. Unlike the other oil it is said to be consecrated rather than simply blessed.
St Cyril of Jerusalem writing in the fourth century having compared Christ’s anointing with the Holy Spirit at his baptism with anointing at Christian baptism describes Chrism like this.
But be sure not to regard Chrism merely as ointment. Just as the bread of the Eucharist after the invocation of the Holy Spirit is no longer just bread, but the body of Christ. So when the Holy Spirit has been invoked on the holy chrism it is no longer mere or ordinary ointment; it is the gift of Christ, which through the presence of the Holy Spirit instils his divinity into us.
The particular symbolism of Chrism springs from its fragrance, representing the outpouring of the Holy Spirit filling all things.
I spoke a little earlier of St Paul in the Epistle to the Ephesians speaking of Christ’s offering of himself as a sweet fragrance. In the Second Epistle to the Church of Corinth he goes further.
But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumph, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are the aroma of Christ to God 2 Cor 2:14 -15
Here St Paul is not thinking of the sweet smelling sacrifices of the Old Testament but of the triumphant processions of the Roman Empire. A great victory of a general was celebrated with a triumphal parade through the streets in which the prisoners and the booty would be displayed for all to see. Included in the procession would men and women carrying burning incense so that even those who could not see would know in the surrounding streets of the arrival of the triumphant general. In Christ’s victorious procession celebrating his victory over sin and death we are like the incense bearers wafting the smell of triumph and victory to those around us.
We are the aroma of Christ he says
In the same passage Paul asks ’Who can rise to this challenge?’ Who can possibly live up to it? The answer, of course, is no one except with God’s grace- his help to enable us to do what he calls us to do.
It is no accident that this perfumed Chrism is used in the sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation and Holy Order to remind us of the call to be the aroma of Christ.
The Spirit of the Lord has been given to me
For he has anointed me
Those words were spoken by Jesus of himself quoting the prophecy of Isaiah but they also speak of us who have been christened, who have put on Christ at our baptism. As members of Christ body we have been called, chosen and anointed.
St Paul tells us in the Epistle to the Philippians that Christ emptied himself taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of man. He disrobed himself and became as we are. Jesus put on our clothes; the joys and the sorrows of being human and not least the fear and experience of death. Here is that mysterious exchange. He has taken our garments but he has given us his.
As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourself with Christ’ Gal 3:26 Says St Paul in the Epistle to the Galatians
So close is the union through baptism that it is like putting on Christ as if he were an overcoat. He has taken what was ours and given us back what is his. Earlier in the same epistle St Paul said ‘It is no longer I but Christ who lives in me’. Brothers and sisters that is your great dignity as a Christian, signified by the anointing the crown of the head with the oil of Chrism recalling the anointing of Kings in the Old Testament.
The anointing with Chrism at Baptism is followed by a further anointing with Chrism at Confirmation. This anointing is on another part of the body. This time it is on the forehead. Now baptism is to Confirmation as Easter is to Pentecost. At Pentecost the events of Easter are made public and reach out across the world. At confirmation the baptised, sealed with anew gift of the Spirit, are called to witness to what they are. It is a call to the common witness and service of the whole people of God.
Baptism is indeed a precious gift but with it comes the responsibility – to witness by words and deeds -to be the aroma of Christ in our world. The danger is the opposite can happen and our lives can be the equivalent of a bad odour, but when ever we Christians live out our baptism and Confirm in an authentic way we will give out a strong and wholesome fragrance.
The Spirit of the Lord has been given to me
For he has anointed me
Though those words might be addressed to all of us they have a particular significance for those of us who, though part of that wider body of Christ, exercise a particular ministry in the ordained priesthood. The anointing with Chrism at an ordination is on the hands marked with the sign of the cross. Why hands? - Because they are the tools of a priests work. They represent for the faithful the holy hands of the master which took bread and wine and said the blessing but a few hours later were spread wide apart on the wood of the cross. It is through our hands that we make the fruit of the cross available to his faithful through the Holy Eucharist. We put our hands at his disposal. After I have anointed the hands of a new priest at his ordination I hand him a paten with hosts on it and a chalice with wine in it and say:
‘Accept from the Holy people of God the gifts to be offered to him, Know what you are doing and imitate the mystery you celebrate: model your life on the mystery of the Lord’s cross’.
What is the mystery? It is the mystery of Christ’s total offering to the Father in unconditional love. Because we represent Christ in a particular way, because at the altar we stand in his person, we have a special responsibility to be his aroma in the world. We need I believe to rediscover the sense of sacrifice in Christian ministry which often seems to be lacking in today’s Church. Only recently I was talking to a bishop about an ordinand who decided not to serve in a parish because it was too difficult – one wonders why he wanted to be ordained.
If you are like me you will be only too aware of how you fail to imitate the mystery of the cross in your life. But that failure is not a reason to give up but to cling more closely to his cross which is the only source of our strength.
This annual Chrism Mass is an opportunity for us as priests to reclaim our confidence in the Cross and again say ‘yes’ to the call of Christ to follow him which we first declared publicly at our ordination.