Most Reverend Joseph C. Bambera, D.D., J.C.L.
Bishop of Scranton
HOMILY
Chrism Mass – April 18, 2011
One year ago next Tuesday, we gathered in this great Cathedral in prayer and called forth the presence of the Holy Spirit as I was ordained and installed for service to God’s people as the tenth Bishop of Scranton. … It has been an incredible year. Perhaps even more so for you. I thank you for your kind embrace and welcome of me in a different role than I’ve had within the Church of Scranton for the first twenty-seven years of my life as a priest.
In Advent I wrote a pastoral letter to the people of our Diocese. As I prepare to articulate a vision for our future as a local Church, I asked for your thoughts, your concerns, your hopes and your dreams for the Church in these eleven counties of northeastern and north central Pennsylvania that we know as the Diocese of Scranton. You having been most accommodating to my request. I’ve received hundreds of responses to those questions, some as a result of parish dialogue and many from individuals who simply love the Church and have a deep, abiding love for the God in whom they place their faith.
Here are some of the most striking things that I’ve heard from you. With no bitterness or anger, I’ve heard many of you – before offering any other thoughts – share a sadness that comes from loss – personal losses due to death or sickness – but also losses that come from the closing of church buildings and parishes that mean so much to us and schools where we and our children grew in wisdom, knowledge and faith.
I’ve heard many of you share confusion and pain due to the sex abuse crisis that sadly continues to unfold in our Church – a crisis that has robbed many of the most vulnerable in our midst of their innocence and peace – a crisis that has rightfully shaken the confidence that so many have had in the leaders of our Church, priests and bishops alike – a crisis that has been an embarrassment and source of great pain for many, many faithful priests like you who gather in this Cathedral today.
I’ve heard many of you express the struggles you face as you seek to embrace Catholic values and live in a Christ like manner in the midst of a world that is also changing and challenging the basic beliefs that we Christians have sought to maintain down through the ages.
Now I imagine at this moment, many of you are wondering if I’ve heard or seen anything that is hopeful or promising as we look to the future. … I have. But the reality of what so many have shared so readily reminds me that as Christians, drawn through Baptism into the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, we can’t embrace the hope of Easter without first embracing the reality of the life of Jesus – of Good Friday, the wounds of our lives and brokenness of our world. To do so is to side-step, to avoid so much of life – through which we suffer – but also through which we grow and through which our faith is deepened.
Our gathering this evening invites us to reflect upon the priesthood of Jesus Christ. That reflection begins at Baptism, when each of us was given the gift of sharing in the priestly identity of Jesus.
Oils will soon be blessed in this Chrism Mass: the Oil of the Sick and the Oil of Catechumens. A third oil, the Chrism, will be consecrated. Both the Oil of Catechumens and the Sacred Chrism were used to anoint us when we were born again of water and the Holy Spirit in the Sacrament of Baptism. Through our anointing with the Oil of Catechumens, we were given wisdom and strength, so that we would acquire a deeper understanding of the Gospel and assistance to accept the challenge of Christian living. By being anointed with Sacred Chrism, we were transformed into the likeness of Christ and given a share in his royal, priestly and prophetic work. So in, with and through Christ, each of us – the baptized – is anointed and sent forth to bring the glad tidings of God’s love to everyone. … Through the blessing of all of the baptized, we begin to have hope. We begin to sense the realization of the promises given to us through faith.
Some of us from among the baptized have been called to share also in Jesus’ ministerial priesthood through the Sacrament of Holy Orders, as deacons, priests and bishops. My brother priests, if all the baptized are to be living signs of God’s love, how much more must we be such a living sign! After all, through the Sacrament of Holy Orders, we are conformed in a unique way to Christ – Priest, Teacher and Pastor.
Saint John Vianney so beautifully tells us: “The Priesthood is the love of the heart of Jesus.” We priests, who have answered the Lord’s call, must be living signs of God’s love. And we can be – we will be – if our lives are rooted in the Mystery of the Eucharist and conformed to the mystery of the Lord’s Cross.
My brothers, the priesthood – our priesthood that we celebrate today – is not about us. It is about Christ and the love he reveals for the salvation of his people to whom he sends us. As such, our person cannot eclipse our mission. Pope Benedict XVI put it this way in his exhortation Sacramentum caritatis: “Priests should be conscious of the fact that in their ministry they must never put themselves or their personal opinions in first place, but Jesus Christ. … The priest is above all a servant of others, and he must continually work at being a sign pointing to Christ, a docile instrument in the Lord’s hands.” … Through the blessing of the ministerial priesthood, we begin to see further signs of hope and promise – even in the midst of a broken and wounded world.
It’s not by accident that the Chrism Mass is traditionally to be celebrated on Holy Thursday – the same day when we celebrate the Mass of the Lord’s Supper – the gift of the Eucharist – and the powerful example of servant-leadership offered to us by the Jesus himself as he washed the feet of his disciples. “As I have done, so you must do.”
Those words of Jesus speak to my heart and I hope to yours as well. Can you picture Jesus bending down to wash the feet of his disciples? Can you imagine their astonishment at this unexpected and extraordinary gesture of service? The gesture of Jesus brings all of who we are as his disciples full circle. The washing of feet is a veiled reference to baptism – not so much in terms of the rite itself – but the relationship that baptism has with the death of Jesus. To have a part with Jesus through washing means to be part of the self-giving love that will bring Jesus’ life to an end. To be a disciple means risking all to love – even if it leads to death.
Jesus calls us to stretch ourselves in faith, hope and love – to reach out in love as generously as we can to find and serve him in the ones who need him the most – and to transform our hurting world into the Reign of God spoken of by Jesus – a reign of justice and love, of compassion and mercy. … My brother priests – my brothers and sisters – it’s not an easy path that we have embraced. Yet it’s the only path that makes any sense – that can give us true meaning in life. … You know it and I know it as well.
And so, I return to a question posed a while ago in my reflections: Have I heard or seen anything that is hopeful or promising as I’ve walked through this Diocese during the past year? … Yes.
Take a look around this Cathedral. While each of us brings to this gathering a story of struggle and pain, I also see an encouraging story. I see a Church very much alive. If we really understand who we are, we would know that this place is filled with the presence of God. … I see bishops, priests, deacons, religious, and a faith-filled people united through baptism with a common mission and purpose – to proclaim the Good News of Jesus and to give flesh and substance to that message through lives of selfless, faithful service.
I’ve seen and heard a married couple at a newly established parish express their sadness to me at losing a beloved church building – but I also heard them acknowledge the joy of celebrating their faith in a new place, filled with people and an energy and excitement rooted in a relationship with the Lord.
I’ve listened to a family whose young son spent months in Geisinger Hospital in Danville speak with incredible pride and appreciation for their pastor. In the midst of running a large parish, he made the almost four hour round trip to Danville to visit the child and his family not just once – but every week – for months – praying with them, listening to them, crying with them and eventually celebrating the Lord’s healing.
This past week following the difficult announcement to adjust our Catholic school system, I heard these hopeful and promising words from a parent of four children whose school was being closed. She said that she brought her four children with her to an open house in the school that they would be attending in the fall. Listen to what she wrote: “They were all smiles as they paraded through their “new school,” wondering about their new teachers and new friends. Of course, we were all saddened that it is not “our” school, but I think children are a lot more adaptable than adults, and I think we are even learning from them this week. The children are, and will be, just fine. They are lucky to have parents that care enough to send them to Catholic schools, regardless of the building, and the morals and values they have been taught thus far are showing in their gracious acceptance of this change.”
Just a few weeks ago I witnessed another sign of hope. An orphanage in Nanticoke that served children for over seven decades and then closed and fell into disrepair become transformed into living spaces for the poor and elderly through the efforts of Catholic Social Services. But more than the transformation of bricks and mortar, I heard people who were raised in that very orphanage, including Father Frank Skitzki, one of our very own brother priests, express with tears in their eyes how new life emerged out of brokenness and loss.
Today, in a special way, I see God caring for his Church in the blessing of oils – oils which will be used to call souls to new life in Baptism – to comfort, forgive and heal those who are burdened by serious illness – to consecrate new churches and altars – to seal the baptized in the Holy Spirit and full ecclesial initiation in Confirmation – and to ordain men to the ministerial priesthood.
As these oils are shared with you and received in parishes throughout our Diocese, I see brothers and sisters joined together and with their bishop and yes, with the Church throughout the world – in communion and mission.
And I see a people anxious to place their wounds and brokenness, their blessings and gifts on the altar of the Lord – and in return – to receive back from the Lord his body and blood in the Eucharist – that which strengthens us for the journey of life and service and gives us hope and promise.
Have I heard or seen anything that is hopeful or promising as we look to the future. … Yes. Yes, indeed! And I pray that you have as well.
And from all that I have heard and seen, I speak for countless numbers of faith-filled people in the Diocese of Scranton in saying thank you – to our priests – for the gift of your ministry and your lives in the Church. … Thank you – to our permanent deacons and their wives and to all those in consecrated life. … Thank you as well to our seminarians – likely over 15 strong this coming fall – thank you for being open to the call of the Lord to journey with him and to embrace a life of service. … And on behalf of them – bishops, priests, deacons, religious and seminarians – I say thank you to all of the baptized for your example, for your willingness to journey with Christ, to face life’s struggles with dignity, to keep faith and so to discover a life of true meaning, purpose and peace.
May the example of the Lord Jesus, who washed the feet of his disciples console us and deepen our resolve to serve one another and so continue to build a people of faith, hope and love throughout our eleven counties. I am humbled and so very proud to be bishop of this wonderful blessing that we know as the Church of Scranton.
