Return to Galilee
March 27, 2024
In my season of tears
March 27, 2024
By Kaelanne Jordan, mediarelations.camsel@catholictt.org
The priesthood is a gift not to be lauded over, but a calling to accompany, to journey with. It is also not a time to shrink away, step back, dumb down priesthood, or in some way make it less than everything God intends it to be.
Rather, “it is for such a time as this that you and I have been called to the priesthood. I say to you as Paul said to Timothy, fan into a flame the gifts that were given to you when hands were laid upon you,” Archbishop Charles Jason Gordon told his brother priests at the annual Chrism Mass, Monday, March 25, at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception.
Papal Nuncio Archbishop Santiago De Wit Guzmán and Archbishop Emeritus Robert Rivas OP were among those seated in the sanctuary.
The Archbishop emphasised that God has not given a spirit of timidity—He instead has given a spirit of love, boldness, and power for the transformation of humanity.
Encouraging the priests to renew their priestly promises at the Mass, the Archbishop reminded them if they have the courage to follow the Holy Father and move to where the spirit is leading them, “we would see graces that we can’t expect and we would see favours that might surprise us even in our time.”
Observing a sense of waiting among faithful, Archbishop Gordon said that everything needed for salvation, flourishing families, and personal holiness has already been given through Jesus.
“And if we live in a time as if we are somehow deficient or somehow waiting, or somehow not having everything that we need, I want you to pause for a moment, and reflect on Jesus’ words in the Gospel reading (Lk 4:16–21): this text is being fulfilled even as you listen….And that’s what we celebrate today in the Chrism Mass,” said the Archbishop.
He commented that God uses very strange instruments for the renewal of the world. He uses bread and wine at the altar, oil for the people in the sacramental system, and He uses human beings, including priests, frail and weak, to govern, sanctify and establish His Kingdom.
Archbishop Gordon recounted the tale of St Francis of Assisi, who, upon hearing of a scandal-ridden priest in a village, sought him out. When St Francis found the priest, he knelt before him, kissed his hands, and declared to the onlookers that even the most flawed priest had been consecrated by Jesus Christ, and therefore, every priest, regardless of their shortcomings, represents Christ Himself.
The oils consecrated and blessed at the Chrism Mass will be used in the Sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation, Anointing of the Sick, and Holy Orders. Each parish or ecclesial community receives its annual supply of these oils at the Mass.
