'A gift for God and the Church'
HUNTERSVILLE — A long line of priests filed two-by-two into St. Mark Church in Huntersville Tuesday afternoon as the hymn “To Jesus Christ Our Sovereign King” was sung by the parish choir. More than 100 priests from across the Diocese of Charlotte were together to renew the promises of their priesthood at the annual Chrism Mass celebrated by Bishop Michael Martin, OFM Conv.
Held each year at the beginning of Holy Week, this special liturgy is when oils used in the Church’s sacred rituals and sacraments are blessed and priests renew their promises and commitment to their ministry.
The priests were joined by more than 300 people who came to pray and worship with the men who serve them year-round and help bring them closer to Christ.
Bishop Martin’s homily drew from themes in the day’s readings from Isaiah, Revelation and Luke’s Gospel centered around the concept of the “suffering servant” – someone who endures pain, exhaustion and sometimes even mockery but still continues to do the work of the Lord. He also spoke about the special concept of being anointed, reflecting both on the holy oils used in anointing and the role that priests play in the life of the Church.
He told a story from early in his priesthood when as principal of a Catholic high school in Baltimore, he had the sad duty of accompanying the police to inform a family that their son, a sophomore, was killed in a car accident. Although the student’s mother was overcome with grief, his father requested that they all kneel on the living room floor to pray. That father, the bishop said, embodied the “suffering servant.”
“This man in the greatest agony of his life brought the comfort and consolation of prayer to that moment that needed it so much,” he said, comparing that moment to the role priests play in bringing solace to their parishioners, at times when they are encountering their own challenges.
Heading into the days leading up to the joy of Easter, he told his brother priests, “we must reflect upon our status as suffering servants and ask (God) the question many of us have been asking for years: ‘Why did you choose me? Why did you anoint me?’”
“The mystery of being anointed, the mystery of being chosen, is not something that we will ever have the certainty of understanding in this life,” he said, noting that God takes the goodness and the brokenness of all those who He calls and uses both for the greater good. “If He can take our faults, if He can take our needs and anoint them, the same can be true of the people of God. He will use our brokenness for His glory.”
He encouraged the clergy to reach beyond the walls of their churches in their pastoral ministry, saying the reason they have been anointed is “for the lowly, the broken, the captives, the prisoners and those who mourn. It is the brokenness of the world for which we have been anointed as His priests.”
After the homily, the priests renewed their priestly promises to the Church and the congregation joined in prayer for them. Bishop Martin then blessed the holy oils which are used in the sacraments of baptism, confirmation, ordination of priests and anointing of the sick, as well as the consecration of churches and altars.
At the end of the liturgy, Bishop Martin thanked the priests for their ministry and urged the people in the pews to support them, adding,“Never take them for granted. I certainly don’t.”
“These are men who have committed their lives to service,” he said. “They are flesh and blood. They have needs and they are also wounded healers – suffering servants who are blessed by the faithful when they reach out with a caring word.”
After the Mass, the priests received bottles of the oils to take back to their churches for use during the coming year.
Patricia Hayes, who attends St. Luke Church in Mint Hill, came to the Chrism Mass for the first time.
“I thought it was beautiful – a wonderful chance for us to pray for the men who do so much for us,” she said. “We are so fortunate to have these priests, and especially to have so many young men entering the priesthood. We are very blessed here.”
— Christina Lee Knauss. Photos by Troy C. Hull, Aidan Creter and Amy Burger.
