CHRISM MASS

HOMILY OF POPE FRANCIS READ BY CARDINAL DOMENICO CALCAGNO

Saint Peter's Basilica

Holy Thursday, April 17, 2025

Dear bishops and priests, dear brothers and sisters!

“The Alpha and the Omega, who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Ruler of the universe” (Rev 1:8) is Jesus. This is precisely the Jesus Luke describes to us in the synagogue of Nazareth, in the midst of those who have known him since childhood and who are now astonished by him. The revelation—the “apocalypse”—is offered within the limits of time and space: the flesh is like a pillar that sustains hope. The flesh of Jesus and our own. The last book of the Bible recounts this hope. It does so in an original way, melting all apocalyptic fears in the light of crucified love. In Jesus, the book of history is opened and can be read.

We priests also have a story: by renewing our ordination promises on Holy Thursday, we confess that we can only read it in Jesus of Nazareth. “He who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood” (Rev 1:5) also opens the scroll of our lives and teaches us to find the passages that reveal its meaning and mission. When we allow ourselves to be instructed by Him, our ministry becomes a ministry of hope, because in each of our stories, God opens a jubilee, that is, a time and an oasis of grace. Let us ask ourselves: am I learning to read my life? Or am I afraid to do so?

It is an entire people who find rest when the Jubilee begins in our lives: not once every twenty-five years—we hope!—but in the daily closeness of the priest to his people, in which the prophecies of justice and peace are fulfilled. “He has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father” (Rev 1:6): this is the people of God. This kingdom of priests is not the same as a clergy. The “we” that Jesus shapes is a people whose borders we cannot see, whose walls and customs posts are falling away. He who says, “Behold, I make all things new” (Rev 21:5) has torn the veil of the temple and is reserving for humanity a garden city, the new Jerusalem with its ever-open gates (Rev 21:25). Thus, Jesus reads and teaches us to read the ministerial priesthood as a pure service to the priestly people who will soon inhabit a city that does not need a temple.

The Jubilee Year, therefore, represents for us priests a specific call to begin anew under the sign of conversion. Pilgrims of hope, to leave behind clericalism and become heralds of hope. Certainly, if the Alpha and Omega of our lives is Jesus, we too can encounter the opposition He experienced in Nazareth. The shepherd who loves his people does not live in search of consensus and approval at any cost. Yet, the faithfulness of love converts; the poor recognize this first, but it also unsettles and slowly draws others to it as well. “Behold, every eye will see him, even those who pierced him; and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over him. Yes! Amen!” (Rev 1:7).

We are gathered here, dear friends, to make our own and repeat this “Yes, Amen!” It is the confession of faith of God’s people: “Yes, it is so, it stands like a rock!” The passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus, which we are about to relive, are the ground that firmly supports the Church and, within it, our priestly ministry. And what is this ground? In what soil can we not only stand, but flourish? To understand this, we must return to Nazareth, as Saint Charles de Foucauld so aptly foresaw.

“He came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. As was his custom, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read” (Luke 4:16). We have mentioned at least two habits here: attending the synagogue and reading. Our lives are sustained by good habits. They may wither, but they reveal where our heart lies. Jesus’ heart is one in love with the Word of God: at twelve years old, this was already understood, and now, as an adult, the Scriptures are his home. This is the soil, the vital humus, that we find when we become his disciples. “The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. He opened it and found the passage” (Luke 4:17). Jesus knows what he is looking for. The synagogue ritual allowed for this: after the reading of the Torah, each rabbi could find prophetic passages to make the message relevant to his life. But here, there is much more: there is the page of his life. Luke means this: among the many prophecies, Jesus chooses the one he wants to fulfill.

Dear priests, each of us has a Word to fulfill. Each of us has a relationship with the Word of God that comes from afar. We can only put it at the service of all when the Bible remains our primary home. In it, each of us has pages that are dear to us. This is beautiful and important! Let us also help others find the pages of their lives: perhaps married couples, when they choose the readings for their wedding; or those who are grieving and who are looking for passages to entrust the deceased to God's mercy and the prayers of the community. There is, generally, a page of vocation at the beginning of each of our journeys. Through it, if we keep it, God calls us again so that love may not grow cold.

However, for each of us, the page chosen by Jesus is also, and in a particular way, important. We follow Him, and that is why we are concerned and involved in His mission. “He opened the scroll and found the place where it is written:

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because the Lord has anointed me. He has sent me to bring good news to the poor, to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. Then Jesus closed the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fixed on him” (Lk 4:17-20).

All our eyes are now fixed on Him. He announces a jubilee. He doesn't do so like someone speaking about others. He says, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me," like someone who knows which Spirit he is speaking of. And indeed, he adds, "Today this passage of Scripture that you have just heard is fulfilled." It is divine: that the Word becomes reality. Actions now speak, words are fulfilled. It is new, it is powerful. "Behold, I make all things new." There is no grace, there is no Messiah, if promises remain promises, if they do not become reality here below. Everything is transformed.

This is the Spirit we invoke upon our priesthood: we have been invested with it, and the Spirit of Jesus remains the silent protagonist of our service. The people feel its breath when words become reality within us. The poor, above all others, children, adolescents, women, and even those who have been wounded in their relationship with the Church, have a "sense" of the Holy Spirit: they distinguish it from other worldly spirits, they recognize it in the convergence within us of proclamation and life. We can become a fulfilled prophecy, and that is beautiful! The Holy Chrism, which we consecrate today, seals this transforming mystery in the different stages of Christian life. And be careful: never be discouraged, for this is God's work. Believe, yes! Believe that God does not fail me! God never fails. Remember this word from the Ordination: "May God Himself complete in you what He has begun." And he does it.

It is God's work, not ours: to bring good news to the poor, deliverance to the captives, sight to the blind, and freedom to the oppressed. Jesus found this passage in the scroll, and he continues to read it in each person's life story today. First, because until our last day, it is always He who evangelizes us, who frees us from our prisons, who opens our eyes, who lifts the burdens on our shoulders. Second, because by calling us to his mission and sacramentally incorporating us into his life, he also liberates others through us. Generally speaking, without our even realizing it. Our priesthood becomes a jubilee ministry, like his, without fanfare: in a consecration not proclaimed, but radical and freely given. This is the Kingdom of God, the one spoken of in the parables, effective and discreet like leaven, silent like the seed. How many times have children recognized this in us? And are we able to say thank you?

God alone knows how abundant the harvest is. We, the laborers, experience both the toil and the joy of the harvest. We live after Christ, in the Messianic age. Let us banish despair! Restitution and remission of debts; redistribution of responsibilities and resources: this is what the people of God await. They want to participate in it and, by virtue of Baptism, they are a great priestly people. The oils we consecrate in this solemn celebration are for their consolation and Messianic joy.

The field is the world. Our common home, so wounded, and human fraternity, so denied yet indelible, call us to choices made for the sake of the fields. God's harvest is for all: a living field, in which a hundred times more grows than what was sown. May the joy of the Kingdom, which rewards every effort, inspire us in our mission. Every farmer, indeed, knows seasons when nothing grows. There are such seasons in our lives as well. It is God who makes things grow and who anoints his servants with the oil of joy.

Dear faithful, people of hope, pray today for the joy of priests. May the liberation promised by Scripture and nourished by the sacraments come to you. Many fears dwell within us, and terrible injustices surround us, but a new world has already dawned. God so loved the world that he gave us his Son, Jesus. He anoints our wounds and dries our tears. “Behold, he is coming with the clouds” (Rev 1:7). To him be the kingdom and the glory forever. Amen.