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Homily for Chrism Mass 2025
My dear brother priests and our beloved priestly people, magandang umaga po sa inyong lahat.
Every year, on Maundy Thrusday morning of the Holy Week, we gather together not just to bless the fresh oils for the sacramental acts of anointing to be celebrated in all our Churches throughout the year. But more importantly, we do this in order to be reminded of our deepest identity as a people anointed for mission. And the line from today’s Gospel that echoes in my heart is this: “He has anointed me.” Can you please say that to yourself now?
It is easy to think of anointing in terms of honor, dignity, and even distinction. But in Scripture, anointing is never for status—it is always for mission. The Spirit of the Lord is given, not just to elevate, but to send: to bring good news to the poor, to proclaim liberty, to heal, to console, to celebrate a Jubilee where debts are forgiven. Imagine owing a lot of money and unable to pay it to the point of fearing losing your land and your home or even landing in jail, only to be told, “Wala ka nang utang!” Please say that to each other. Of course you would want to know who had paid it for you. Tomorrow, on Good Friday, you will have your answer when you look up at the cross, being unveiled before you in stages, to reveal to you the broken body of the one who has paid our debts dearly with his own life, for love of us.
The good news of the cross is the same Jubilee message that came out of the mouth of Jesus when the Spirit anointed him to fulfill in his life and mission the words of the prophet Isaiah. This is the same Spirit that anointed David, the shepherd boy, after Samuel found him among Jesse’s sons. And in today’s responsorial psalm, we hear the Lord say, “I have anointed him so that my hand may always be with him, and that my arm may make him strong.” That is what ministry is about. It is not about us carrying out our personal projects or ambitions. It is about participating in the Lord’s mission.
Jesus stood up in the synagogue to read the Scripture. But he sat down afterwards, perhaps expecting that the old Rabbi of his hometown might share a reflection on what he had read. But Luke tells us “All eyes were fixed on him.” He had already sat down with the people to listen, but the people’s eyes continued to be fixed at him, silently begging him with a non-verbal request, “Please, let God speak to us.”
He did not stand up. He remained seated as he acceded to the request. And the words that he said contained the shortest homily ever delivered, which said, “This Scripture passage is fulfilled this very moment.” Fulfilled—not in a vacuum, but in his very person. I have read the same passage and now your eyes are fixed on me. But I want you today to fix your eyes on each other as members of his one Body, the Church. That includes, not just us ordained ministers, but also all of us, the baptized. Through baptism and confirmation we all have received the same anointing to be part of the Lord’s mission. We all are called to fulfill this Scripture passage. It is what our anointing is for.
Let me say this clearly to my brother priests: we were not anointed in order to monopolize the anointing. We were anointed to serve the anointed. That is the profound beauty of our priesthood: we exist so that the whole community may live fully its identity as a priestly people.
We are ministers, not proprietors, of God’s grace. And the anointing we carry is meant to be generously shared, poured out abundantly, passed on like the five loaves and fishes that had been blessed, broken and given, so that the whole Church, nourished by his own body and blood, may be a beacon of hope and healing in our wounded world.
This is especially urgent in our Philippine context today, where so many of our people—especially the poor—are tempted to fall into despair, apathy, or bitterness. Instead of hope, what many of our leaders sow is resentment, the tendency to look for someone to blame for our misery. Instead of truth, we are flooded with disinformation and falsehood, especially through the social media.
But we cannot allow this tide to sweep away our mission. We have been anointed for such a time as this. To be agents of hope to the brokenhearted, liberation for those languishing in the dark prison cells of addiction (especially to online gambling through casinos that are now made legal and available 24/7 to bleed you white of your hard-earned money), healing for those wounded by indifference (especially to the families of victims of lawless “law enforcers”), and consolation for those who are grieving—those who need to hear the Lord who said, “I will be with you always until the end of time.” That is our vocation—not only as clergy, but as Church.
I am reminded of St. Paul’s charge to Timothy:
“The time will come when people will not tolerate sound teaching… but you, be self-possessed in all circumstances; put up with hardship; perform the work of a messenger of good news; fulfill your ministry.”
Ministerium tuum imple. That was the episcopal motto of my mentor, the emeritus Archbishop of San Fernando, Pampanga, Abp. Paciano Aniceto whom we fondly call Apu Ceto. “Fulfill your ministry.” Not your own personal agenda, but God’s ministry—the mission of Christ entrusted to his Body, the Church.
It is not so often that you see this many priests co-presiding in the celebration of the Eucharist in this Cathedral. They are here, or should I say, we are all here today to renew our priestly promises today. But dear brothers, let us do so in communion with our faithful, who are themselves anointed and sent.
And to you, beloved lay faithful: please know that your baptismal anointing is not less than ours. You, too, are sent. You, too, are part of the fulfillment of God’s Word in our time. Together, let us be the Body of Christ—anointed and united for mission—to our society and to the world.
Amen.
