Sacred Oils

As warmer weather arrives most of us will be putting on sun screen.  Most sun screens have oils in them that help strengthen and protect the skin from the sun’s harmful rays.  Oil is not only an ingredient in sun screen, it is part of many of the products we use every day—

   -in lotion

   -in make-up

  - in motor oil  

  - in various cooking oils and other foods.

Oil smoothes, protects, and strengthens.  Oil changes us.

Oil is also used in many of our sacramental rites, primarily in baptism.  The Oil of Catechumens is used before the baptism.  The Sacred Chrism Oil is used after the baptism.  Both of these oils, along with the Oil of the Sick, are made of olive oil that has been prayed over by the Archbishop at the annual Chrism Mass.

We use olive oil because of its rich history.  In Jesus’ time, olive oil was used as fuel, in cooking and as medicine.  The Ancient Greeks believed that the human race received the olive tree as a gift from Athena, the goddess of wisdom and strength.  The words used during the pre-baptismal anointing reflect this: 

We anoint you with the oil of salvation in the name of Christ our Savior; may he strengthen you with his power who lives and reigns forever and ever.

The Latin root of the word “salvation” is related to a group of words meaning “health” and “safety.”  In the ancient world, it was thought that catechumens were particularly susceptible to the powers of evil.  Anointing them all over with the Oil of Catechumens before they were immersed in the baptismal waters was seen as making them slippery enough to escape the grip of evil so that they could be joined in baptism to Christ who had already won the victory over evil.

After baptism, an anointing with the Sacred Chrism, olive oil scented with balsam, takes place.  This makes the newly baptized the anointed of the Lord, something St. Cyril of Jerusalem spoke of in an ancient homily to the neophytes:

Next, after removing your garments you were rubbed with exorcised oil from the hair of your head to your toes, and so you became sharers in Jesus Christ, who is the cultivated olive tree.