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.

Putting on Christ

This weekend, we celebrate the gift of Motherhood.  One of the greatest joys of being a mother is being able to clothe your children.  What mother can resist splurging on that adorable infant apparel?  What mother can’t remember the outfit her baby wore when the baby came home from the hospital?   Besides appearance, clothing has obvious practical purposes.  Clothing helps protect from the harm of cold, wind, rain or other elements.  The act of clothing, then, is an act of care and of love.

The Church, like a mother, recognizes this and therefore includes the ritual of clothing with a white garment in the Rite of Baptism.  During the clothing with the white garment, the presider speaks these words:

You have become a new creation, and have clothed yourselves in Christ.  See in this white garment the outward sign of your Christian dignity.  With your family and friends to help you by word and example, bring that dignity unstained into the everlasting life of heaven.

The garment is an outward sign of Christ, as St. Paul said, a sign that we have “put on Christ.”  The garment is a symbol that in baptism we become new people, people who are loved and cared for by God and the Christian community.  Though children are often baptized already wearing their baptismal garments, the Church envisions that the garment be put on AFTER the baptism, so that the significance of the act of clothing can more clearly be seen. 

The Church Fathers often preached on the symbolism of the baptismal garment.  Theodore of Mopsuestia saw it as a sign of incorruptibility.  Gregory of Nyssa said it recalled the restoration of grace lost in the Fall.  In the book of Genesis, though Adam and Eve turn away from God, God clothes them in a final gesture of love and protection.  God’s grace ultimately has the last word over sin. 

Likewise, when a Catholic Christian dies, one of the last things the Church does is to clothe the casket with a white pall, a reminder of one’s baptismal garment, a reminder of the Church’s love and care, a reminder of God’s eternal grace.

Easter's 50 Days - From Death to Life

Have you ever noticed how water cleanses, refreshes, soothes, and even heals?

-- how water gathers people as on the beach? 

-- how water scatters people as in hurricanes?

-- how vast is the water in the ocean?  

-- how the world’s bodies of water reflect the sun’s warmth and beauty? 

-- the power of water?   

Have you ever been swept to shore by a wave?

Have you ever noticed how deep water calls you to trust?

-- how water evokes death and promises life?

Have you ever noticed how baptism cleanses sin, refreshes and soothes the spirit and even heals?

--how baptism gathers people? 

--how baptism scatters people all over the world to share God’s love? 

--how vast is baptism’s pool of grace?

--how baptism reflects the warmth and beauty of God?

-- the power of your own baptism?

 Have you ever been brought safely through one of life’s storms?

 Have you ever noticed how baptism calls you to trust when life plunges you into deep water? 

 --how baptism evokes dying to self and promises life now and forever?   

Have you ever noticed that water is the primary symbol of baptism?

--the connections between water and baptism? 

Easter is all about baptism.  Now is a good time to notice and to reflect on the meaning of your baptism.

Easter's 50 Days - From Death to Life

For centuries, the wreath has been a sign of hospitality, a warm invitation into one’s home.  For the second year in a row, a group of women at St. Thomas Aquinas have come together to create living wreaths to hang outside the entrance of our Church during the season of Easter.  Living wreaths are wreaths which are created using live plants.  Typically made of small succulents, the wreaths are meant to last for a long time.  This is the reason we began making them.  We wanted an outdoor decoration that would last for the 50 days of Easter.

But there is another reason.  The Church prefers live plants, as stated in the U.S. Bishops’ Document Built of Living Stones:

The use of living flowers and plants, rather than artificial greens, serves as a reminder of

the gift of life God has given to the human community. Planning for plants and flowers should

include not only the procurement and placement but also the continuing care needed to sustain

living things.

This preference not only applies to flowers, but also to other items used in the liturgy, such as candles:

Candles for liturgical use should be made of wax. To safeguard authenticity and the full

symbolism of light, electric lights are not permitted as a substitute for candles.  Votive lights

are not to be electric…Above all, the paschal candle should be a genuine candle, the pre-eminent symbol of the light of Christ.

Clearly, the Church has a liturgical preference for the authentic, the real, the living. That’s because the human community that celebrates the liturgy is authentic, real and living.  But there is more.  Real plants and real candles also help to express death and resurrection.  Plants die and re-seed and wax melts.  Our candle stubs are donated to the Monastery in Conyers so that the monks there can recycle the wax and create new candles.  All of this is intended to help us be more aware of our share in the death and resurrection of Jesus.

So as we celebrate this Easter season, may our flowers and our candles be reminders of the Paschal Mystery and may our wreaths be a sign of God’s hospitality, welcoming the God’s hospitality welcoming guests from every corner of the globe.  Amen.  Alleuia!

After the Winter...

What a winter!!!  If tulips could talk they might be saying, “Is the coast clear?”

According to the calendar, spring has sprung, but Mother Nature has a mind of her own.  The other day I noticed new leaves on a plant that I thought was dead.  The plant is a mum that not long ago was vibrant with color and life.  Last fall when the flowers died and the leaves started dropping off, I was ready to throw it away.  But a friend, who is also a master gardener. told me to plant it outside and to trust that it would come back.  Throughout the winter, this plant became so dry and frail it made me sad to look at it.  The branches became fragile, brittle and smaller than a pencil.  So imagine the surprise and delight to witness green leaves now growing on this once-forsaken mum!  Despite soil that was hardened, stony and cracked by winter’s bitter chill this little plant found the courage and the space in which to sprout new life.

 Oftentimes life can mirror the harshness of winter, and our spirits often reflect the soil that has become hardened, stony, and cracked.  But deep inside like a tiny seed, God waits.  Like the plant in my yard, God works through our brokenness to sprout new life.  This is the miracle of Easter.  What we thought was dead and gone is now bursting with life.

There is a reason those who celebrate the Sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation and Eucharist at Easter are now called “Neophytes.”  The term comes from the Greek “neos” meaning new and “phytos” meaning planted.  The Neophytes have found new life in Jesus.  They are newly planted in Christ and newly planted in the community of faith.  May we, along with the Neophytes, rejoice in the new life of Easter born from the seeds of Christ’s death and resurrection.