About 15 years ago I went to southern Spain for my holidays. I took two weeks to study some Spanish and another two weeks travelling around as much of the country as I could afford to see. It was August and extremely hot. Not the best time to go to a place which has temperatures of 35 degrees at that time of the year and no rainfall. It rained lightly for about 10 minutes one day in four weeks!
On a train ride from somewhere to somewhere I was amazed by the number of olive trees growing in that driest part of Spain. I gained a new respect for this long-lived tree with its gnarled trunk and knotty branches. I discovered that it thrives in hot, dry places with well-draining soil.
It is a great wonder that this plant (which really shouldn’t survive at all in such an inhospitable environment) produces tasty olives for eating which also contain a rich green and gold oil within.
Tonight, at this Chrism Mass we ask the Lord to bless the oils which we will use for the Sacraments. The oil pressed and squeezed from the fruit of these valiant and long- suffering olive trees is a powerful symbol used in many of the Sacraments and ceremonies of the Church.
The Church uses oil in her Sacraments because it is a rich sign of the Passion and abiding grace of Christ. I think the readings for the Chrism Mass also show us how oil can be a sign of Christ himself and his presence in addition to his Paschal Mystery. It is the Risen Lord himself who presides invisibly at the Church’s celebrations so every Sacrament is first a sign of the Lord Himself and his Body the Church, then the particular gift He wants to give us through the grace of his death and resurrection.
The olive tree and its oil is a powerful symbol of our Saviour who became poor for our sake and came into the world to seek and find the poor and the lost. Last October, Pope Leo issued his first Apostolic Exhortation called Dilexi Te: On Love for the Poor. In his exhortation he says this of the Lord Jesus: “The Gospel shows us that poverty marked every aspect of Jesus’ life. From the moment He entered our world, Jesus knew the bitter experience of rejection. […] At the dawn of His public ministry, after announcing in the synagogue of Nazareth that the year of grace which would bring joy for the poor was fulfilled in Him, He was driven out of town. He died as an outcast, led out of Jerusalem to be crucified. Indeed, [the Pope continues] that is how Jesus’ poverty is best described: He experienced the same exclusion that is the lot of the poor, the outcast of society. […] He presented himself to the world not only as a poor Messiah, but also as the Messiah of and for the poor.” (Dilexi Te, 19)
As we reflect on the meaning of the oils that we ask the Lord to bless and consecrate tonight, we can see how they speak of the loving gift of God’s eternal Son who became a man to save us. Like that olive tree growing in an arid land, in Christ the “whole fullness of deity dwells bodily.” (Col 2: 9) The costly oil of His divine life and grace was pressed from Him through the hardships of his itinerant mission that culminated in the Cross.
Although Jesus was the Son of God by nature, He experienced the poverty and fragility of our human life. He prayed and asked for what He needed in his humanity and for His mission to save. As we heard in the Gospel tonight, the Spirit of the Lord hovered over Him, was upon Him, and working with Him. Jesus is a Messiah who is poor. God pours out the rich oil of the Holy Spirit upon Him. Jesus receives all that He is and all that He requires from is Father at every moment as a gift.
The use of oil in many of the Church’s Sacraments and ceremonies also points to our own poverty as disciples as well as our mission to those in need in our world. The Sacraments commit us to being a Church for the poor like our Saviour himself.
Saving, soothing oil points to our weakness and our need of salvation. We anoint with the Oil of Catechumens those preparing for baptism who, as infants, are very little and fragile indeed, or those who, as adult catechumens, may struggle to commit themselves to Christ and give up a former way of living.
Sacred Chrism is used in Confirmation to bring our configuration to Christ to maturity and fulness, to help us wavering disciples become courageous witnesses to the Lord in our daily life. Chrism is used at the ordination of Priests and Bishops to identify them with the poor Christ whose priesthood is grace and self-giving love. In our poverty we cannot be a Priest of our own power, we can only share in Christ’s high priestly service.
The Oil of the Sick perhaps most obviously strengthens those struggling with the infirmities of serious illness or old age and helps us in those struggles to make our life and our suffering a loving offering to God as our anointed Saviour did.
The Sacraments signify our need for God’s help just as they signify the presence and power of the Messiah who, in His poverty, died and rose to give us life. This year, as we use the sacred oils that God consecrates with Christ’s Passion tonight, may we know our poverty to be enriched by the grace of Jesus Christ and see the power of His resurrection heal and strengthen us in our struggles.
It is most often the Bishop and Priests who preside at the celebration of the sacraments and who make use of this rich sign of oil. It is no wonder then at the Chrism Mass that Mother Church invites Priests to reaffirm the promises they made at their ordination. The Church needs Priests who call, accompany, and bring the poor of our world to God and help all the baptized to do so in their own way. My dear brother priests, let me take this opportunity in the name of the people of the Archdiocese of Edmonton to thank you for the priestly witness and dedicated ministry you offer to God’s People every year. [Applause] Renewing our priestly promises shows us our need for God’s grace and an awareness of our reliance on our people’s prayer and support.
May we grow ever closer to Christ as we serve all our brothers and sisters in the
different forms of poverty and need they experience.
A final word about oil. Scientists say that the olive trees in the garden of Gethsemane are about 1000 years old but their root systems are 2000 years old. This means that the root systems of those trees are the same from the time of the Lord Jesus when He prayed there in His agony. Those ancient roots allow new trees to continue to sprout in a difficult climate, to grow, and to produce rich fruit. Is this not again a striking symbol of the passion and grace of Christ that runs so deep that it continues to bring new life today through the preaching of his Gospel and wonder of the Sacraments?
We thank God that He continues to reaches out to us in our poverty and gives us strength, joy, the “oil of gladness,” to help others to know His love and mercy too.
Most Rev. Stephen A. Hero
Archbishop of Edmonton
St. Joseph’s Basilica
March 30, 2026
