April 2, 2015 - Holy Thursday - Chrism Mass

Holy Thursday - Chrism Mass

Lectionary: 260

Reading 1 IS 61:1-3A, 6A, 8B-9

The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me,

because the LORD has anointed me;

The Holy Spirit is the anointing of God.  We receive the anointing of the Holy Spirit in Baptism and the Sacraments.

He has sent me to bring glad tidings to the lowly,

to heal the brokenhearted,

To proclaim liberty to the captives

and release to the prisoners,

To announce a year of favor from the LORD

and a day of vindication by our God,

to comfort all who mourn;

To place on those who mourn in Zion

a diadem instead of ashes,

To give them oil of gladness in place of mourning,

a glorious mantle instead of a listless spirit.

Notice that this is what Jesus Christ came to do, but we are also called to do all of those things for our fellow man.

You yourselves shall be named priests of the LORD,

ministers of our God shall you be called.

We are His ministers to do Our Lord's will amongst His people.

I will give them their recompense faithfully,

a lasting covenant I will make with them.

And He will reward us according to our works.

Their descendants shall be renowned among the nations,

and their offspring among the peoples;

All who see them shall acknowledge them

as a race the LORD has blessed.

And we will be known by our love.

Responsorial Psalm PS 89:21-22, 25 AND 27

R. (2) For ever I will sing the goodness of the Lord.

“I have found David, my servant;

with my holy oil I have anointed him.

That my hand may always be with him;

and that my arm may make him strong.”

R. For ever I will sing the goodness of the Lord.

“My faithfulness and my mercy shall be with him;

and through my name shall his horn be exalted.

He shall say of me, ‘You are my father,

my God, the Rock, my savior!’“

R. For ever I will sing the goodness of the Lord.

King David, with all his faults, was a man after God's own heart.  Because he was faithful to God and confessed his sins and repented of his evil deeds, the Savior of mankind was born of his line.

Reading 2 RV 1:5-8

[Grace to you and peace] from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness,

the firstborn of the dead and ruler of the kings of the earth.

To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his Blood, 

who has made us into a Kingdom, priests for his God and Father, 

to him be glory and power forever and ever. Amen.

St. John the Evangelist offers a blessing from Christ to all who read his book.

Behold, he is coming amid the clouds,

and every eye will see him,

even those who pierced him.

All the peoples of the earth will lament him.

Yes. Amen.

On that day, all will see Jesus Christ returning in the clouds, even the Jews and all the people of the world will be sorry for their sins, then.

“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, 

“the one who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”

Jesus Christ is God most High.

Verse Before The Gospel IS 61:1 (CITED IN LK 4:18)

The Spirit of the LORD is upon me;

for he has sent me to bring glad tidings to the poor.

Jesus Christ is He whom God sent to bring God's blessing to the world.

Gospel LK 4:16-21

Jesus came to Nazareth, where he had grown up, 

and went according to his custom

into the synagogue on the sabbath day.

He stood up to read and was handed a scroll of the prophet Isaiah.

He unrolled the scroll and found the passage where it was written:

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,

because he has anointed me

to bring glad tidings to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives

and recovery of sight to the blind,

to let the oppressed go free,

and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.

Rolling up the scroll, he handed it back to the attendant and sat down,

and the eyes of all in the synagogue looked intently at him.

He said to them, 

“Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.”

Do you recognize that Jesus Christ was reading the Old Testament passage from the first reading?

This was to reveal to the Jews that the Messiah had come and they were listening to Him read that passage.