By Lisa Benoit
Hawaii Catholic Herald
An auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of San Francisco flew in to Honolulu to bless the holy oils Hawaii parishes will use for the administration of sacraments in the coming year.
Bishop John Wester presided at the Chrism Mass at the Co-Cathedral of St. Theresa in Honolulu on March 3. The blessed oils are used to anoint the newly baptized, confirmed and ordained, and also to anoint the sick. At the Mass, representatives from each parish in the diocese are handed bottles of the oil to be used by their parishes during the year.
Only a bishop can preside over the blessing of oils. In the absence of a diocesan bishop, the diocese has to rely on the services of an outside bishop. Last year, San Francisco’s other auxiliary, Bishop Ignatius Wang, presided at the Chrism Mass.
About 70 priests and 10 deacons from all islands attended the March 3 Mass.
“It is a real privilege to be here with my brother priests,” Bishop Wester said.
The bishop joked that instead of presiding at a single Chrism Mass in Honolulu, he would have preferred spending a week on each island celebrating the Masses there.
In his homily, Bishop Wester described the oil as a “good sign and symbol of our unity.”
“He is calling us back to oneness,” he said. “We cannot speak of God without unity. This Mass of Chrism is a wonderful grace as we all come to celebrate these oils that bring us together.
“We admit we have our own interior darkness, personal failure, sinfulness,” he said. “Yet, in all this, we have hope.”
He said that the oils give a priest the power “to proclaim, soothe and massage us back to life and wholeness.”
Jesus brought “good news and comfort, teaching, preaching and healing,” Bishop Wester said.
Through the holy oils, comfort and good news are brought to the abandoned and forgotten, he said.
“Tonight is a gift,” he said. “We are celebrating unity, life and vitality. Thank God now, hear the call of the Spirit and move our hearts into action.”
After the homily, the priests stood to renew their priestly promises.
During the actual blessing of the oils, six koa bowls, each holding about three gallons of olive oil, were carried to a small table in front of the bishop by young adults from Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church in Ewa Beach.
Bishop Wester blessed each of the oils — Oil of the Sick, the Oil of the Catechumens, and the Oil of the Sacred Chrism — which were then brought to the sacristy where about 20 volunteers bottled and packaged them for parish distribution.
The volunteers scooped the oil with four-ounce Dixie cups and poured it into plastic bottles.
The Oil of the Catechumens was poured into four-ounce bottles and the Oil of the Sacred Chrism and the Oil of the Sick went into six-ounce bottles, 89 bottles for each of the three oils.
The bottles were then cleaned, packed into small white cardboard boxes and given to parish representatives after Mass.