Pressed down, squeezed

This past Sunday was our final Confirmation class. I’m sure for the confirmandi there was a little sense of joy, but for me, I was a bit sad. They are great kids. I love being with them and learning from them…as much as I try to offer to relate to them as much of what the Church want to give them…a life full of faith. I know I will see them at the Confirmation practice

and when the Sacrament is conferred two weeks from now…but alas, this session was a short one, as we were going to be part of the Palm Sunday procession. I’ll miss them.

As we waited in a gathering area of St. Joe’s, I got a few “Hi Mr. Bird” greetings from some former students. There was Matt. I can’t believe he’s back from his first year in college and he is even taller. And then Sophia..I can’t believe it. How can she look prettier? And there’s Contessa. If ever parents named their child appropriately it was her’s. She exudes grace and confidence. Glad to see them there at mass.

In a few weeks, this next group of young people, now with palms in hand, will be prayed over and anointed with the Chrism oil. This oil will be blessed during this Holy Week. Not just any oil…the three oils of the Church, the Chrism oil, the Catechumen oil and the oil of the Infirmed are all from the olive. Each are given perfumed to give it a distinct scent and aroma, but its unitive basis is the oil from the olive. And it’s purpose is to convey grace.

Olive trees and the bitter fruit and oil from with it is derived, were even more abundant at the time of Jesus that they are now. But as abundant as it was, olives were not eaten in Jesus’ day since pickling and salting olives was unknown. But the olive played an extremely important role in the economy.

It was used for lighting, cooking, medicine, and the moisturizing of skin. The oil was used to anoint kings, prophets, priests, and Temple articles. Messiah means “anointed one.”

Jesus, on the night before He died went to the Garden of Gethsemane (which means oil press). It is no coincidence or subtle irony that Jesus goes to the mount of olives (a place of the dead) and prays at the oil press. Could any image or setting be more appropriate? Think about it…Jesus in his humanity is being squeeze, crushed, pressed by the weight of his salvific mission. He is praying among the dead — who await life. He presses his very soul his very heart into his prayer to his Heavenly Father. “Let this pass—but not as I will—as you will.”

The dead will know life soon, from this messiah being pressed out and poured over them. Did he not say “give and it shall be given to you, pressed down and overflowing will they pour into the fold of your garments. For the measure with which you measure will be measured back to you” (Luke6:38). He is the measure.

Moreover, the abundance of olives speaks not only to the availability of the fruit, but to its importance to its users. Messiah comes to raise up, to heal and restore what was lost.

My prayer for these beautiful vibrant enthusiastic young people who will be confirmed with the sacred chrism is that they may know they are marked by

the Holy Spirit for both a particular and communal purpose: To live abundantly in His grace and proclaim the freeing power of the Good News… that they have been sealed with gifts promised by the risen Christ poured out in his blood on the cross, raised in the love of the Father and the Holy Spirit and that nothing can strip that from them…no heavy oil press and not even a cross or tomb.