Today’s world needs “gazes that know how to focus on the poverty of others without judgement, without distance. We need a perspective that leads to fraternal service” – D. Armando Esteves Domingues

Bishop of Angra celebrates Chrism Mass at the Cathedral with around fifty priests from all the islands, after yesterday presiding in Ponta Delgada at the renewal of the Priestly promises of the priests of São Miguel and Santa Maria

D.Armando Esteves Domingues, who presided over the Chrism Mass for the second year as Bishop of Angra, at the Cathedral, asked diocesan priests to be able to look at the poverty of others “without judgment or distance”.

“Today’s world and, perhaps, our Presbytery seem too poor of looks that do not seek consolation or reward; of looks that know how to focus on the other’s poverty without judgement, without distance. We need a perspective that leads to fraternal service… without fear of always being the same ones taking the first step. Jesus just says: “As I did, so do you!” He wants us at the feet of others as servants, slaves, taking care of their good more than ours” stated the prelate in his homily at the Chrism Mass, which gathered around him around fifty priests from all the Azorean islands. Yesterday, the bishop of Angra celebrated in São Miguel, at the Matrix of São Sebastião in Ponta Delgada, where the priests of the largest island, which concentrates 8 of the 17 ombudsman offices of the diocese of Angra, renewed their priestly promises. Among them were two of the seven priests celebrating their 25th and 60th jubilee anniversaries: Fathers Francisco Zanon and António Rego, respectively.

“There is a new paradigm of priests washing feet! We need footwashers” said the bishop quoting the Cardinal of Boston, D. Sean O’Malley.

“These are founding gestures that make us pastorally dissatisfied, creative in evangelization, open and attentive to the men and women of today for appropriate responses! Let’s do it together and never alone. Let us try ‘new paths’, firmly inviting all of God’s people to make the most of the complementarity that people and communities can give to each other, in a fraternal and synodal spirit” stated D. Armando Esteves Domingues.

“When we love we become credible!” he emphasized after inviting priests to reflect on this day and this holy week from the perspective of Jesus.

“We will renew our Priestly Promises with our eyes on the Poor, Chaste and Obedient Christ. We will promise to continue, with his grace, to follow Him in love for His People,” he said, remembering that renewing the promises “means remembering a love story between God and us.”

“It is a grace to be here together and united with the other members of the Presbytery. We need this body to be, today more than ever, fraternal, friendly, generous, open to renewal. My first request to the Lord is this: that we walk together, that we be builders of fraternity, an example for communities! Is there loneliness in a bishop or a priest? There is. Loneliness can also be overcome with the way we look at and love each other,” he said.

Almost always addressing the priests, sometimes with great proximity, treating them as sons, D. Armando Esteves Domingues asked for coherence in life, between what is preached and what is done, even with some falls in between, as happened with Peter who followed Jesus, denied him three times and returned to meet him.

“How difficult it is to be coherent between what you think and want and what happens when there is a lack of coherence” questioning: “How much Peter suffered when accepting to be loved in his pettiness full of darkness!”.

“How many times are we trapped in the suffocating gazes of other priests who want to see a superman in us, without realizing that the miracle is right under their nose, within their flesh and blood brother, full of his own potential that needs to be developed? . How many times do we look at someone not for who they are, but for their limitations”, warned the bishop of Angra.

“It is difficult to have the look of Jesus on those who hurt us. Disappointment, condemnation, never speaking again, giving up, seems like the most sensible solution. The Lord asks us to have a divine and human gaze at the same time, not only when we absolve in the Sacrament of Confession, but as part of a whole life, already freed by the gaze of Jesus. But he also asks for the courage to start over, like Pedro! Starting over is always a sign of hope that is never lost,” he said.

“There is a great moral authority that comes from the identity between what lives and what preaches and which becomes a challenge for our homilies. There are many poor people without the good news, many captives without freedom, the blind without sight, the oppressed without redemption. There is a universe of people, of our brothers, in need like never before of a Word accompanied by works” stated the prelate.

“Our mission carries risks, various interpretations, judgments and even convictions. It is a very demanding time”, he recalled, highlighting that Jesus also faced difficulties and walked, even with the Cross.

“As a presbytery, let us accompany Him and identify ourselves with Him and the Passion. May discouragement never overtake us or weaken hope,” he said.

“Dear priests, we will not lack the daily cross. May they be opportunities to travel another stretch of road with Jesus and let a new and free look light up in our eyes. The image of the presbytery brothers becomes clearer, seen through the purifying tears of pain”, concluded the homily.

In the Chrism Mass, the prelude to the Easter Triduum, the oil of the catechumens and the sick were blessed and the oil was consecrated for the Holy Chrism, which is why it is also called “Mass of the holy oils”.

Three of the seven priests marking their jubilees were also present, namely Father António Azevedo de São Jorge, Canon Francisco Dolores, who completes 50 years of priesthood and Father Pedro Lima Mendonça, who completes 60 years of service to the Church.

The Bishop of Angra will once again preside at the Cathedral at the Mass of the Lord’s Supper, on Maundy Thursday. Following Mass there will be a moment of Community Prayer and on Good Friday there will be a Reading and Lauds Service.

In the afternoon, at 3 pm, the Passion will be celebrated, a celebration that will be broadcast by the media.

After the passion there will also be Stations of the Cross followed by the Procession of the Dead Lord.

On Saturday, a day considered aliturgical and of profound silence for Christians, attention turns to the Easter Vigil, which will be celebrated at 9 pm at the Cathedral, broadcast on RTP Açores and RTP Internacional.