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HOMILIES

5. Homily - Wednesday, April 8, 2020

Chrism Mass (bilingual homily) (Mt 26:14-25)
The Spirit of the Lord is Upon Me.

When Jesus speaks these words, he speaks of himself. But now that these words are transmit-
ted through Holy Scripture, they apply to all the baptized, as all those who are baptized have
become missionary disciples.

All of the Christians who have been baptized and who received the sacrament of confirmation,
are missionary disciples. And as missionary disciples, this Word of God “The Spirit of the Lord is
upon me,” is for each one of us.

These words apply to each and every one of us.

We are living in a pandemic when time feels as if it were suspended. Frozen in time! In this
suspended time, we do everything to avoid gatherings in order to respect the physical distan-
cing regulations to fight contagion. It is important that we do so.

But at the same time, from the viewpoint of mission, from the viewpoint of life itself, life
somehow continues. But how does it continue? How can life continue when we are living
with physical distancing? How does the mission continue when we are in a state of physical
distancing?

This is a bit like the journey on which we have been together for several weeks now since the
health emergency was declared.

At first, we stopped, thinking all would soon be as it was. We just wait a couple of weeks, until
April 13 at the latest, and then all is normal again.

But little by little we realized that we were not going back soon to how it was. Therefore, we
really have to think ‘mission.’ We have to continue to think ‘mission.’

We have to ask ourselves today, here and now, how can we continue to be on a mission? How
can we be on a mission without physical gathering, without physical contact and respecting
physical distancing? This is kind of what we are learning together. It is kind of what we are
sharing with each other.

(cont’d)

Collection of texts by the Most Rev. Christian Lépine 114