Ritual and Oil: the Perfect Couple

by Mike Van Vranken, Spiritual Director

IT APPEARS THAT MOST, OR EVEN ALL, OF GOD’S CREATION, EXPRESSES ITS CONNECTION TO GOD THROUGH SOME CEREMONY OR ACT THAT INCLUDES EXPERIENCES IN THE BODY, EMOTIONS, AND CONSCIOUSNESS. Birds, fish, mammals, and even insects seem to migrate, hibernate, reproduce, eat, sleep, and engage in all types of rituals that have some meaning to their lives. God even seems to follow a ritual pattern in the seven-day creation story. Maybe creation’s love of ritual is the meaning of being created in God’s image and likeness.

I love all the movements, the imaginative prayer, and all of the sacramentals we Catholics use in our rituals. Among the candles, water, salt, incense, and more. The one that stands out most for me is anointing with oil. The fragrance, the texture, and the rich properties of oil, for me, consciously take me into the presence of the Trinity and lovingly allow me to encounter each person of the Trinity in a unitive and communal way.

I was about six weeks old when I was baptized with oil. I wonder what went on in my senses, my spirit, and even my body at that moment when I was smeared with oil. I’m confident, not only did my spirit encounter Christ, but so did the rest of me. I imagine I could smell it, feel it, taste it, see it, and even hear it. The baptismal oil allowed my infant self to absolutely know I was experiencing a real presence with my creator.

I was confirmed on October 31, 1960. Yes, it was Halloween night. I remember Bishop Fletcher’s funny way of speaking and his “holy slap” across my cheek. But when I try to put myself back in that moment, it’s the oil that arises to the surface of my thoughts. He anointed this nine-year-old like I was a prophet or leader. I felt the Holy Spirit in ways that are still unfolding today. The oil wasn’t magic, but it was the physical properties of the consecrated oil that allowed my being to experience the Spirit of God, which continues today in even new and different ways.

In 1993, Monsignor Gaston Hebert anointed my body before an upcoming back surgery. I remember the calm and peace that came over me knowing I had just moved into the arms of

the healing Jesus. I entered that surgery with the conviction I was healed. I can still see myself sitting in Monsignor Hebert’s rectory feeling so close to Christ I could hear him breathing. I go back there in my mind and relive those graces even today.

In 2008, Bishop Duca consecrated the renovated St. Joseph Church in Shreveport. When he began pouring the oil on the altar, I thought he was never going to stop. Oil had pooled all over the top of the table of the Feast. When it began to run off the sides, it loudly, drop by drop, hit the marble floor with the sound of God walking through the sanctuary. I remember the chills up my back and neck as I wanted to kneel, bow, and just be. If Adam and Eve heard God walking through the garden, I certainly heard God strolling across the oil-soaked floor of our church. Words cannot describe the mystical experience I had that day.

I was blessed to attend the last two bishop ordinations in our diocese. There is really nothing that compares. Selected by the Pope, these men come before us, humble and vulnerable, as they kneel to forever join the lineage of the apostles. At both rituals, it was the anointing with oil that choked me up. Here it is, as has happened for thousands of years: God shows up to bless a holy leader who is a shepherd to his flock. On a stage in the Shreveport Convention Center, the Holy Trinity consumed the participants with presence and grace, as the new Bishop emerged from the floor and was given his staff. Again, there really are no words for the awesome event that takes place in our midst.

The holy oils used in our diocese are blessed and consecrated at the annual Chrism Mass during Holy Week. Whether you can physically attend this sacred event or not, you can still experience God’s real presence wherever you are. The physical, blessing and consecration of the oils becomes a cosmic event. They are used to bring the real presence of an ever-present Christ into our presence, for us to engage and experience. The oils are not magic. The ritual is not superstitious. Rather, made in God’s image and likeness, we use ritual with oils to lovingly be with God in a most realistic way. Ritual and oil: They’re the perfect couple for a mystical experience of the beloved Divine.