Saturday of the 3rd Week of Lent
Installation of Lector and Acolytes
March 18, 2023
Word, Sacrament and Charity
My dear friends, today is a day of grace and joy as those of you preparing for Diaconal Ministry receive the Ministries of Lector and Acolyte. The reception of these ministries marks another step along your jounrney of formation and preparation for the reception of Holy Orders in the Diaconal rank. The ministry of the Deacon is threefold: a ministry of word, sacrament, and charity. Your installation as Lector and Acolyte serve to strengthen your connection to the living and effective Word of God and the Sacrament of the Altar, through which the Lord makes himself present among his pilgrim people, filling them with food for our journey to the Father.
Seeming Discordance
As we gather on this happy morning, it would seem at first glance that the Lenten readings the Church proposes for today’s Mass don’t quite seem to align with what we are doing here today. But if we take a closer look, we can see in them a word of “spirit and life” that is most appropriate on this occasion, and most important for you men who are to receive ministries today.
In the Gospel, we encounter two figures: the Pharisee and the tax collector. The Pharisee takes up his place before the assembly and touts his many virtues. He does what he should, avoids what is evil, and excels in the practice of religion. The tax collector takes his place in the back, and aware of his sins, lowers his eyes, beats his breast, and prays, “O God be merciful to me a sinner.” The Lord tells us that the later went away justified not the former.
This is a salutary warning for those of us who have been called to take up position “in the front of the temple”. Those called to exercise ministry in the Church may indeed stand in the position of the Pharisee, that is to say, in the “front of the temple”; but they should always model the prayer of the tax collector. We are capable of taking on roles of leadership and service within the Church in the measure that we recall our need for the Lord and his mercy. What is is we are called to share is an undeserved gift that we first received. In the end, there is nothing that we have to offer that was not first given to us. So, far from flaunting our own merits, we must rejoice because the Lord, in his abundant mercy, has done great things for us, and holy his is name.
Integrity
This Gospel also warns us to be men of integrity, in the truest sense. Our outward action and function in the Church’s life must reflect an inward reality. The ministry and apostolic activity we undertake in the name of Christ and the Church must flow, therefore, from an inner life, a heart, like that of the tax collector, from a heart that comes before God as we are and begs for his mercy and his grace, and in God’s mercy and with power of God’s grace, strives for holiness.
As a Lector you are called continually to deepen your understanding of and appreciation for the Word of God. Like any ministry, the public and external action must flow from and reflect an antecedant personal and internal action. If you are called to share the Word of God and proclaim it in the midst of the Church, you must first allow the Word of God to permeate your mind and heart, and be reflected in what you think, say, and do.
Likewise with the Ministry of Acolyte, the service of the altar in the Church’s public worship. This too must flow from and reflect a life of private prayer and devotion. Your function assisting at the Eucharistic sacrifice should mirror your deepening knowledge and love of the celebration of the Eucharistic mystery. We must never forget that full, active, and conscious participation goes beyond mere rubrical precision – important and praiseworthy as that is! To participate fully is to unite the sacrifices of your life with that of Christ, and to offer our joys and sufferings to the Father along with the bread and wine. In so doing, what is offered, the substance of one’s lives, is transformed. We offer our very lives, our very hearts, that they might be transformed, that we might come to share ever more in God’s life, individually and communally.
The Sacrifice Desired
Allow me one final thought . . . As mentioned before, the ministry of the Deacon is a ministry of word, sacrament, and charity. As you are called to share the Word of God and assist at the Sacrament of the Altar, you must ever recall that the ministry of deacon is also a ministry of charity: real, practical, on the ground, hands-on charity. Our Responsoral Psalm (Ps 51) reminds us that the Lord desires mercy, not sacrifice, and our first reading from Hosea tells us, it is love that God desires, not sacrifice.
Today as your receive these ministries I ask you to remember the connection between these three realities: word, sacrament, and charity. As you proclaim the word, as you assist at the altar, what offering of love are you bringing with you? As you engage in charitable works in the name of the Church, how are you sharing with those in need the love of God you first received in the Sacrament of Charity, and in the Word of Life that you have first heard and proclaimed?
Today we thank God that he has brought you to this step along the path of your preparation for Diaconal ministry. As you continue your formation, we pray that the Lord may strengthen your knowledge and love of his Word, confirm your devotion and understaning of the Eucharistic Mystery, and enable you to be effective ministers of charity . . . that you may offer through your very manner of life, the sacrifice the Lord desires, that of mercy and of love.