Ordination of Permanent Deacons
Cathedral of Mary Our Queen
September 30, 2023
The Summons
Dear brothers: Moments ago, we heard Jesus summoning his disciples. He called them to himself to speak to their hearts and to change their lives. Just so, the Lord has summoned you throughout your lives: First, he spoke to your hearts the Word you now wish to proclaim. Then he called you to the vocation of marriage, and with your wife and children, you have pursued pathways of holiness and discipleship. At length, you heard the Lord calling you to serve the Church as deacons and today he summons you again, as the Church formally calls you to Holy Orders, much as the Apostles called the original seven deacons to the service of the Church.
And you have answered this summons with “adsum”, “present”, – as if to say – “Here I am Lord, I come to do your will!” (Heb. 10:9). Sustained by a daily conversion of heart, fueled by a life of daily prayer, you are declaring your readiness to undertake a three-fold ministry of Word, Sacrament, and Charity – and to do so after the pattern set for us by Christ himself. That is why we must listen again to what the Lord says to us in today’s Gospel about authority, service, and self-giving love.
Not Mere Moral Platitudes
And let us be clear. The Lord’s words about service and humility are not moral platitudes. Jesus did not come into the world merely as a moral philosopher. Rather, the Son of God came from the peaceful realm of his heavenly Father, sharing our humanity, so as to redeem our humanity. Thus did he empty himself of glory and enter the turbulent realm of sinful humanity where the powerful unjustly subject the weak and the poor unto themselves.
In the verses just prior to today’s Gospel reading, James and John had asked Jesus for prominent places in his Kingdom. Jesus responded: “It cannot be like that among you”, nor can it be like that among us. For Jesus’ power and might is nothing other than love. When we encounter Jesus and allow him to breathe his Spirit into us, we come to see that, if God is love, then true power and authority is love. And so, the authority with which you are invested as deacons is charity. Charity flowing from the Heart of Christ is the hallmark of the diaconal ministry, a pastoral charity that addresses itself concretely to those in need. This same charity must characterize your proclamation of the Word & your preaching. If you are imbued with Christ’s charity, what will emerge from your heart and from your lips will be neither lofty abstractions nor still less harsh and judgmental words … but rather “the gentle, intimate, insistent persuasion” characteristic of Jesus’ preaching. Never let a day go by without searching the Scriptures and finding Christ in them, for as St. Jerome said, “Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ.”
Doulos
From Jesus’ Heart flows another truth found in today’s Gospel, and it’s this: In the Church, we belong to Christ and therefore we belong to one another. And we can only belong to one another if we subordinate ourselves to one another. Just as Jesus reconnected his Apostles after their unity was fractured by ambition, so too Jesus summons you this morning to become part of the Order of Deacons, and by belonging to that Order, to bear united witness to himself by lives of service. This means ‘deferring to one another out of reverence for Christ’, as St. Paul said, just as Jesus made himself the slave, the servant of all.
As married men, you know what it means to belong to a family. With your wives, you know how to subordinate your plans and preferences to the needs of your children, even when they have matured into adulthood. Amid the ups and downs of daily life, you have made many sacrifices, such that the love of your home has overflowed to others beyond the family circle. Together, you and your wife learned by experience what Jesus is teaching us: we cannot belong to Christ without belonging to one another and belonging to one another means serving one another in humility and love. As you reflect on the Lord’s words today, I invite you to bring your life’s experience into the diaconate, as you become co-workers with me, with my auxiliary bishops, with priests, fellow deacons, and lay leaders. Let that sense of mutual belonging imbue your service to fellow parishioners, your outreach to the unchurched, and your practice of a charity that evangelizes, … evangelizes because it bears witness to the charity of Christ.
Self-Giving
Let us gaze once more into the Heart of Christ, “the abyss of charity” – the Heart whose love is bottomless, infinite, inexhaustible – for God is love. From the Heart of Christ, with all the energy of the Holy Spirit, Jesus breathes these words into the depth of your hearts: “The Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Imagine, the Son of God became one of us to ransom us from the power of Satan and from the stranglehold of sin and death. This is the Mystery into which we enter through the Church’s life of sacramental worship.
Therefore, when you assist at the altar, distribute Holy Communion, or baptize, or bless marriages, or bring Viaticum to the sick, or conduct funeral rites … when you do these things, keep your eye fixed on Jesus who made himself a ransom for our sake, who loved us more deeply than we can fathom. That will affect how you do everything in the Church’s life of public worship – especially the joy, humility, care, and love you bring to it. For as ministers of the liturgy, it is not ourselves who count. It’s only that our humanity becomes the humble instrument of the Lord’s humanity, for it is ‘his flesh that is the hinge of our salvation.’
Mary’s Intercession
Let me conclude by entrusting your diaconal ministry to the prayers of the Blessed Virgin Mary. May she who gave birth to the Savior and followed him unreservedly, lead you each day to the Heart of her Son, the abyss of love, from which your vocations and your ministry take their origin, meaning, and goal. Mary, Our Queen: pray for us!