Saturday of the Last Week in the Liturgical Year
Candidacy, Permanent Diaconate Program
St. Mary’s Seminary and University
Baltimore, Maryland
December 2, 2023
Introduction
If the readings for today seem a bit foreboding and out of sync with what we are celebrating, take heart. For, as Paul wrote to Timothy, all Scripture is inspired by God and useful for teaching. All Scripture has a timely message for us, today and every day, and this morning’s readings from the Book of Daniel and Luke’s Gospel are no exception. What light do they shed on us, dear brothers, and on all gathered here as you are admitted as candidates for diaconal ordination?
Daniel 7:15-27
In yesterday’s reading, Daniel had a dream about four beasts that represent four fierce and oppressive earthly kingdoms, the fourth of which is the fiercest and most oppressive. In today’s passage, Daniel receives an interpretation of that dream. Without going into a detailed exegesis of this passage (you can do that later today), suffice it to say that all these kingdoms disappeared, even the one that seemed the most ferocious. Only one Kingdom prevailed, the Kingdom of God as the Ancient One took his Throne, he whose Kingdom is everlasting.
It is for this Kingdom alone that you must seek to be ordained deacons. And, as you know, many “kingdoms” claim our allegiance. In our case, it’s not four beasts but three: the world, the flesh, and the devil – appearing in many iterations and threatening to derail both discipleship and ministry. The quest for power, the lure of self-indulgence, the insinuations of the evil one – all these can attract us and then come to dominate us. When that happens, we may still lead, minister, serve, and profess with our lips – but our ministry and discipleship are hollowed out and become fruitless.
Luke 21: 34-36
For that reason, let us heed the Lord’s words in today’s Gospel. “Beware that your hearts do not become drowsy from carousing and drunkenness and the anxieties of daily life, and that the day catch you by surprise like a trap.” So it is that the Lord warns us to be vigilant. For sometimes threats to discipleship, holiness, and ministry are obvious, but often these threats operate subtly and stealthily, undermining our best intentions and overtaking us before we know it. So too, the judgment of God. We can never forget that the day will come when we will stand before the Lord and give an account of ourselves and our ministry.
Formation Henceforth
With admission to candidacy, your formation for the diaconate enters a new and more intense stage. Diaconal ordination is no longer merely an idea or a proposal but a prospect, something likely to happen to you in the near future. This is cause for joy but also cause for vigilance.
It is a moment to reaffirm, not only your intentions to be formed for diaconate, but indeed your unswerving allegiance to the Kingdom of God, of which the Church is the living sign and sacrament. It is a moment of grace in which you enter more deeply into formation, vigilant, self-aware, of anything that might impede your future ministry, and docile in allowing the purification of the Holy Spirit to take root in you. It is a moment in which you seek, with the help of your formators, to ensure that you are seeking become deacons with the right dispositions of mind and heart, with a zeal for evangelization, with heart for the poor, the sick, and vulnerable, that you are attentive to your baptismal calling to holiness and faithful to your vocation to marriage and family, and that you possess the virtues and skills needed for ministry.
Advent
Tomorrow begins the Season of Advent, a time of expectation for the glorious coming of the Lord at the end of time, and a time of preparation to celebrate anew the Incarnation. Let us enter this season with hearts full of faith and hope, seeking to embrace the Incarnate Savior and to walk in his footsteps so that one day we may stand before him as Judge and be numbered as holy ones fit for his Kingdom, who lives and reigns, world without end. Amen.