Sunday, January 24, 2010

What is a Deacon?

3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time
Cycle C
Neh 8:2-4a, 5-6,8-10
1 Cor 12:12-30
Lk 1:1-4; 4:14-21

Today this scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.

Today is a very special day for the church and especially for St. Mary’s. This morning we celebrate yesterday’s ordination of Bob Hardy from our parish and twenty other men from the diocese as permanent deacons. The ordination took place at the Cathedral of the Madeline, and if you’ve never seen an ordination liturgy you’re really missing out on something special. These twenty-one men have gone through four years of intense discernment and formation, over 1000 hours in the classroom and another 1000 hours in parish work, and they have been called from the people to be set aside in a special way in ministry of service.

Coincidentally, today is also the sixth anniversary of my own ordination, and since as you know our lectionary readings are divided up into three year cycles, the readings today are the same ones on which I preached my very first homily from this ambo six years ago today. So this morning is filled with many great memories as I’ve pondered in my heart the experiences of the past six years and rejoiced in Bob’s journey, which has been so similar to mine. And the scripture readings this morning are all about who a deacon is, so I thought I’d delve into it a bit.

The restoration of the permanent diaconate in the Church is less than forty years old, and the role of the deacon is still being formed. There is still a bit of confusion about who the deacon is and what he does and what his relationship is to the priest and bishop and people. A Mass doesn’t go by when someone comes up to me afterwards and says “Nice Mass, Father”. Or asks who that woman is who just kissed me. And the misunderstanding is not just on your side. Most of us didn’t grow up with permanent deacons in our parishes. And so it’s not clear exactly who deacons are or what we do. Deacons are also struggling to understand our place in the church, and many of us are just as confused as you are. As with most things in the church today, the diaconate is steeped in ancient tradition and yet is trying to fit in with the modern world.

The Greek word for servant is diaconos, and for service, diaconia. That’s why today’s readings are all about being deacons. Because they’re all about diaconia. They’re also about renewal and fulfillment of ancient promises.

St. Paul says today that from the beginning of the church, some people have been set aside to fulfill specific roles. He lists apostles, prophets, teachers, healers, servants, administrators, and preachers. And Paul discusses these roles in the context of the Body of Christ, which has many, many members, all of which are necessary to the functioning of the Body. While some have been set aside for special ministry in the church, all share in the diaconia of Christ, because all are part of the Body of Christ. It is as the Body of Christ that we all act as servant to the world.

One of those earliest roles was that of deacon. Some biblical scholars point to the appointment of the seven men in the Acts of the Apostles to serve at table as the genesis of the order of deacons. However, the word diaconos appears in many places in the New Testament, most specifically when Jesus refers to himself. All our roles come ultimately from the teachings and actions of Jesus. He was the first deacon, because he came not to be served but to serve.

He begins his public ministry in Luke’s gospel today by reading from the prophet Isaiah. He chooses this passage on purpose, and the prophesy he says is fulfilled this day is that of the suffering servant. He says he has been sent to serve the poor, the captives, the blind and the oppressed. He is sent to be deacon to the lowest of the low. To all those who have no hope.

However, from the earliest days of the church the role of deacon has been defined, even before we hear of the priesthood. From the beginning certain men were set aside by the people to offer service to the poor, to assist in the liturgy, and to preach the gospel. But as the centuries progressed the permanent diaconate faded out as the role of the priest expanded.

Permanent deacons are those men who will only be deacons; they are not on their way to the priesthood. Those men are called transitional deacons. Transitional deacons must be celibate, permanent deacons can be married. The diaconate never went away, only the permanent diaconate did. But it was restored by the second Vatican council. Actually, the seeds of the restoration were planted in the most unlikely of places: the death camp of Dachau during World War II.

The Nazis rounded up almost 3000 Catholic priests early in the war and sent them all to Dachau. And what do you get when you put 3000 priests all in the same place? Liturgy! Those priests saw the effects of great evil first hand, and they discussed among themselves how the Church could ensure that such evil was never allowed to rise again. One of the ideas they came up with was to restore and expand the role of the permanent deacon as a visible sign of Christ’s outreach to the world. Many of those same priests went on to be participants in Vatican II.

What the council laid out was the threefold ministry of the permanent deacon:
Service to the Word, service to the liturgy, and service to charity. Service to the word is foreshadowed in Nehemiah today. Ezra the scribe stood on a raised wooden platform and read from the book of the Law to the people who had just returned to Jerusalem from exile in Babylon. He read plainly from the book and interpreted the law for the people to understand. Yesterday our new deacons laid their hands on the book of the gospels in front of the bishop and received his authority to preach the good news.

Service to the liturgy has grown out of the need to serve the ever-growing number of the people of God. Originally the bishop performed all of the sacraments for the people. As the church grew, the need for assistants to the bishop grew also. Permanent deacons assist at the altar during the Mass, and are ordinary ministers of baptism, marriage and funeral rites. We are not little priests nor are we big altar boys. Our ministry is specific to us. The deacon is ordained by the bishop to serve him and the diocese. We assist the priests and work closely with them, but we all work together for the bishop. Yesterday Bob and the others made a solemn vow to obey the bishop and his successors. All deacons make the same lifetime commitment.

Service to charity is based upon the service of Christ we heard about in today’s gospel, along with the charge Jesus gives us in Matthew chapter 25 to feed the hungry, give respite to the thirsty, clothe the naked, visit prisoners. Deacons look to the feeding and care of the Body of Christ, both physically through charity to the poor and unfortunate, and spiritually by proclaiming the word of God and assisting at the liturgy. We are the eyes and the ears, a link between the parts of the body and the everyday world, but we are called to do so humbly, in the background, with little honor. We serve the body, and the body supports and sustains us.

But the beauty of the diaconate is that we’re all called to be deacons. Deacons are ordained to be special signs of the ministry of service we are all called to exercise because of our baptism. And we all model our life of service on the diaconia of Christ. Whenever we act as servants to one another and to the world we are exercising the diaconia of Christ. Whenever we join with the priest in the liturgy, we are joining ourselves to the priesthood of Christ. Whenever we stand up for the oppressed and speak truth to power we are joining with Christ the prophet. And whenever we act with the authority of the church we share in the kingdom of God as princes and princesses. All these roles were assigned to us at our baptism.

Today is a very special day of rejoicing that our newly ordained deacons have accepted the call to service to God and his church. It is also our time to rejoice that we all have been found worthy to serve, each in our own way, each of us necessary to the well being of the Body of Christ.