Homily
Feast of St. Lawrence, Deacon and Martyr
August 10, 2020
Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church
Keller, Texas
Jeremiah 1:4-9
Psalm 112:1-2, 5-6, 7-9
2 Corinthians 9:6-10
John 12:24-26
Antes que nada, felicidades a nuestros candidatos para el diaconado permanente, y también quiero expresar mi gratitud a las familias, especialmente a las esposas, de nuestros candidatos. Gracias por decir “Si” a la llamada que Cristo les ha dado a ustedes.
Los
Hechos de los Apóstoles y la historia de la Iglesia dejan claro que el
diaconado es un ministerio de la caridad y es importante que se nos recuerde
esto porque la “caridad,” como tantas otras palabras, puede derivar en otros
significados y confundirse con otras cosas. El diaconado no es un ministerio de
alcance. No es un ministerio de acción social. No es un ministerio ceremonial. El
diaconado es un ministerio de caridad. La caridad es la vida misma de Dios en
la que somos bautizados y en la que entraremos plenamente después de haber
pasado de este mundo a través de una vida fiel de testimonio esperanzado de
Cristo.
Como enseñó el Papa Benedicto XVI
en su primera encíclica, Deus Caritas Est: “No se comienza a ser
cristiano por una decisión ética o una gran idea, sino por el encuentro con un
acontecimiento, con una persona, que da un nuevo horizonte a la vida y, con
ello, una orientación decisiva. En su Evangelio, Juan había expresado este
acontecimiento con las siguientes palabras: “Tanto amó Dios al mundo, que
entregó a su Hijo único, para que todos los que creen en él tengan vida eterna”
(cf. 3, 16).
El diaconado se basa en ese
encuentro y está dirigido a ayudar a los pobres y a los fácilmente ignorados a
regresar a ese horizonte y a ser revitalizados en esa dirección hacia la vida
eterna. El diaconado se basa en ese encuentro y también se dirige a nosotros,
sacerdotes, obispos y laicos, pidiéndonos a volver a ese horizonte y a ser
revitalizados en esa dirección hacia la vida eterna. Este evento es Jesucristo
quien les ha llamado a ustedes.
“Amen, amen, I say to you, unless a grain
of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if
it dies, it produces much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever
hates his life in this world will preserve it for eternal life.”
We are all very excited to be here this
evening, on this Feast of Saint Lawrence, Deacon and Martyr. We ask his
intercession for our soon-to-be deacons and for all of us as a Church, that we
might remain focused on Christ, present in His treasures in the life of the
local Church of Fort Worth. This evening is the culmination of the prayers of
so many people who are friends, fellow parishioners, and the wives and family
members of our candidates for ordination. While COVID-19 has prevented the
gathering of many more people in this church tonight, by God’s providence it
has offered the opportunity for many more around the world to be present and
attentive to this liturgical celebration in the life of our local Church of
Fort Worth by way of live-streaming.
Many of these people have asked our
candidates the question, “What are you doing?” or “Why are you being ordained a
deacon in the Catholic Church?” Many of our friends and relatives may not
understand why you are doing this, and they might presume two reasons for your
being here this evening. First, you are doing this with the support of your
wife and family to have a new and successful experience of service in the
Church. Secondly, you are doing this to make a difference in the Church or in
society. I would like to caution against either of these reasons. First, more
than likely, you will not have a successful experience of service in the Church
as a deacon, certainly not how success is commonly measured. Secondly, more
than likely, you will not make a difference in resolving problems that are
insoluble on human terms and will remain long in the Church and in society
after any of us are dead and judged. I would suggest rather that our candidates
are here tonight because Christ has called them and has given them the grace to
say “yes” to Him and to be ordained to the permanent diaconate, which is a
above all else a ministry of charity.
The Acts of the Apostles and the
history of the Church make clear that the diaconate is a ministry of charity
and it’s important for us to be reminded of this because “charity,” like so
many other words, can derive other meanings and can be confused with other
things. The diaconate is not a ministry of outreach. It is not a ministry of
social action. It is not a ceremonial ministry. It is a ministry of charity.
Charity is the very life of God into which we are baptized and into which we
will enter fully after we have passed from this world through a faithful life
of hopeful witness to Christ.
As Pope Benedict XVI taught in his first
encyclical, Deus Caritas Est: “Being
Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the
encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a
decisive direction.” Saint John’s Gospel describes that event in these words:
“God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him
should ... have eternal life.” The
diaconate is based on such an encounter and is directed to assisting the poor
and those who are easily overlooked to return to that horizon and reinvigorated
in that direction towards eternal life. The diaconate is based on such an
encounter and is also directed to us, priests, bishops, and laity, to return to
that horizon, reinvigorated in that direction towards eternal life. This event
is Jesus Christ who has called you.
A story. When
I was a college student in Washington, D.C., I had a classmate by the name of
Colin. He was very bright and gifted. He had decided to spend one day a week
with a group of students being present to the homeless in Lafayette Square for
two hours every Friday. The group would
make sandwiches and distribute them among the homeless and distribute toiletry
items and warm clothes during the season of inclement weather. It seemed to me to be an exercise in
futility. We would always pray for the homeless at daily Mass and we would
receive various lectures and presentations on the problem and causes of
homelessness. The school year ended and we each went home — except for the
homeless — who remained at home in their homelessness.
That summer,
while my friend Colin was at home, he collapsed, and he was diagnosed with a
very rare and aggressive form of cancer that prevented him from returning to
the seminary in Autumn. We began to pray for Colin at Mass. About a month into
the new year, one of the members of the outreach group, a new student, came to
me and asked if I kept in contact with Colin. I told him that I did, and the
new student asked that I convey a message to Colin from a man named Peter
Joseph to tell him that the people living in Lafayette Square had heard that
Colin was ill and they wanted him know that they were praying for him. I phoned
Colin, and with the early faith of the Apostle Thomas asked him if he knew a
man named Peter Joseph. He confirmed that he knew him to be a man living in
Lafayette Square. I told Colin that Peter Joseph and the other homeless were
praying for him. To which Colin said, “please thank him for me.” I then
proceeded on the next Friday to make sandwiches and seek out the homeless man,
Peter Joseph, to deliver the message in person.
Compassion is
when a person sees a poor or suffering person, experiences empathy, and assists
that person with the thought that “there but for the grace of God, go I.”
Charity is when a Christian encounters a poor or suffering person, experiences
empathy, assists the person and recognizes, “there by God’s grace goes
Christ.” The diaconate is a ministry of
charity above all else. It is focused on Christ alone in the poor, who are
people not ideas nor problems. The order of deacon, as a minister of charity,
recognizes human dignity in each person and witnesses that that human dignity
is because each person has been imprinted with the image and likeness of God.
Again, the order of deacon, as a minister of charity, recognizes and witnesses
to Christ who is really present and who loves each of us without distinction
and with complete and unconditional love. Even if the poor remain poor — all
the while they remain Christ among us.
It is this charity
which prompts the Church to ordain the deacon to lend his voice to the Holy
Spirit in the ordinary proclamation of the Gospel in the celebration of Mass
and in the celebration of Baptism. It is this charity that prompts the Church
to assign the deacon to hold the chalice of the Blood of Christ at the doxology
of the Mas — the Blood of Christ that He shed in total and sacrificial love for
all of us who have been impoverished by sin. It is this charity that prompts
the Church to assign the deacon to receive the marital vows of couples — especially
those who have previously thought that the Church was closed to them. It is
this charity that prompts the Church to ask the deacon to be mindful of her
members who have been alienated for some reason and to foster a return by them
to a “new horizon and a decisive direction” — that is belonging to Jesus
Christ. It is this Charity that prompts each deacon to die to self that he
might lose his life and that he, and each of us through his ministry, might
preserve it for eternal life.
“Amen, amen, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will preserve it for eternal life.”
