Deacon ordination homily
St. Anne's, Jerusalem, November 23, 2024
Acts 6:1-7; Rom 12:9-16; Jn 21:15-17
Dear brothers and sisters,
Dear candidate for the diaconate, may the Lord give you peace!
In these difficult times, characterized by so much weariness, these occasions when the Church comes together to celebrate people who put themselves at the service of God and His people are a breath of fresh air. In times when there is mistrust in many areas of personal and social life, it is a great comfort to see that young people still trust God and, above all, the Church, and put themselves at the service of diakonia.
In Acts, we are told the story of the early Christian community in Jerusalem, of those who have gone before us. As we have seen in today’s passage, even then there was no shortage of misunderstandings and tensions related to real, basic needs such as serving the poor. Even then, the church had an ear to the concrete needs of the community and was dedicated to a ministry that we would call “social” today. The life of the early church, like that of ancient Israel, was never free of tension and misunderstanding, and the Bible is not silent about any of it. In these stories we can delicately read the history of every Christian community in every age. These are concrete, real communities, engaged in ordinary, everyday activities, similar to those we engage in today. And in these activities their humanity is revealed, like ours and that of all people, which consists of discussions, different opinions and visions, misunderstandings, if not sometimes even divisions. At first glance, one might think that the Bible wants to familiarize us with situations of smallness and unfaithfulness in these stories. And that is certainly the case. But at the same time, it wants to show us how, in these events, in these misunderstandings and in the discussions that follow, God’s plan also makes its way little by little. How something new and unforeseen arises that would probably not have come about if there had not been these discussions and differences of opinion. In our text, for example, these misunderstandings led to the emergence of diaconal ministry in the Church. An important step in the history of the Church. A similar argument can be made for the way in which the understanding of the need for proclamation to the Gentiles came about, and so for many other important moments in Church history.
So even painful differences within communities are not always to be understood as an obstacle or infidelity, as an inability to be open to God’s plan, or as a barrier that separates us from a full understanding of the Word of God, but are often - when lived in the spirit of faith - the very place where God’s will makes its way. They are like the necessary pains of childbirth. Indeed, there is no new birth without labor pains. So, we must not therefore, escape too easily from these situations, but learn to live them in a Christian way.
Even today we are experiencing painful labor pains in our social and even church life. The current conflict has in a short time swept away so many habits, opinions, ways of thinking and above all hopes, plans and perspectives not only in the social sphere but also in the life of our communities. Who knows what the Lord is preparing us for. It is up to us to discover it little by little, always keeping our hearts attentive and open to listen to the Word of God and the signs of the times.
Your first task as deacons, dear brothers, will be precisely to serve the table and the Word of God. Whatever task the Church entrusts to you through your superiors, it will be carried out in the light of these two fixed points on which you must base your ministry, and which must always be constant throughout your life: the Eucharist and the Word of God. This is the first diaconia that the world needs today, followed at the same from the attention to the poor. Wherever you are sent. Serving the poor, caring for the least, becoming neighbor, anyway, is not mere philanthropy for us believers, but a direct and natural consequence of intimacy with the person of Jesus. Perhaps philanthropy and charity do the same things, build the same houses, open themselves to similar services: the poor, the suffering, the disabled, in short, the last ones. But the style and spirit in which this service is carried out is completely different. Intimacy with Christ opens us to intimacy with every man and woman and frees us from all forms of contention, resentment and anger. It makes us not only builders of good activities, but also builders of new and redeemed relationships.
The gospel you have chosen further enlightens us in the same direction. We find ourselves on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, after the resurrection, and there Jesus and Peter meet again. Perhaps they really are meeting for the first time. After his betrayal, Peter has not yet come to terms with Jesus, has not yet come to terms with the very painful subject of what happened in the moments of the Passion.
However, the resurrected Jesus does not ask Peter to answer for his betrayal, but only asks him one thing: “Do you love me?”. A question that certainly stirred up the fisherman from Capernaum. However, I am sure that this question disturbs and provokes each and every one of us who, whether young or old, have certainly already come to terms with our own small and large betrayals.
With the diaconate, you take on a specific and constitutive aspect of church life in your life: service. Above all in the Eucharist, but also in the life of the world. You do not serve Christ if you do not also serve the world.
We are not required to be perfect. In fact, we are all frail, lame, imperfect, but in love for Christ, and for this reason alone we are at the service of man, of every man. May this consciousness of service always be and remain present in your life.
One final consideration. This diaconia, this love for Christ, has a place and a form: the Church. So do not let your ministry be an exclusively personal choice. Choosing Christ means recognizing yourself as Church. In the Church and with the Church, this diakonia becomes concrete, in the Church you break bread, in the church you proclaim the Word of God. With the Church, one consecrates oneself for the life of the world. There is no ideal Church. Christ founded his community on the hesitant, fearful, sinful Peter. And behind Peter we all stand, timid, hesitant, sinful like him. But also captivated by the love of Christ. And in this ecclesial community, as it is, may your ministry as deacons shines: fragile, sinful, but in the love of Christ.
That is my wish for you and also for each of us!