Homily for the Ordination of Permanent Deacons

Feast of Saint Lawrence

August 10, 2022
St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church
Keller, TX

Jeremiah 1:4-9
Psalm 100: 1b-2, 3, 4, 5
Acts 6:1-7
John 12:24-26

En el Evangelio de esta Misa, Jesús nos dice, “El que se ama a sí mismo, se pierde; el que se aborrece a sí mismo en este mundo, se asegura para la vida eterna. El que quiera servirme que me siga, para que donde yo esté, también esté mi servidor. El que me sirve será honrado por mi Padre”.  Estas palabras revelan la primera característica del sagrado ministerio y la vocación del diaconado permanente. Así que es más apropiado que nos unamos hoy como la Iglesia local de Fort Worth para la ordenación de diez diáconos permanentes en esta Fiesta de San Lorenzo, el diácono y mártir.

Los diáconos sirven la Palabra de Dios por proclamación — lo que es más que recitación — predicación del Evangelio por las homilías en la Liturgia de la Palabra. Los diáconos sirven a la Mesa sagrada de la Eucaristía, el altar, el máximo servicio de la caridad de Dios que es la Fuente y Cumbre de la vida de la Iglesia. Los diáconos también sirven en la mesa de nuestra sociedad donde los pobres antes no tenían un lugar, pero, ahora, a través del ministerio diaconal de la Iglesia, están sentados para recibir el rico don de pertenecer en el hogar de Dios, la Iglesia.

Según las palabras del Papa Francisco, “Hace falta volver a sentir que nos necesitamos unos a otros, que tenemos una responsabilidad por los demás y por el mundo, que vale la pena ser buenos y honestos. Ya hemos tenido mucho tiempo de degradación moral, burlándonos de la ética, de la bondad, de la fe, de la honestidad, y llegó la hora de advertir que esa alegre superficialidad nos ha servido de poco.”

“El que se ama a sí mismo, se pierde; el que se aborrece a sí mismo en este mundo, se asegura para la vida eterna. El que quiera servirme que me siga, para que donde yo esté, también esté mi servidor”.

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“Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will preserve it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there also will my servant be.” These words of the Gospel really reveal in brevity and depth the sacred ministry of deacons. This makes it even more appropriate that we should come together as the local church of Fort Worth for the ordination of ten permanent deacons on this Feast of Saint Lawrence, deacon and martyr.

Saint Lawrence was the deacon who worked most closely with his bishop, Pope Saint Sixtus II, in the Church of Rome. Lawrence was entrusted with proclaiming the Gospel and with serving at the altar with his bishop, the Pope, and was also entrusted with oversight of the Church’s distribution of alms to the poor.

Most of us are at least vaguely familiar with the story of the martyrdom of Saint Lawrence. During the persecution of the Church by the Emperor Valerian in the year 258, the Pope was arrested, along with other leaders of the Church. The emperor blamed the Christians for civil unrest and aimed at ruining the Church by forbidding their gathering to celebrate the Eucharist, putting their chief leaders to death, and confiscating their property.

The Pope, immediately before being martyred, directed his deacon, Lawrence, to go and distribute to the poor the monies that the Church had collected. Saint Lawrence was brought before the prefect of Rome. The prefect demanded that Lawrence turn over to him the riches of the Church. Saint Lawrence asked for a short delay, so he could gather these riches and present them to the prefect. Lawrence was dismissed by the prefect and, obedient to the Pope’s final words, Lawrence used his three days to distribute the material wealth of the Church to the poor, before the Roman authorities could lay their hands on it.

Then, on the third day after the Pope’s martyrdom, Lawrence accompanied the poor to the residence of the prefect of Rome, and introducing them to him, said, “These are the riches of the Church.” Then, Lawrence was stripped of his garments, beaten severely, and tied to a grill and laid over fiery hot coals. As they were holding him down with an iron pitchfork, Lawrence is reported to have said “I offer myself as a sacrifice to God for an odor of sweetness.” He then raised his eyes to his judge and said: Turn me over for I am done on this side.” Then he concluded, “I give You thanks, O Lord, that I have merited to enter into Your dwelling place.”

“Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will preserve it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there also will my servant be.”

A lot has been said about the final words of Lawrence, especially as representative of a sense of humor; referring to the poor as the riches of the Church and speaking of being “done” on this side and requesting to be turned over. While that is true, these words and actions are not simply an expression of sardonic humor or dark gallows humor. In bringing the poor to the Roman prefect, Lawrence was not exploiting them with a stunt, he witnessed to the truth that the authorities needed to hear and about which the Church needed to be reminded.

In asking to be turned over, Lawrence was offering to God that his ministry had been faithfully done on this side of death and that he prayed to enter the heavenly inheritance won for him by Christ. These words and actions are not just ironic; they are the joyful and prophetic words and actions born not only of faith, hope, and charity, but particularly of the vocation and threefold ministry of a deacon: the ministry of the word, the ministry of the altar, and the ministry of charity.

As Pope Saint John Paul II said to the permanent deacons of the United States in September 1987, “If we keep in mind the deep spiritual nature of this diakonia, then we can better appreciate the interrelation of the three areas of ministry traditionally associated with the diaconate, that is, the ministry of the word, the ministry of the altar, and the ministry of charity. Depending on the circumstances, one or another of these may receive particular emphasis in an individual deacon’s work, but these three ministries are inseparably joined together as one in the service of God’s redemptive plan. This is so because the word of God inevitably leads us to the Eucharistic worship of God at the altar; in turn, this worship leads us to a new way of living which expresses itself in acts of charity. This charity is both love of God and love of neighbor.”

Deacons serve the Word of God by proclamation, more than recitation — prepared proclamation and preaching of the Gospel in the Liturgy of the Word. Deacons wait on the sacred table of the Eucharist, the altar, the ultimate service of God’s charity that is the Source and Summit of the Church’s life. Deacons wait on the table in our society where the poor previously had no place but now, through diaconal ministry of the Church, are seated to receive the rich gift of belonging to the family of God.

This is the vocation of the entire Church enlivened by the “sacramentalized ministry” of deacons. Pope Saint Paul VI referred to the ministry of the permanent diaconate as the “driving force” that serves the Church, in a fallen world where the poor have no place to belong and where human beings are valued only by their productivity in fitting into the selfish plans of the elite and powerful. Since the call of the first deacons recorded in the Acts of the Apostles, this has been the vocation of deacons, to remind the Church through intentional service that the poor have first place of belonging even when they do not fit in.

Your ordination this evening configures you sacramentally to Christ the Servant; by your ordained ministry you are to also become living signs of the servanthood of His Church.

“Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will preserve it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there also will my servant be.”