5th Sunday in Easter
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/050326.cfm
I had never seen or met a Catholic permanent deacon before I was 27 years old. My first encounter was in Oklahoma City. I had moved to that city for two years to take a teaching position. Within walking distance of my house was a predominantly Black Catholic church called Corpus Christi, which became my parish. I had not been to a Black Catholic Church before, and I was quickly stuck by the sense of community, the incredible music, and the powerful preaching.
Corpus Christi had two Black deacons who had a real gift for homiletics. I privately thought of them as the crying deacon and the professor. The first deacon would preach moving homilies that, without fail, had a moment when his voice would crack and, caught up by the emotion of his testimony, he would breaking down in tears, bring the congregation along with him.
The second deacon was a dentist and a professor at Oklahoma University. His homilies were as intellectual as the crying deacon’s were emotive. I always came away with a new insight or knowledge about Scripture or Church history. In addition to preaching, I watched these men proclaim the Gospel, serve at the altar during the Eucharist, and perform baptisms, weddings, and funerals. They were also highly active in serving the community.
From getting to know these men, I learned that they were both married and had kids, and they had jobs out in the wider world, not in the church. Their example planted a seed in me that would lead to me discerning the diaconate and being ordained thirteen years later.
In today’s first reading, we hear of the calling and ordination of the first deacons. The community was split by language between those spoke Aramaic, which was the native language of Israel, and those who spoke Greek. This reflected a broader split among the early Christian community over how Jewish the Church was going to be. The Hellenists—meaning the Greek speakers—thought the church should include converts and that Christians did not need to follow the dietary and sabbath laws of Judaism. The Hebrews—meaning the Aramaic speakers—had a more conservative and exclusive view. Interestingly, these splits have parallels in our own Church in America today.
Seven Greek-speaking men with a reputation for holiness and wisdom were selected to minister to widows and other vulnerable community members. Initially, their “job description” was narrow but very quickly, it became clear that the Holy Spirit had other ideas.
The seven began preaching and baptizing. Phillip the Deacon was driven by the Holy Spirit to evangelize the people of Samaria, Gaza, and Ethiopia. Like deacons today, in addition to his ministry, Phillip was a husband and the father of four daughters.
Stephen the Deacon became the first martyr of the Church. Like Jesus, as he lay dying, he forgave his killers. His death led to the conversion of St. Paul and to the spreading of the Church throughout the Roman Empire.
I would suggest that none of these seven men quite knew what they were saying yes to when they agreed to be ordained to the diaconate. I think that’s a message that applies to all of us who follow Christ, not just deacons. In the Gospel, Jesus says,
“Amen, amen, I say to you,
whoever believes in me will do the works that I do,
and will do greater ones than these.”
Jesus is telling us that if we make ourselves available to the Holy Spirit, he will use us to do deeds even greater than he himself did, as incredible as that sounds. Greatness is rooted in our willingness to serve one another.
The Greek word for deacon, diakonos, means servant, or household attendant. A deacon is a person who is ordained to serve. Jesus said of himself, “I did not come to be served but to serve and to give my life as the liberation for many.” “If anyone wishes to be great among you, he shall make himself the servant of all.” Jesus demonstrated these words by kneeling down and washing his disciples’ feet at the Last Supper. After he did it, Jesus said, “If I, therefore, the master and teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash one another’s feet. I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do.”
These words are addressed to every person. Each of us is called to be a deacon –meaning a servant—through our baptisms. But ordained deacons take Jesus’ words as our mission statement. We are called to make “Jesus the Servant” present in the world through our acts of service and through the sacrament of Holy Orders. If you are interested in learning more about the diaconate, Deacon Trey and I would be happy to talk to you. But I want to repeat the idea that you do not need to be ordained in order to serve.
As Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “everybody can be great because everybody can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve. You don't have to know about Plato and Aristotle to serve. You don't have to know Einstein's theory of relativity to serve. You don't have to know the second theory of thermodynamics in physics to serve. You only need a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love. And you can be that servant.” [“Drum Major Instinct,” 1968]
Through the examples of Christ the Servant and the seven deacons, let us all pray for hearts full of grace and souls generated by love, so that we can follow Jesus’ command to serve one another. God bless you.
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