By Archbishop Thomas Wenski - The Archdiocese of Miami
Archbishop Thomas Wenski preached this homily at the opening Mass for the annual convocation of deacons, held Nov. 20, 2021, at St. John Vianney Seminary in Miami.
I thank all of you for being here today for this convocation of deacons – and today we also welcome those who will soon join the order of deacons. Today we will install them in the ministries of lector and acolyte. Also, a welcome to their wives and family members who join us today – and to all the wives who are here. Your support for your husbands is so important to the success and the effectiveness of his ministry as a deacon of the Church.
The vocation of a deacon, a call to the Sacrament of Holy Orders, is a beautiful gift – but not a gift given for personal enrichment or personal “enthronement.” Deacons are “ordered” for service in the name of the Church. As deacons, as you fulfill your ministry, you should “model” service for the entire community. Jesus does himself what he asks others to do: to serve, and not to be served; to love freely, not to exact everyone’s worship; to reach out to those in need, not to wait for adoring approval.
We all know people in authority whose insecurities make them “lord” the authority over others – even if their authority extends to only having the keys to open the parish hall. But they’ve got to make their authority felt. But Jesus insists on another standard in which greatness is not measured by how much power or how much control one has over other people. Jesus’ standard is expressed in the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. – words which I first saw written on a rapid transit station in Miami’s Liberty City: “Any man can be great because every man can serve.” Jesus’ image of authority is the one who is servant of all. Greatness is service.
You have heard me say it before: If we can associate the words “Christian” and “ambition,” it should only be when “Christian ambition” describes the Christian’s passion to serve. For “service” is the highest calling of every Christian. Even the Pope – who is the “highest” figure in the hierarchy of the Church – is rightly called: the Servus servorum Dei, the Servant of the Servants of God.
Discipleship should be a service industry in which there is no unemployment. There is enough work for everyone. And as we become more aware of the giftedness of all God’s people, we see many new ministries emerging in the Church. Jesus chooses whom he wishes. And if you look around you can see that he chooses human beings with all their faults and limitations. But he chooses us despite our faults and limitations. Jesus does not necessarily call the qualified, but he qualifies the called – sometimes only through a baptism of fire.
Discerning such a call is not reason for vainglory or an inflated sense of our self-importance. Discerning such a call should always leave us very humbled.
Today’s Scripture readings help prepare us for tomorrow’s feast of Christ the King. Today’s reading, which describes Antiochus’ defeat, should give Christians some comfort in the face of the threats to our religious freedom we face today. In a few days we will celebrate the feast of Father Miguel Pro and his companions. Miguel Pro and thousands of others died for their faith during the religious persecutions in Mexico during the 1920s. They died much like the Maccabeans died at the hand of King Antiochus, refusing to give legitimacy to the overreach of secular authorities into matters of religion and conscience. Led before firing squads, many died shouting: “Long live Christ the King,” Viva Cristo Rey! These martyrs and the millions who died in the successive holocausts of the 20th century remind us that when we pretend to organize the world without reference to God and his truth, we end up organizing the world against man himself.
The past months have not been easy. We are seemingly more divided than ever. For reasons yet to be well articulated, people are increasingly addicted to “outrage.” In fact, the internet and cable news support a whole industry devoted to “outrage” — which could be defined as talk designed to provoke emotional responses — anger, fear, moral indignation among others. This “outrage industry” is sustained by overgeneralization, sensationalism, inaccurate information and “ad hominem” attacks. Such “outrage” threatens our unity as a nation, a society – and, even, the unity of the Church. There’s a Haitian proverb that says: sèvi ak kolè pou kache wont. Use anger to hide your shame – or your fears.
And certainly, the stresses of the pandemic – and the real fears associated with it – have taken their toll on all of us. Many deacons had to step aside from their normal ministries to protect their families or themselves because of underlying conditions. Several of our deacons have died since we last met – many of them with COVID. We pray for their eternal repose at this Mass. More than a few of you or your families were sick with COVID and thankfully later recovered.
Hopefully, we will leave the pandemic behind in our rearview mirrors. In good time and in bad times, we must recognize that fear is useless, as is the outrage that we use to mask our fears. Fear is useless, what is needed is trust: Jesus en ti confio; we proclaim Jesus Christ is Lord and King. We have many challenges before us – and one will be reintroducing people back into the habit of in-person worship. Many argue that the pandemic has accelerated the secularization of our society. And so this is no time for complacency or half-hearted commitments.
As Jesus points out to the Sadducees in today’s Gospel, Jesus’ kingship is really about a new existence. The greatest contradiction which man has always experienced – that between life and death — has been overcome in Jesus Christ who died but has risen. The most radical contradiction is no longer between “living” and “dying” but between living “for oneself” and living “for the Lord.”
Let us live for the Lord.
