Deacon Promises

[This evening, our brothers in Fourth Theology, made promises in anticipation of their ordinations as deacons next month. We continue to pray for them. This is the homily]

But by the grace of God I am what I am,
and his grace to me has not been ineffective.

Brothers and sisters tonight we hear the word of God in a deep and poignant way as we observe our brothers who will soon be transformed by their ordination to the diaconate. Tonight they make promises that they intend to keep for life.

Keeping a promise for life is a rare enough commodity in our world today. Every day we witness, many of us first-hand, the ephemeral nature of families, marriages, religious vocations. We see the struggles our brothers and sisters around us make in keeping commitments. We all know something of both the statistics and the real human toll those statistics take.

But these men are here to make promises, nevertheless. They stand here tonight; they place their hands on the Book of God’s World. They sign their names on the altar. It is an impressive moment, an everlasting moment in a transitory world.

Perhaps they need a warning, or encouragement, or some sort of fervereno.
Perhaps they do, but I have no such warnings for them tonight.

What I need to say to them, I have already said to them, so tonight I would like to address some challenges to us, all of us, concerning the act they undertake tonight.

What are these men doing? Tonight they are taking the final definitive step in joining their lives to a greater purpose. For years, they have pursued the sometimes flighty specter of vocation. They have studied, prayed, been formed, talked to spiritual directors and counselors, ministered, they have cried and laughed and relaxed and labored and, well frankly, also complained, fought, grumbled, procrastinated, doubted and shirked responsibilities. They have, in other words, been fully human and yet, tonight, they are proposing to unite that humanity to God’s will in a bond that cannot be broken. They propose to become deacons and then priests and there is no more exalted calling to which they respond because there is no greater need in the world than the need for what they will give in their future ministry. Can they do it on their own? No …
But by the grace of God they are what they are,
and his grace to them has not been ineffective.

Look to these men, because, tonight in a public act they are asking us to look to them.

Look to these men and see in them icons of God’s love, his love poured out in the sacrificial offering of Christ. Look at their frail and winsome personalities and see the torn body of our Lord. Look at their embattled spirits and see his life sweated in the blood of Gethsemane

Look to these men and see in them the possibility of an eternal commitment, of a lasting promise, of a reversal of all the sad history of brokenness and the bitter pain wrought by infidelity.

Look to these men and find in them your inspiration and hope, If you are a seminarian, seek to be what they have become. In their promises, they are pledging to be your guides and mentors, to offer you an example of what is possible.
For by the grace of God they are what they are,
and his grace to them has not been ineffective.

Look to these men and seek in their faces God’s promise, God’s fidelity, God’s pledge of eternal presence. See in them your own dreams for they are bearers of the dream of all humanity. See in them the joy of Christ instead of the bitterness and rancor of the world. See in them the peace of God rather than the eternal strife of the spirit, see in them love. They want to be ambassadors of love in a hate strewn landscape. They are loving men, we all know that. But united if God’s love they become more than what they might have been.

Look to these men and see the Church, its ancient history and its ancient wounds professed in words that echo down the corridors of time in every human language. I believe in One God.

Look to these men and see all our brothers and sisters who hunger for dignity and bread, who labor under the yoke of tyranny, who are beset by violence, who are besieged by terrorism, who are controlled by addictions, who are torn by every kind of ism. See the worn eyes of the starving mother cradling her child, see the broken hands of the migrant worker unjustly paid, see the tired feet of the fleeing refugee.

See God in them because by their promise tonight, that is what they want to show.
That there is something more important in life than the passing flotsam and jetsam of seminary politics.
What an amazing vision and so it is good that
by the grace of God they are what they are,
and his grace to them has not been ineffective.

Tonight these men make promises for life, they are icons for us but I challenge all of us here to also make promises to them. Perhaps our deacon promises should be less about what they do and more about what we do.

Let us make an oath of fidelity to them, an oath to hold them accountable in every way for the promises they make. An oath to scrutinize their actions for any vestiges of half-heartedness or hypocrisy

Let us make a Profession of Faith with them, faith that they can be what they have been called to be, that they can persevere, that they can be beacons of faith, hope and love in a darkened world. And faith that we will love them, stand by them and support them.

Let us bond their Declaration of Freedom to our own as each of us, in his or her own way, continue to pursue the King of Love, the Prince of Peace, the Spirit of Joy, the God of Wonder with open hearts, clear minds, and grateful spirits

And let us promise to stand with them and
Give thanks to the Lord for he is good
Eucharistia
Give thanks to the Lord for he is good

Brothers and sisters, give thanks to the Lord for he is good, in calling these men, these frail, sinful, amazing, heroic men who stand before us tonight to proclaim with us ...

But by the grace of God I am what I am,
and his grace to me has not been ineffective.