Feast of Saint Kevin 2018

ORDINATION TO THE PERMANENT DIACONATE

Homily notes of Most Rev. Diarmuid Martin, Archbishop of Dublin

Saint Mary’s Pro-Cathedral, 2nd June 2018

“Today through the laying on of hands and the prayer of consecration, we ordain four new permanent deacons for service in the Church of Dublin.  I congratulate the candidates and I thank them on the manner in which they have prepared themselves for this ministry.

I thank your wives and family members, the parish communities from which you spring and in which you have worked in these years.  I thank the team that has prepared you for this day, led by Father John Gilligan and I join in the joy of the other permanent deacons who serve the people of God in this diocese.

Your service as deacons is inserted into the changing patterns of ministry in the Archdiocese of Dublin.  We have priests, deacons, lay pastoral workers, catechists, male and female religious, and so many individual Christians and groups of believers who work together at the service of the mission of the Church.  This is not simply a measure to address the falling number of priests.  It is to reflect the true nature of the Church as a community of the missionary disciples of Jesus working together, respecting the charism of each.

The Gospel reading tells us of how Jesus meets with his disciples after his resurrection as he sends them out to make disciples of all nations.  The disciples realise that after the resurrection their relationship with Jesus has changed.  The Gospel tells us that the disciples fell down before him.

There is then a curious phrase in the Gospel.  It says, “Some of them hesitated”.  Even at this final moment, some of the disciples still found it difficult to understand that Jesus was truly divine.  The question arises then: why would Jesus entrust the mission of bringing his message to all people and all generations to such a weak community, formed of those who had been unfaithful and whose faith was still very fragile?

Jesus has a different business model to ours.  The Church is never just the Church of the perfect.  Jesus knows us in our weakness.  We all need God’s love to heal and convert us in our weakness.  We can only be witnesses to Jesus if we allow Jesus to come to our aid.  The believer or the Church must constantly be alert to reject any the temptation to the arrogance of power.  The power and the mandate received by ministers and disciples of Jesus can only be authorised by Jesus himself and must always be carried out in the manner revealed by Jesus.

The ministry of the deacon is a ministry of service.  A ministry of service is not simply about doing things.  It is about becoming identified in one’s entire being with the Jesus who serves.

The ordination liturgy will remind our new deacons that being a herald of the Gospel of Christ means that they “believe what you read, teach what you believe and practice what you teach”.

Our second reading reminds Christians that in all things they must “lead a life worthy of the calling to which they are called”.  The ministry of the deacon must be a ministry of personal integrity.

Those called to evangelise must be ministers of Jesus and his love and that alone; otherwise they witness only to themselves, their ambitions, their passions, their harshness and nastiness, their greed.

Ministry in the Church is ministry of service.  When the notion of representing the Jesus who serves becomes undermined in the life of the Church then the Church becomes inward looking and self-serving.

The life of the Church must be and must be seen as a witness to the Jesus who serves.  This is especially true in any way in which the Church sets out to serve the poorest and the weakest.  Church documents speak of the Church having a “preferential love for the poor”.  This means not just doing things for the poor.  This means ensuring that what is done with and for the poor is the best.  Sadly, in the past the Church allowed itself to become involved in forms of institutional care that failed in the standards which witnessing to the care of Jesus demands.

Some will say that times were different or that institutions did not have the financial wherewithal to do better.  Some will say that Irish society was different and that the Church was not alone in the manner in which the poor were betrayed.  There is certainly an element of truth in such reflection but where the poor were let down by the Church, the person of Jesus was betrayed.  An inward looking, self-serving Church becomes an arrogant Church.  The caring Church must rather be a beacon of what care and love for the poor demand.

An inward looking Church then slips inevitably into becoming a contented, safe, comfort-zone for the like-minded.  It becomes a sign of fear and self-protection rather than courage.  An inward looking Church becomes a sign of the lack of the Spirit.  It was the Spirit who gave the early Christians the courage at Pentecost to overcome their fears and anxieties and go out, helped by the Spirit, to speak of Jesus in a language that everyone could grasp.

Does the Church speak today in the language of today?  There is always a sense in which the language of the Church must be counter cultural.  It must lead the men and women of our time beyond the confines of contemporary culture.  It does so not through impositions or providing codes of conduct that cover every aspect of life.  It does so through representing the demanding challenge of God’s love as revealed in Jesus Christ.

Deacons must measure their lives not just by “what they can do” in their ministry, which sacraments they can administer.  The order of deacons is called to be a special witness to the Jesus who serves and is called to witness with integrity to Jesus in a culture that longs to be compassionate yet is heavily marked also be anxiety and harshness, by brutality and violence.  The Church, which in its members bears the consequences of sin and compromise, must allow the presence of Jesus to transform our weakness and allow our Church in humility to become a true beacon of compassion.

Our Gospel end with the assurance that God will remain with us until the end of time.  Jesus invites us to share in his life and to reflect his life in the world and bring his message of love into lives and hearts.  The harshness of our world needs that message.  Our new deacons and all who minister if the Church must imbibe and uncompromisingly reflect the loving-kindness of out God in the way we live.”   ENDS

Notes

Archbishop Diarmuid Martin today ordained four married men to the Permanent Deaconate in St. Mary’s Pro Cathedral in Dublin, the Feast day of St. Kevin.  Gerry Malone is from Blessington, Don Devaney is from Clondalkin, Greg Pepper is from Westland Row and Noel McHugh is from Castleknock.