On Saturday, 24 January 2004, in The Cathedral of the Madeleine, along with twenty-three classmates, I was ordained a deacon by then-Bishop George Niederauer. I served the first eleven-and-a-half years at the same cathedral. In May 2015, I was reassigned, by then-Bishop John Wester, to Saint Olaf Parish in Bountiful, Utah, where I live. In March 2020, I was appointed as the Director of the Office of the Diaconate for the Diocese of Salt Lake City by our current bishop, Oscar Solis. As Director, I am responsible both for permanent deacons and for the formation of new deacons.
On 22 January, we began Aspirancy for 10 ten aspiring deacons. Thus far, mine has been an active ministry liturgically, cathechetically, and in charitable outreach. I have no plans to slow down.
Of the twenty-four men with whom I was ordained, seven are dead. One is living and presumably still serving in another diocese. Five are retired from active ministry and three are semi-active/retired. This leaves one-third of us still in active ministry.
I wrote both my master's thesis and my doctoral thesis on aspects of the diaconate. I think deacons need to understand our order at a very deep level. This is not merely an academic exercise but is essential to good diaconal ministry. In short, as one of the three offices that together make up the sacrament of orders, the diaconate, along with the episcopate and presbyterate, is a full and equal order. Yes, section twenty-nine of Vatican Council II's Dogmatic Constitution on the Church (Lumen Gentium) points out that deacons are at the lower end of the hierarchy.
Being a "sacred ordering," hierarchy is not about power. In a similar sense, one can say that the Holy Spirit is at the lower end of the hierarchy of the Most Holy Trinity- I am not equating the diaconate with the Holy Spirit- though, given the relationship between diaconal ordination and the sacrament of confirmation, it wouldn't be far-fetched. In a manner akin to how the Holy Spirit is "co-equal" with the Father and the Son, the diaconate is, to use the subtitle of James Barnett's excellent book The Diaconate, we are "a full and equal order.
It is both my pleasure and my privilege to be a deacon. Being a deacon also challenges me daily in all aspects of my life to imitate Christ, who came to serve and not to be served. Diakonia, which I like to think of as selfless service to others in Christ's name, is inherent to being a Christian.
I hope and pray for many more years of service both to the Church and, an equally important aspect of the diaconate, the world on behalf of the Church, which is to say on behalf of Jesus Christ, who is, was, and ever shall be the Deacon.
Your vocation and ministry are such a gift - and I say that as someone from afar! The way you see yourself and the way you serve, in the spirit of diakonos, God's people, is humbling to me.
ReplyDeleteFran: Thank you for your friendship and encouragement. I hope that I am and remain a servant. By God's grace, being a deacon becomes more and more identity as time moves along.
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