Last September we put out the call for men who were interested in inquiring about the permanent diaconate. In December we conducted 5 diaconate information sessions around the diocese. The exciting thing is that 77 men, most with their wives attended the sessions. The challenge and somewhat disheartening for me was that approximately 25% of the men, when they did their introductions, professed they felt they’d had a calling many years prior, but put off the calling. They confessed that they resisted or “put off” the call for three main reasons; they were just starting a career, they had children, and that when the shared their heart’s stirring with a priest or deacon, they were counseled to wait. Wait until your children are grown, wait until you are good and stable at work, or near retirement.
I believe that a man who hears the call to service; priest, deacon, consecrated life, and lay ministry, it is a request, “Sir, I wish to see Jesus.” In the Gospel we hear of the Greeks request to see Jesus. When Philip told Jesus, Jesus responds by telling once again about his own death and resurrection: “The hour has come for the Son of Mas to be glorified…unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies it remains just a grain of wheat.” (Jn 12:24) He is setting his mind to the single task of obedience to his Father will, the passion he must endure.
What makes the advice to wait so disheartening for me, these men are now 62 years of age and older. The long-standing policy of the diocese has been to ordain before the completion of the man’s 65th birth date. Discerning things of God with human logic can be very disappointing.
Reconciling this longstanding cultural mindset, that a man must hold off God’s call until…, matched with the unique charism of the restored permanent diaconate, to live the Gospel “in the world” within and beyond the walls of the parish is very challenging. There is no doubt of challenges of balancing the rigors of diaconate formation, full-time jobs, and young families; balancing the demands of the deacon’s ministry of Word, Liturgy, and Charity with full-time work and family responsibilities.
Jesus tells us in today’s Gospel, whoever serves me must wait until it’s convenient for you, and then I’ll will be you. NO!!!! Its “Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there also will my servant be.” (Jn 12:26) He clearly warns us, “Whoever loves his life loses it.” The challenge seems daunting, almost impossible for humans, but “for God all things are possible.” (Mt 19:26; Mk 10:27) Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane prays to his heavenly Father, “Abba, Father, all things are possible to you. Take this cup away from me, but not what I will but what you will.” (Mk 14:36) He “learned obedience from what he suffered, and when he was made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him.” (Heb 5:8-9) He died that we might live to the full, not put him off until it’s convenient.
Brothers, we have a tremendous responsibility to God’s Holy Church. None of us are getting any younger and the world, more than ever, needs well-formed men and families within its midst to be a light that draws all back to God. They are out there, living the life of diakonia, in their everyday ordinary lives. We are the elders, we must first and foremost must be in deep relationship with our Lord and Savior, so that we can see with his eyes and hear with his heart. To plant discipleship seeds, water the young plants, and to till the soil removing the weeds that would choke the young discerner from clearly hearing God’s call.
We need to ask with wisdom, do you want to see Jesus? And when they give an indication of the slightest inkling of inquiry we must accompany them and discern with them.
We need to tell them, challenge them. If you want to see Jesus, pay attention to his Death and Resurrection. If you want to see Jesus, look to see where the Gospel is being proclaimed around you in lives of servanthood. If you want to see Jesus, look to lives of servanthood. If you want to see Jesus, you don’t look to the stuff, you look to servanthood. Always look at the lives of servanthood all around you—if you want to see Jesus.[1]
Let us be the example of obedience, of humility, of servanthood and let His will be done.
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