[1]A man
was sitting at his desk one morning, when his partner came running into the
office, all out of breath. “You won’t
believe this, I was almost killed a minute ago!
I had just walked out of the deli, where I buy my egg sandwich every
morning. A police car, with its sirens
and lights going, was chasing a car down the street. They rammed the other car, then everyone
jumped out and started shooting. I was
right in the line of fire! I could hear
the bullets whizzing overhead, windows were shattering, cars were careening
onto the sidewalk, and everybody was running for cover. Let me tell you, I’m lucky to be alive!”
The
other fellow was quiet for a moment and then he replied. “So, you eat an egg sandwich every morning?”[2]
I’m
wondering, if some days, we tend to be like the man who was sitting at his desk. We get so lost in our daily tasks, what’s on
our own minds or visions of things down the road of life that we miss the point
of here and now. For us specifically, have
we become so focused on the work of formation requirements of reading,
assignments, grades, reports & evaluations, as well as our secular jobs and
parish ministries, and oh yeah, spending time with our families and household
responsibilities, that we are missing what the real call is to the diaconate?
It is
very easy to become lost in ourselves, focused on doing, and even complacent in
our daily routines that we the loose sight of our call to be evangelizing
disciples. In our desire to serve or to
be ‘the fixer’ could it be that our behavior suggests, to the average
parishioner, that the Church’s ministries and mission should be reserved for the
select few who know best? In his
Apostolic Exhortation, “On Evangelization in the Modern World” Pope
Paul VI writes, “It is the whole Church that receives the mission
to evangelize.”[3]
Yet, in
general, many Catholics just don’t feel they are very good at evangelization
for several reasons. The common reasons
I hear, “I’m
unworthy,” “I’m a sinner”. Today’s
scriptures highlight the calling of three men Isaiah, Paul, and Peter. Each express their reservations about their
call because of their sinfulness and feelings of unworthiness. Isaiah knows he is “a man of unclean lips” (Is 6:5) living among an unclean people. Paul
considers himself “as one born abnormally” (1 Cor 15:8), because he persecuted so many Christians before getting knocked off his horse, and Peter
realizing ‘who he is’ asks Jesus to “Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.” (Lk 5:8) Yet,
despite these admissions and feelings God calls each to service of God’s people. Jesus tells Peter, “Do not be afraid;
from now on you will be catching men.” (Lk 5:10) Peter
immediately leaves everything behind to learn to fish in a new way with Jesus.
This
is our calling, with one difference, we are not asked to necessarily leave
everything behind. The deacon is called from
the world, to be formed in knowledge of self, family life, and the Church, so
he can effectively proclaim the Kingdom of God, in word and deed, a living
witness to Gospel values, in the world that he will return. Pope Paul VI in restoring the permanent
diaconate says, “The deacon is a driving force of the Church’s
service toward the local Christian community … a living icon of Christ the
servant … linked with the missionary dimension of the Church.” We are called to be missionary disciples, evangelize
to a people who, all too often, are very distracted by worldly things and may
only hear, we
eat an egg sandwich every morning.
Our
call to discipleship is a call to be instigators of ministry and animators of the
Church’s mission. We are to invite all
the baptized into action. By our lived
example, we hope that Pope Paul VI expresses, that “the person who has been evangelized goes onto
evangelize others. Here lies the test of
truth, the touchstone of evangelization: it is unthinkable that a person should
accept the Word and give himself to the Kingdom without becoming a person who
bears witness to it and proclaims it in his turn.”[4]
[1] New
American Bible, Saint Joseph Edition ©
1986. Scriptures: Is 6:1-2A, 3-8; 1 Cor 15:1-15; Lk 5:1-11.
[2] Clark, Dennis. Sunday Morning 2.
The Church of the Nativity. 2001 Print
[3] Paul, Pope VI. On Evangelization in the Modern World.
#15 The Word Among Us. 1975 Print
[4] Senior, Donald. The Catholic
Study Bible. Oxford University Press, 2006 Print
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