Deacon reflection 2

Why are there deacons and why me?

After the bishop’s invitation to consider the diaconate, I began to read and pray.

The diaconate as a permanent grade of the sacrament of Holy Orders had been restored after the Second Vatican Council. Between the Middle Ages and Vatican II, the diaconate was considered almost exclusively as a step on the way to the priesthood.

There were a few cases of men who remained deacons. Saint Francis of Assisi is said to be among them. There was also a suggestion at the Council of Trent to revive the permanent diaconate. There were discussions during the nineteen century.

During the Second World War, priests in the Dachau concentration camp seriously discussed the diaconate in the light of what they considered to be a church out of touch with the world. After the war, some of those priests and other theologians wrote on the topic. There were also laypeople who began discussions and formed Deacon Circles. Pope Pius XII at one point said it was not yet time for permanent deacons.

But the bishops at the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) took up the questions and in the Constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium, opened the way to the ordination of men, even married men, to the diaconate as a permanent grade of the sacrament of Holy Orders.

They began paragraph 29 with a description of the deacon:

At a lower level of the hierarchy are deacons, upon whom hands are imposed "not unto the priesthood, but unto a ministry of service." For strengthened by sacramental grace, in communion with the bishop and his group of priests they serve in the diaconate of the liturgy, of the word, and of charity to the people of God. It is the duty of the deacon, according as it shall have been assigned to him by competent authority, to administer baptism solemnly, to be custodian and dispenser of the Eucharist, to assist at and bless marriages in the name of the Church, to bring Viaticum to the dying, to read the Sacred Scripture to the faithful, to instruct and exhort the people, to preside over the worship and prayer of the faithful, to administer sacramentals, to officiate at funeral and burial services. Dedicated to duties of charity and of administration, let deacons be mindful of the admonition of Blessed Polycarp: "Be merciful, diligent, walking according to the truth of the Lord, who became the servant of all."

They then suggest the restoration, with an openness to ordaining “men of more mature age, even upon those living in the married state.”

I knew this but I had to read the Decree on Mission, Ad Gentes, to really see how I might be a candidate for the diaconate.

In paragraph 16 the bishops wrote:

Where Episcopal Conferences deem it opportune, the order of the diaconate should be restored as a permanent state of life... For there are men who are actually carrying out the functions of the deacon’s office, either by preaching the Word of God as catechists, or by presiding over scattered Christian communities in the name of the pastor and the bishop, or by practicing charity in social or relief work. It will be helpful to strengthen them by that imposition of hands which has come down from the apostles, and to bind them more closely to the altar. Thus they can carry out their ministry more effectively because of the sacramental grace of the diaconate.

When I read this, I was stunned.

Soon after I came to Honduras in 2007, I began helping in the training of catechists in the parish of Dulce Nombre de María. With a new pastor in 2013, I soon began going out several Sundays to distant villages to preside at Celebrations of the Word with Communion. I also have been involved in efforts to respond to the needs of the poor – first through visiting a kindergarten in a poor neighborhood in Santa Rosa, and a lunch program for kids; then through assisting in the diocesan Caritas office; and then more recently in efforts in the parish of Dulce Nombre.

The bishops at the Second Vatican Council were proposing that those who had been involved in one of the three areas of evangelization, worship, or service to the poor might be ordained to the diaconate “to strengthen them by that imposition of hands which has come down from the apostles, and to bind them more closely to the altar.”

I had been serving in all three areas. Maybe what I needed was “the sacramental grace of the sacrament” and the life commitment to serve.

 And so I continued my discernment.

Grinding coffee in a distant village while with Caritas