When? A deacon's examen

Last week I took four seminarians from our diocese to Tegucigalpa. It’s a long trip – at least six hours.

A seminarian from our parish had asked me and noted that the director of this first year seminarian program would give me the opportunity to talk to the seminarians about the permanent diaconate.

The four seminarians in the first year.

I started out early, after the Sunday morning 7 am Mass in Concepción, Copán. The trip went well, faster than I thought it would, partly because we took the back road from Intibucá, through Marcala. (It is actually a better road than the other route.)

We stopped for coffee near Yaramanguila and the owner of the café treated us to coffee. I had stopped here several times before and she was grateful. She also promised to get me asparagus for my return trip on Tuesday.

We arrived. I rested a little and then went to dinner.

The director, Father Freddy, asked me to speak after dinner and, though unprepared, I spoke for a few minutes. But we arranged for me to speak for a time on Monday night.

Monday morning I went with Father Julio Cesar, a priest of the Santa Rosa Diocese who is teaching at the seminary, for Mass with the seminarians from our diocese. I ended up preaching to them.

That night I preached at another Mass, this time to all the first year seminarians.

After dinner I met with them and made a few more remarks about the permanent diaconate. But mostly I left time for questions, which were quite good. Does a permanent deacon have a spiritual director? (I may have surprised them when I mentioned that it was a lay woman.) They were interested in what I do and I was happy to share.

After I mentioned that I am a rarity, a celibate permanent deacon, they asked me about celibacy. 

But sometime during the two talks I mentioned what I think should be part of the weekly examen of life of a permanent deacon: “When was the last time I was in the home of a poor person?” And, if I had not been for some time, I needed to make an effort to visit a poor person. 

I am convinced that this is an essential question for a permanent deacon, especially in mission territory.. If we are not in personal contact with the poor on their home turf are we failing to live out our vocation? 

Pope Francis is adamant on the necessity for all disciples of Christ to serve in the peripheries, in the margins, and to be in personal contact with the poor. As he wrote in his 2021 message for the World Day of the Poor,

“We are called to discover Christ in them, to lend them our voice in their causes, but also to be their friends, to listen to them, to understand them and to welcome the mysterious wisdom that God wants to communicate to us through them.”

We can and should listen to them when they come to us – whether they come asking for material help or come to participate in the church. 

But should we get to know them in their homes, where we are the guests? And should we be in their homes just to listen and be the recipients of their hospitality? 

We come into their homes not as authorities with gifts but as brothers and sisters with the need to be welcomed. 

I would challenge all of us followers of Christ to be so vulnerable as to enter a humble home as a guest – especially those of us who are deacons.

Corn and beans drying in a house in the village where I went on Good Friday.

It isn’t easy – especially for us who want to fix things, to make things right, to be in control. 

We come not to bring something – even just to bring the Eucharist. 

We must let ourselves be welcomed. 

When we do this we might learn something just sitting there, drinking a cup of sugary coffee with them. 

We might learn what love is.