Permanent deacons

Permanent deacons

"A" Readings: Acts 6:1-7

• 1 Pet. 2:4-9
• John 14:1-12

Title: Service or Ministry in the Lord's Church
Purpose: (1) to explain the diaconate in the Church today; and (2) to encourage vocations to the permanent diaconate.
n Today's Gospel is a magnificent Revelation as to what God looks like, how God acts, what God thinks-truths we would have never known had not God disclosed them to us. In our limited efforts to depict God, we often miss the obvious. As Catholics we should know and ever keep in mind that we can acquire an exact and quite dramatic image of the Supreme Intellect and Will who never began to be, but who always is; who created man and the world and the cosmos from nothing; namely, Jesus Christ.
We have only to contemplate Jesus of Nazareth to know what God looks like, how God acts and thinks. We have only to contemplate Jesus of Nazareth to know all we need to know about God. This is the awesome message in today's Gospel, encapsulated in Jesus' response to the Apostle Philip: "Whoever has seen me, has seen the Father."

What does God look like? How does God think and act? Contemplate Jesus, who had compassion on the lame, the sightless, the deaf. Contemplate Jesus, who brought back to life a dead girl, and who instilled life anew in a dead young man, the only son of a widowed mother.

What is God like? Contemplate Jesus, who condemned hypocrisy and insincerity; but who exalted the downtrodden, the alienated, the impoverished, the unconsulted. Contemplate Jesus, the Suffering Servant, who, risen from the tomb, appeared to the very Apostles, who, save one, failed to remain with him during his Passion and crucifixion.

Yves Congar, the towering theologian who was made a cardinal by Pope John Paul II in the Fall of 1994, summarizes this doctrine with the thought-provoking affirmation, "God is Jesus Christ" (Jesus Christ, Herder and Herder, 1966). Thus, the only place where the Infinite, Supreme Intelligence and Will who is God, has physically touched this world, is the sacred humanity of Jesus. Jacob's ladder, with the angels of God ascending and descending, rests upon the humanity of Christ our Lord (Gen. 28:10-13, 16-17; John 1:51).

"Whoever has seen me has seen the Father." Jesus' words to Philip go to the heart of Christian Revelation. Hence, they must be heralded, preached.

Preaching in the strict sense, such as occurs in the Mass (or any part of the sacred liturgy), is an act of Holy Orders. This means that the power of the preached word is assigned by the Church, in accordance with Apostolic Tradition, to those who are ordained. Hence, priests, like bishops, are empowered to preach. Indeed, preaching is one of the two principal roles of the priest, since sacramental experience depends upon faith engendered by the preached word.

Yet, because God's Revelation-that God reveals himself in Jesus-is so crucial a message meant by the loving God for all human beings everywhere and for all time-the power to preach is also shared by deacons, whose early history is recalled in today's First Reading, from the Book of Acts. And since that First Reading does return us all to thoughts about the ongoing diaconate, we could also profitably reflect upon it today.

St. Paul, writing in the Spirit to the Philippians, describes the diaconate as a distinct order (Phil. 1:1). And in the First Epistle to Timothy the qualifications for this order are set forth (1 Tim. 3:8-10).

From the beginning, deacons functioned in three areas: (1) liturgical (i.e., they assisted at Mass, administered Baptism); (2) doctrinal-they taught and catechized; and (3) charitable-they helped administer the Church's social service apostolate.

The diaconate went into decline during medieval times. Several reasons are cited; most entail a lengthy historical discussion. During World War II, new interest in the order emerged. One reason was a practical response to difficult, priestless situations occasioned by war (e.g., in concentration camps, in the Iron Curtain lands); another was a frank attempt to address shortages of priests in general. Against this background, Vatican Council II called for the restoration of the diaconate "as a proper and permanent rank of the hierarchy." Specifics for the implementation of Vatican Council II's proposal were issued by Pope Paul VI on 28 June 1967, in the motu proprio, Sacram Diaconatus Ordinem. In this document, the Roman Pontiff explained:

For even though some of the functions of deacons are usually committed to laymen, especially in missionary lands, still "it is helpful to strengthen, by the imposition of hands-which goes back to apostolic tradition-and to link more closely with the altar, men who are to perform truly diaconal functions . . . so that through the sacramental grace of the diaconate they will be enabled to fulfill their ministry more effectively." This will be ideal to highlight the special nature of this order, which should not be regarded as just a step toward the priesthood, but rather as enriched with an indelible character and a special grace of its own so that those who are called to it can "serve the mysteries of Christ and of the Church" in a stable fashion.

Whether and where the permanent diaconate is established has been left to the determination and judgment of national conferences of bishops and, of course, individual bishops in their own dioceses. Pope Paul VI specified eleven areas in which deacons can function to the extent that they are authorized by their bishop: (1) to carry out, with bishop and priest, all the roles in liturgical rites which the ritual books attribute to them; (2) to administer Baptism solemnly and to supply ceremonies that have been omitted at Baptism in the case of infant or adult; (3) to have custody of the Eucharist, to distribute it to themselves and to others, and to impart Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament to the people with the pyx; (4) to assist at and bless marriages in the name of the Church when there is no priest present, with delegation from the bishop or the pastor, so long as everything else commanded in the Code of Canon Law is observed . . . ; (5) to administer sacramentals, and to preside at funeral and burial rites;

(6) to read Scripture to the faithful and to teach and preach to the people; (7) to preside over the offices of religious worship and prayer services when there is no priest present; (8) to direct Bible services when there is no priest; (9) to do charitable, administrative and welfare work in the name of the hierarchy; (10) to guide outlying communities of Christians in the name of the pastor and the bishop; and (11) to foster and aid the lay apostolate.

The Catholic Church also recognizes several nonordained ministries. These were most recently spelled out in an Apostolic Letter, Ministeria Quaedam, issued by Pope Paul VI and dated 15 August 1972. What this document did, was: (1) suppress the ceremony of first tonsure (a cutting of the hair, which for many centuries constituted the rite of entrance into the clerical state); (2) suppress, at least as a universal norm, the subdiaconate together with the minor orders of porter and exorcist; and (3) retain just two minor or nonordained ministries in the whole of the Latin Church: that of lector and acolyte. Henceforth, entrance into the clerical state was to occur through ordination to the diaconate. This norm was reaffirmed by the new Code of Canon Law in 1983 (can. 266).

Thus, the diaconate is now reflected in two modes: (1) the transitional diaconate, which is conferred upon those in progress toward priestly ordination; and (2) the permanent diaconate, conferred on those who intend to remain deacons.

The diaconate, because it entails the Sacrament of Holy Orders, is conferred only upon baptized men (can. 1024). Whereas celibacy is required of transitional deacons (those intending to go on to priesthood), as well as of unmarried permanent deacons, married men are ordained to the permanent diaconate, but are held to celibacy in the event of the death of a spouse (cans. 1037 and 1087).

Again, deacons are empowered to preach in the strict sense, to give the homily even at Mass. Deacons share directly in making Jesus known, Jesus who is the keystone of our faith, as today's Second Reading reminds us, Jesus who reveals the Father to us and consequently helps us know what God looks like.

With Philip, the deacon today, as well as the priest, can preach with certitude: "He who has seen Christ, has seen the Father." For this reason alone, the diaconate is a privileged calling.

Suggested readings: Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1536-1571.