ARCHDIOCESE OF PHILADELPHIA

Bishop DeSimone,
Bishop Thomas,
Father Olson, Director of the Office for Permanent Deacons,
Brother Priests,
Dear Deacons,
Dear Wives,
Dear Families,
Dear Friends in our Lord Jesus Christ,

Today’s Gospel passage is meant to be a companion piece to the one we heard last week. You may recall last week in the Gospel that the Apostles James and John approached Jesus with a request. Jesus asked them, "What do you want me to do for you?" Interested in their own glory rather than the glory of God, they asked Jesus for positions of honor in His Kingdom. Jesus told them in no uncertain terms that the greatest in the Kingdom of God is the one who is the servant of all.

Today Jesus puts those words into action as He becomes the servant, the deacon, who attends to the needs of a poor blind beggar, Bartimaeus. While the world around Jesus seemed to have much more important things to do than attend to Bartimaeus, Jesus heard him above all the other noises and shouts. Bringing him into the center of the crowd, Jesus asked him the same question he asked James and John, "What do you want me to do for you?"

When Bartimaeus says, "I want to see," Jesus attends to his needs immediately. Bartimaeus was not looking for glory; he only wanted to be healed. As soon as he was healed, his eyes came upon the one who could save him, and Bartimaeus followed Jesus. In this case, the service Jesus gave to Bartimaeus, led Bartimaeus into discipleship.

Image of Jesus Christ the servant of all

We have often heard Jesus referred to as a priest. This is particularly true in the Letter to the Hebrews that was just proclaimed to us. Jesus was indeed, and is, the great High Priest who offered himself as a sacrifice for our salvation. But the Gospel highlights another aspect of Jesus’ ministry and, even if we do not hear this as much, it is every bit as true: Jesus was a deacon. He was a servant. And those who minister today as deacons in our Church serve in His name.

The service of the deacon: the service of the Church sacramentalized

Today, our world is filled with people like Bartimaeus who call out for healing and who are in need. And so many in our world are much too busy and "important" to attend to their needs. The great ones of this age still seek to make their importance felt while those around them are in need. But Jesus is still calling us as a Church to greater service in the world. Jesus’ words in the Scriptures still echo in our ears today: "...whoever wishes to be great among you will be your servant."

It is the work of the whole Church to be of service to those in need in our world. Serving is our way of modeling our lives on the life of Jesus. Even though we are all called to service, Jesus calls some of us to a particular level of service through the Sacrament of Holy Orders. Deacons are especially charged to be images of Jesus, the servant of all, the one who attends to the weakest and poorest among us. In a very tangible way, a deacon is the sacramental embodiment of the service of the Church. And just as Jesus’ work of healing and service to Bartimaeus led Bartimaeus to following Jesus as a disciple, so the service of deacons leads the Church and the world into greater discipleship and a closer following of Jesus.

Joy and Thanksgiving

Today we gather in this Cathedral Basilica, the mother-church of our Archdiocese, where so many of our deacons were ordained. We gather to celebrate twenty-five years of dedicated service by permanent deacons in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. We rejoice, dear brother deacons, in the fruitfulness of your service throughout the years. We rejoice in praising God’s grace which is the cause of all fruitfulness in the Church.

Today is a wonderful opportunity to express the gratitude of the entire Archdiocese of Philadelphia for your generous response to the call to service. You have dedicated countless hours of service to the sick, elderly, imprisoned and needy among us. You have ministered to engaged couples preparing for marriage, new parents seeking baptism for their children, and families mourning the loss of a loved one. Your have taught in our schools and CCD programs, walked with our catechumens in the RCIA, and helped to deepen the faith of our people through adult education programs. You have proclaimed the Gospel of Jesus Christ in the pulpit and in the marketplace.

In all this you have fulfilled the command given to you by the Church at your ordination: "Receive the Gospel of Christ, whose herald you now are. Believe what you read, teach what you believe, and practice what you teach." This you have done and for this I thank you and rejoice with you!

Diaconate: a sign of renewal in the Church

Permanent deacons are a sign that the Holy Spirit is continuing to work in the Church today. The permanent Diaconate was restored in the Latin Church as a result of the vision of the Second Vatican Council. Pope Paul VI officially restored the role of permanent deacon in 1967, recalling that permanent deacons were an important part of the life of the early Church. The vision of Pope Paul VI and the Fathers of Vatican II is given flesh and form in the men who are gather here today as deacons. There are currently 218 permanent deacons working in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, with 71 men in formation, each responding to the call of the Church for service in the community.

Our entire Church has been renewed as a result of the Second Vatican Council and a great sign of that renewal—that new and vibrant energy in the Church—is seen in our permanent deacons. Yes, the Church is alive and dynamic in Philadelphia. The Holy Spirit is active in our Church, and the permanent deacons are signs of His vivifying and sanctifying action.

Diaconate: a calling to dedicated service

So, what does the service of a deacon look like? Is it just a functional role that shows us as leaders in the service to God’s people at worship? Certainly not! A deacon is a deacon all the time, just as a priest is a priest all the time and a bishop is a bishop all the time. This does not mean that we are fulfilling our ministries twenty-four hours a day, but that we live out the mystery of Christ in everything we do and with every breath we take. This full-time diaconate manifests itself in two areas in particular: when a deacon serves the community, and when a deacon is with his family.

Permanent deacons can minister in society in ways that are not possible or appropriate for other members of the clergy. In the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, ordained deacons are employed in the business world, the service industry, health care, the legal profession, civil service, education, and in so many other fields. While every baptized member of the Church is called to bear witness to Christ in the world, permanent deacons do so in a particular way, by being a sacramental image of Christ the servant of all. Our deacons provide leadership in calling all members of society to serve Christ as they themselves serve the least of His brothers and sisters.

Gratitude to wives and families, and above all to Almighty God

I must recognize the importance of family life in the life of a permanent deacon. Most of our permanent deacons have a double vocation: that of husband and father in the married state of life, and that of a sacramental minister called by the Church to fulfill a special form of service. For all of you married deacons, your first call is answered in your self-giving and loving service to your wife and children. Your family life is so important to all of us that the Church even required the consent of your wife before you were ordained.

Your whole families also share your ministry as deacons. They do this by supporting you in your ministry, sharing their own time with you so that you can minister to others, and sometimes even increasing their own service to the Church by following your lead. I wish specifically and publicly to thank your wives and children for their generous sharing in your ministry, for the sacrifices they have made to allow you to serve the greater community, and for their own dedicated service to the Church. Just as your families are a blessing to you, they are also a blessing to the community of the Church. In recognizing this, I thank them all. Above all, the celebration of this anniversary is a solemn expression of thanksgiving to God for His gift of a restored permanent Diaconate. We bless and praise God, who through His Holy Spirit, has accomplished so much good through the ministry of our deacons. It is He who conforms our deacons to Jesus the Servant. It is He who sustains them in their work and gives them the power to do good.

Special communion with the Bishop and one another

Deacons do not function as isolated individuals in our diocese. Every deacon at the time of his ordination promises respect and obedience to his Bishop and his Bishop’s successors. Just as the first deacons had a special connection to the Apostles by sharing in the Apostles’ ministry of charity to the community, so each deacon today has a special connection to his own Bishop in all the service of charity that he performs. Together with the priests, deacons form with the Bishop a "communion of service," sharing the public sacramental ministry of the Church. Your ministry as deacons extends the work of the Apostles and the whole Church, just as the work of the first deacons did, as we see in the Acts of the Apostles.

Deacons also form together a community of selfless service. It is inspiring how deacons rally around each other in prayer and fraternal support— especially in times of need. When a deacon’s family member is sick, when he is feeling particular stress at work, when he experiences difficulty in his ministry or a flagging spirit, he is supported by the rest of the diaconate community. The diaconate community is truly a prayerful community, praying for the Church and for one another. This is especially true at the time of death, when the community in a particularly moving way prays for their brother as he journeys to the Father.

Service of the deacon at the Altar

As deacons, your service of charity in the Church—which is extremely important—is made complete by your service of the word of God and at the altar. As ministers of the word, you proclaim the Gospel, and by word and deed make known the message of Jesus Christ. Often as deacons you are privileged to preach the homily, sometimes at Mass and also in other settings. You are daily witnesses in prayer to the transforming power of the word of God.

Along with proclaiming the Gospel, deacons are called to serve at the altar of the Sacrifice of Christ, at the side of the priest. It is the deacon who stands like the centurion on Calvary, proclaiming by his presence that this truly is the Son of God.

As Pope John Paul II said in an address to permanent deacons, "...the word of God leads us to the Eucharistic worship of God at the altar; it turn, this worship leads us to a new way of living which expresses itself in acts of charity." This threefold ministry of service—service of the word, at the altar, and of charity—must inspire you to greater sacrificial generosity in the Church. That is why you are here today to renew your commitment, to rejoice, and to rededicate yourselves to the great ministry of the sacramental servanthood of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Perhaps, dear friends in Christ, all of us can echo the words of our Blessed Mother Mary today as we consider the blessing of all of our permanent deacons throughout the past twenty-five years when we say with them: "My spirit proclaims the greatness of the Lord; my spirit rejoices in God my Savior."

May God continue to look with favor on all his servants in the permanent Diaconate as they humbly, resolutely and joyfully fulfill, in the name of Jesus, their ministry of sacramental servanthood! Amen.