ARCHDIOCESE OF PHILADELPHIA

Dear Deacons and Wives,

Once again I have the joy of gathering with you on this annual Deacon Day. Each year it is important for me as your bishop, to be with you who are joined so closely in my episcopal ministry through sacred ordination. It is an opportunity to renew my appreciation to you for your collaboration in the work of serving the Lord and His people in our local Church. It is also an opportunity to express my deep thanks to your wives, whose support of your ministry is so important, and who themselves contribute so much to the life of the Church. While this is indeed a joyful occasion each year, Deacon Day this year takes on special significance, as it is occurring during the twenty-fifth anniversary celebration of the establishment of the permanent diaconate within the Archdiocese. A jubilee year is a special moment of grace, and our jubilee year prayer addresses this petition to God: "...lead us to rejoice in your providential grace, to be renewed in Christian charity, and to rededicate ourselves to a greater service of your Holy Church." It is my fervent prayer that this special year will not simply come and go, but rather that each deacon will embrace more fully and more deeply his call to serve in the name of Jesus, thus advancing in the way of holiness, and of that service to which the diaconal ministry is dedicated.

We are poised at the beginning of Holy Week. We see our Lord Jesus Christ in His journey, and we want to accompany Him. Yet there can be no illusions concerning where this following of our Lord will lead us. The Gospel today from Saint John clearly demonstrates that ominous clouds are beginning to surround Jesus. The words of Caiaphas are chilling: "It is better for you that one man should die instead of the people, so that the whole nation may not perish." Yet Caiaphas did not understand that the "whole nation" was already perishing because of sin, and that it would only be through the offering of the life of the Son of God that the "whole nation" would be saved. Rightly did Ezekiel prophesy when he said: "I will deliver them from all their sins of apostasy, and cleanse them so that they may be my people and I may be their God." Here we catch a glimpse into the mind and heart of God, and His desire toward us, His people. We see what drives divine love: God wants to dwell with us, "to make a covenant" with us, to do for us what only He can do—take our divided hearts and make them one again with Him. Here we listen to Ezekiel prophesying and revealing God’s desire: "I will make with them a covenant of peace; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them.... My dwelling shall be with them...." How much it would cost the Son of God to fulfill this prophecy! No matter how many Lents and Holy Weeks we may celebrate, we will never be able to comprehend fully the height and breadth and depth of God’s love. But we do know what we should be striving to attain as we seek to imitate Christ in His sacrificial love.

During this jubilee observance, as you are reflecting on the gift and call of the diaconate, perhaps those words of God spoken through Ezekiel—"My dwelling shall be with them"—can be words to motivate and sustain your special service in the Church. You know that, as deacons, you are especially dedicated to the works of mercy, to practical charity. Motivated by the love of God, a deacon personally serves the sick, the suffering, the forgotten, the poor, the dying, and thus becomes God’s presence for them, representing Christ’s love and that of His Church. In Our Holy Father Pope Benedict’s first Encyclical, Deus Caritas Est—God is Love , he speaks specifically about deacons and about this charity which you are called to extend in a special way. Here are his words: "Saint Luke provides a kind of definition of the Church, whose constitutive elements include fidelity to the ‘teaching of the Apostles,’ ‘communion’ (koinonia), ‘the breaking of the bread’ and ‘prayer’ (cf. Acts 2:42). The element of ‘communion’ (koinonia) is not initially defined, but appears concretely in the verses quoted above: it consists in the fact that believers hold all things in common and that among them, there is no longer any distinction between rich and poor (cf. also Acts 4:32-37). As the Church grew, this radical form of material communion could not in fact be preserved. But its essential core remained: within the community of believers there can never be room for a poverty that denies anyone what is needed for a dignified life.

"A decisive step in the difficult search for ways of putting this fundamental ecclesial principle into practice is illustrated in the choice of the seven, which marked the origin of the diaconal office (cf. Acts 6:5-6). In the early Church, in fact, with regard to the daily distribution to widows, a disparity had arisen between Hebrew speakers and Greek speakers. The Apostles, who had been entrusted primarily with ‘prayer’ (the Eucharist and the liturgy) and the ‘ministry of the word’, felt over-burdened by ‘serving tables,’ so they decided to reserve to themselves the principal duty and to designate for the other task, also necessary in the Church, a group of seven persons. Nor was this group to carry out a purely mechanical work of distribution: they were to be men ‘full of the Spirit and of wisdom’ (cf. Acts 6:1-6). In other words, the social service which they were meant to provide was absolutely concrete, yet at the same time it was also a spiritual service; theirs was a truly spiritual office which carried out an essential responsibility of the Church, namely a well-ordered love of neighbour. With the formation of this group of seven, ‘diaconia’—the ministry of charity exercised in a communitarian, orderly way—became part of the fundamental structure of the Church."

You must note that, at one and the same time, your service must be absolutely concrete and yet a truly spiritual service. As deacons you are not ordained social workers; you are ministers of Jesus Christ and of Christian charity, offering what Pope Benedict calls "a well ordered love of neighbor." This is what sets you apart, what must distinguish you as deacons—that you are "full of the Spirit and of wisdom."

It was exactly one year ago today when our Holy Father Pope Benedict, then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, presided over the funeral of Pope John Paul II. From his rich and profound homily for that Mass, I lift out two parts for your consideration. The first are the words of Christ which the then-Cardinal Ratzinger repeated throughout his homily: "Follow me." He reflected on the stages of Pope John Paul II’s life, and how each stage was a deeper response to this call of the Lord to come and follow Him. Christ has issued a call to you, dear Deacons, as well. During this jubilee year you must reflect on how you have responded thus far, so that, in the words of Christ which Pope John Paul highlighted for us, you may "put out into the deep," rededicate yourselves and follow the Lord more closely. Secondly, the then-Cardinal Ratzinger pinpointed for us the secret of Pope John Paul’s tireless ministry: " Thanks to his being profoundly rooted in Christ, he was able to bear a burden which transcends merely human abilities: that of being the shepherd of Christ’s flock, the universal Church." It is this rootedness in Christ which I exhort each of you deacons to ponder, so that you may bear that share of the burden of the Gospel which Christ has placed on your shoulders. It is out of this profound and close union with Christ that you go forth as deacons, to roll up the sleeves of your dalmatic and humbly but joyfully serve God’s people. This is costly: most worthwhile things are! But there is nothing more worthwhile than loving and serving the Lord. So resolve to carry Christ’s Cross wherever it takes you, knowing that His grace is all sufficient.

Dear Friends: in a moment we shall turn to the altar, at which the Sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the "whole nation" is saved will once again be offered to the Father in the Holy Spirit. Rejoice that you have been redeemed by that Sacrifice; be renewed by the graces it affords; and rededicate yourselves to your ministry as deacons. If you continue to do your part in the work of Jesus Christ and His Church, you and those to whom you minister will truly be His people, and He will be your God and the sacramental servanthood of the Lord will be exalted and glorified for the glory of the Most Blessed Trinity. Amen.