Diaconate Ordination 2010
Diaconate Ordination of
Jeffrey Starkovich
&
John Huckaby
Our Lady Queen of Heaven Church
September 9, 2010
“Remain in my love.” John 15:9
“Remain in my love” (John 15:9) says our Lord in the Last Supper Discourse. He says this on the night before His crucifixion, after He teaches His disciples to remain connected with Him, as branches are to a vine, and before mention of their friendship with Him. Remaining in His love means keeping His commandments because those commandments come from His Father (John 15:10). This entire passage, in fact, deals with connectedness, union, and identification.
What does it mean to be in love with Jesus? When we have a friend, we commit ourselves. The commitment is based upon our desire to love what the friend loves. We remove from our lives all that obstructs the love of the friend. We want nothing to do with anything that would compromise our relationship. We want the friendship to be as pure, complete, and fulfilled as possible. Such is love and friendship as the classical writers described it: “The discovery of the other self.” “This is my commandment: love one another as I love you” (John 15:12). To love as we are loved, this is our vocation.
All that pertains to love is personal, highly personal, and for a minister of the Gospel, which you are to become as a deacon of the Church, your love for Christ must be deeply personal. “Being a Christian,” Pope Benedict XVI says in his encyclical Deus caritas est, “is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction” (#1). There are some today—and this opinion is so prevalent in the modern world — who think that Christianity is just another fine philosophy to approach the world and its problems. While Christianity is a great teaching, it is more than a textbook religion and cannot be reduced to a self-help program. Christianity springs from a transformational encounter with the person of Jesus Christ.
Jesus asks you, “Who do you say that I am?” (Matthew 16:15). We know what they said in the first century. “Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah, still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets” (Matthew 16:14). We know what some say today, that Jesus is a prophet, a teacher, a revolutionary. However, it is the answer of St. Peter that wins the approval of Jesus, because it transcends all answers and reveals Jesus in person. “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16).
All is rooted in the identity of Jesus Christ. Even the hierarchy of the Church is rooted in the identity of Jesus Christ. To St. Peter’s inspired response, Jesus will say, “You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church…. I will give to you the keys of the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 16:18, 19). The very unity of the Church, of which the hierarchy is one of its manifestations, is an expression of the identity of Jesus Christ. We are to remain in His love because His very credibility will depend upon our unity with Him and with one another. The prayer that ends the Last Supper discourses contains this great thought-provoking petition: “That they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, that the world may believe that you sent me” (John 17:21). The unity of the Body, gentlemen, the unity spoken of in the second reading, is our responsibility in the ministry of the Church: “one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all” (Ephesians 4:6), whether we are “apostles,” “prophets,” “evangelists,” “pastors,” or “teachers” (Ephesians 4:11).
This unity is lived by embracing the evangelical way of life that requires of you obedience and celibacy. These are not impositions from outside us. They are a witness freely chosen from within so that Jesus Christ might be encountered, first by you and then by those whom you encounter. From beginning to end, the mystery of love and how it is communicated in Jesus Christ is rooted in the reality of the Incarnation. Pope Benedict XVI writes this beautiful reflection in his encyclical: “God have made himself visible: in Jesus we are able to see the Father (cf. John 14:9). Indeed, God is visible in a number of ways. In the love-story recounted by the Bible, he comes towards us, he seeks to win our hearts, all the way to the Last Supper, to the piercing of his heart on the Cross, to his appearances after the Resurrection and to the great deed by which, through the activity of the Apostles, he guided the nascent Church along its path. Nor has the Lord been absent from subsequent Church history: he encounters us ever anew, in the men and women who reflect his presence, in his word, in the sacraments, and especially in the Eucharist” (Deus caritas est, #17).
You are part of a great continuum of Incarnation presence. Love is to be made flesh, not just anyone’s love, but Jesus’ love that you bring to those who need love. Imagine a young couple leaving your pre-marriage interview with them and saying, “Didn’t we feel as though we met Jesus?” Or a bereaved family after a funeral commenting, “We felt as though Jesus walked with us through our sorrow.” Or a student in catechism saying, “What he taught me changed my life.” Jesus “encounters us ever anew, in the men and women who reflect his presence” (ibid), and you are to reflect His presence in a ministerial way, in a sacramental way.
It is for this reason that your response in ministry must be prompt, your liturgical style dignified and prayerful, your homilies well prepared and thoughtful, and your behavior beyond reproach. The dignity of the office requires it, yes, but the love of Christ compels us from within to act accordingly. Love that is true love will rise to the surface and reflect its presence in the small as well as the great gestures of human activity. A husband goes to work, a mother prepares a meal, and a child studies for an exam. And a deacon prepares his homilies, prays before the Blessed Sacrament, is faithful to celebrating the Liturgy of Hours, and remembers who he is as a minister of the Church. What greater diaconia is there than to bury the dead or feed the hungry or visit those in prison or instruct the ignorant? In these works of mercy and other transparencies of love, it is possible for Jesus to be encountered “ever anew.”
“Remain in my love” (John 15:9). Allow that imperative to govern your lives. Identify with it in such a way that the origin of that love will bring others to encounter Him through you. Be a friend of Jesus first, then bring Jesus to others. Let others see Jesus in you and let their hearts burn as you speak. Let them encounter Jesus “ever anew.”