HOMILY
of His Eminence Cardinal Darío Castrillón
Hoyos, Prefect
HOLY MASS AND DIACONATE ORDINATION
at the conclusion of the Jubilee of permanent
Deacons
Patriarchal Basilica of St Peter
Sunday, 20 February 2000
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Praised be Jesus Christ
1. With the imposition of hands and the prayer of
consecration the Lord will pour out the Holy Spirit upon the acolytes here
present and consecrate them deacons. You will be permanent Deacons of the
Church of God.
In the Church and in the world you are a sign and
instrument of Christ who came, "not to be served but to serve".
You are responding to a stable and permanent vocation:
it imprints a sign, a permanent and indelible mark that conforms forever you to
Christ the Servant.
Until the final moments of your life you will be the
sign of Christ the Servant. Obedient until death and to the death of the Cross
for the salvation of all.
For this reason this moment is an hour of joy and hope
for our Diocese and for the Universal Church that, from this altar, speaks with
deep significance of the unity and catholicity of which Peter, through his
successors, the Vicars of Christ, is supreme guarantee.
In this celebration the whole Church knows the
consolation of seeing your vigour grow, seeing your faithfulness strengthened,
and seeing your ability to serve increased. "The deacons are the servants
of God and of Christ, not of men, nor calumny, nor double-dealing, nor love of
money; they are chaste in all things, compassionate, zealous, leading according
to the truth of the Lord who has made himself servant of all." (Ad
Philipp., V,2)
2. We give thanks to the Father who fills us with
His gifts and arouses in the midst of His people vocations in mature men who
are conformed to Christ and place all their energy at the disposition of the
Church.
This is a choral and joyous rendering of thanks which
is shared by all of our Dioceses. First of all those responsible for formation,
the respective parish priests, who were exemplary models. It is likewise shared
by the families through their willing collaboration. Thanksgiving next to the
many people who, by prayer and sacrifice, contribute every day to the welfare
of the Church and to the growth of the vocations that shine in her as a service
that harmoniously sings the uninterrupted poem of Redemption.
3. If there is such a thing as a Christian ambition,
it lies in the desire to serve, so much so that at the highest point of the
hierarchical scale is He who is the "Servus servorum Dei", the
Servant of the servants of God!
The Deacon is called to exercise a threefold diakonia:
that of the Word, that of the Eucharist, and that of the poor.
To the deacon pertains the duty of proclaiming the
Gospel and helping the priest explain the Word of God. During the ordination
ceremony the following is said to the Deacon: "Accipe Evangelium Christi,
cuius praeco effectus es." (De Ordinatione, no. 238)
The Word of God, not our word! The Word that crosses,
one could say "sacramentally", the lips of the sacred minister!
The Word of God that disturbs the false peace of many
consciences, which cuts cleanly through every ambiguity and knows how to touch
even the hardest hearts. "For the word of God is living and active,
sharper than any two-edged sword". (Heb 4:12) The Word of God as it has
always been proclaimed by the Church, not with personal interpretations given
only to flatter the ears of the listeners. The Word of God without compromise,
without accommodation, hesitation, fear or complex in front of the dominant culture.
It is not the Word of God that should be domesticated
in order to reduce it to suit our comfort: it is us who should grow and help
others to grow according to the Word. We never forget that we are not dealing
with a mere - though authoritative - word; it is the Word. What respect then,
what prayer, what sense of fear and love must be found in the depths of those
who would make that Word resound and who must explain the meaning of it in the
lives of every person and society.
4. We understand then that it cannot be the current
culture that sets itself up as the criteria of understanding, rather it is the
Word that must judge with strength, weigh up, perfect, and even change the
value system of the contemporary culture.
It is the truth that judges events, not vice versa, as tragically so
often happens. The Holy Father has said to the Church and to the world that one
of the principal duties of the church is the diakonia of the truth.
Fear not that it is the Word of God that conditions
the full realisation of man! On the contrary, it is the Word of God that is
capable of overthrowing idols, prejudices, the lies of the world and of
liberating man from the many forms of slavery to sin.
The Deacon is the herald of the Gospel, he is the
administrator of eternal salvation, not of merely terrestrial goals; he is the
prophet of a new world, not of an old and egotistical one; he is the bearer of
message that throws its own light on the problems pressing on the earth but
that does not close itself in its narrow horizons.
5. The Deacon is also the first co-worker of the
Priest in the celebration of the Eucharist, or rather, of the great
"mystery of the faith". He knows the honour and profound joy of being
servers of the "Mysterium"!
To you is entrusted the Body and Blood of the Saviour
in order that the faithful may nourish themselves from them and be
strengthened. Always treat the holy mysteries with that interior adoration of
mind and affection, with that thoughtful and humble external gravity, with that
devotion of the spirit, that are definitive expressions of a soul that believes
in and remains conscious of the high dignity of its own duties.
You must remember that what is pastorally more
necessary is not the assimilation of liturgical gestures to those used in everyday
life, but rather keeping alive in liturgical celebrations the radical
"difference" of the sacred actions and the sacrificial banquet of the
Eucharist – in which we personally and vitally meet our Redeemer – from all
other forms of human friendship and cohabitation.
6. To the Deacon is then entrusted in a special way
the ministry of charity that is at the origin of the institution of the
deaconate.
When the Eucharist is – as it must be – placed
decisively at the centre of the community, it not only forms the heart of each
believer for communion with Christ, but also necessarily urges them to
communion with their brothers.
Attention to the needs of others, noticing the pain
and suffering of their brothers, the capacity of giving: these are the
distinctive signs of the Lord’s disciple who nourishes himself on the
Eucharistic Bread.
The Love of neighbour must not only be proclaimed: it
must be practised. The Deacon must be charitable, agreeable, warm, kind. He
must dedicate to others his interest, his time, the commitment of his life to
the present form of what was called the service of the table. The Deacon,
co-worker with the bishop and priests, must be, with them, the living and
working expression of the charity of the Church that is simultaneously bread for
the hungry, light and co-operation for social progress and development, word
and action for justice. The Deacon is the privileged vehicle for the social
teaching of the Church.
7. To be faithful to this triple diakonia, brothers, root
yourselves ever more in the depths of the ecclesial mystery, in the heart
of the Mystical Body, in the communion of saints; immerse yourselves in prayer
so that your daily work will be dripping with prayer. In the midst of your
everyday life be intellectually supported by a living metaphysical structure
and refer always to the transcendent. Even the important social aspects of your
duty cannot be lived as though you are workers in that sector. You live and act
in that environment as deacons, in a dimension linked to the "Mysterium",
in a dimension that draws lifeblood and dynamism from the sacramental and also
looks to the final end, to collaboration in the global Church work of
establishing all things in Christ.
8. As Deacons you are born from the Altar, in the
heart of the eucharistic Sacrifice, you are born in prayer.
Allow me, then, to recommend to you in a special way,
faithfulness to the celebration of the Liturgy of the Hours. It is the
unceasing prayer of the Church that is entrusted in a particular way to the
sacred Ministers. Keep alive intense and affectionate dialogue with the Father,
praying for yourselves and for the whole world.
Prayer helps you to climb above, to go beyond the din
of the city and the worries of the day in order to purify your vision and your
heart; the vision to see the world with the eyes of God and the heart to love
your brothers with the heart of God.
9. In a few moments the petition of the Lord that the
Holy Spirit who will "fortify with the seven gifts of his grace to
faithfully fulfil the work of the ministry," will be poured out upon our
brother ordinandi, will begin.
It is also the prayer of all you Deacons here present
who complete your Jubilee.
The Virgin Mary, handmaid of the Lord, with her
boundless petition obtains for all a new out pouring of the Holy Spirit because
the work of the new evangelisation impetuously urges within us, in harmony with
that "ignem veni mittere" that connotes the burning desire of the
Redeemer.