The Roman Catholic Diocese of Phoenix ::Homily for Mass with the Deacons of the Diocese of Phoenix

Homily for Mass with the Deacons of the Diocese of Phoenix

Jesus calls sinners

"I have come to call sinners, not the self-righteous.” Mk 2:17

Over the course of the past two years during which the Church in the USA has gone through so much humiliation and pain because of the sexual abuse of children by the clergy, many of us have been asked, “What should the Church do to respond to this crisis? What are you doing in the face of this scandal?” Good questions. And the response, we know, must be rooted in Christ and His words and deeds. In today’s Gospel, Jesus provides us with one key part of the right response, namely, that He came to call sinners, not the self-righteous.

The solution does not lie in efforts to find perfect apostles, men and women who have never sinned. Outside of the Virgin Mary, they do not exist!

The solution lays in conversion on our part, in a decisive, yet humble, response to Jesus invitation, “Come, follow me. (Mk 2:14)”

When Jesus called Levi, he was not a poster child for holiness. He was not on the list of the most popular men of Israel. He was a member of the most hated, despised profession in the land. He was a tax collector. But, as soon as Jesus called him, “Levi got up and became His follower. (Mk 2:15)”

When the Pharisees complained about all this, Jesus made it clear that this was not a mistake and not a one-time exception to the rule. Rather, this is the heart of Jesus’ mission from the Father: “I have come to call sinners, not the self-righteous.” Of course, this means Jesus came to call everyone, for the self-righteous are sinners too, sinners who are just too proud to admit it.

In His Apostolic Exhortation PASTORES GREGIS, on the bishop as a servant of the Gospel of Christ for the hope of the world, the Holy Father quotes St. Gregory of Nazianzen who wrote: “First be purified and then purify others, first allow yourself to be instructed by wisdom and then instruct others, first become light and then enlighten others, first draw close to God and then guide others to Him, first be holy yourself and then make others holy.”

These words of St. Gregory of Nazianzen get to the heart of what must be done to face the crisis of the Church today. He makes it clear what we must do first. I start with myself. I begin to follow Jesus, like Levi did, leaving everything else behind. We confess our sins and allow Jesus to forgive and purify us. We turn away from the darkness of all sin, even the smallest of venial sins, and open our whole being to the light of Christ. We allow the Father to draw us into loving communion with Him and the other persons of the Blessed Trinity. We hunger for holiness and say with St. Francis of Assisi, “Make me a channel of your peace.”

When we encounter the Lord Jesus, when we draw near to Him, He will lead us on a path to conversion, a path that cannot be traveled in one moment but that requires daily, even hourly effort. Every part of our mind and heart and soul is being transformed by the love of Jesus. And every step forward on the part of conversion brings us into deeper communion with Christ and His Father and deepens our bonds of love with spouse, children, neighbors and former enemies, with all in the Church.

For those of us who are ordained for the service of God’s people, the path to holiness is a path that binds us more closely to our people and more committed to live for our people.
As we seek to relate to our people out of love for Christ and for our people in the love of Christ, what should be the relationship between the bishop and his deacons? In paragraph 49 of his Apostolic Exhortation PASTORES GREGIS, John Paul II answers that question in a few brief but substantial statements.

First, the Holy Father describes deacons in the following way: deacons are “authentic gifts of God for proclaiming the Gospel, instructing Christian communities and promoting the service of charity within God’s family.”

As you know, the word “gift” is full of meaning for John Paul II. In his talks on the Theology of the Body, he spoke of the “law of the gift” as an essential characteristic of being a man or a woman made in God’s image. We become more like God when we make a gift of our self to others in love. That is why marriage is a sacrament. That is how deacons are gifts of God, when you give of your very selves as teachers of the Good News of Jesus and as servants of charity.

While much could be said about “the law of the gift” and how deacons build up the Church in hope by giving of themselves out of love for Christ, let me focus on two things that John Paul II says a bishop should encourage his deacons to do. Listen to the words of the Holy Father: As a “true father for them,” the bishop should encourage the deacons “to love the Body and Blood of Christ whose ministers they are, and Holy Church which they have committed themselves to serve; he will also exhort married deacons to lead an exemplary family life.”

“To love the Body and Blood of Christ whose ministers they are, and Holy Church which they have committed themselves to serve”

The Eucharist is the center of the life of every Catholic. As the Holy Father in his encyclical on the Eucharist writes (#59-60):

"Here is the Church’s treasure, the heart of the world, the pledge of the fulfillment for which each man and woman, even unconsciously, yearns… Every commitment to holiness, every activity aimed at carrying out the Church’s mission, every work of pastoral planning, must draw the strength it needs from the Eucharist mystery and in turn be directed to that mystery as its culmination. In the Eucharist we have Jesus, we have His redemptive sacrifice, we have His Resurrection, we have the gift of the Holy Spirit, we have adoration, obedience and love of the Father. Were we to disregard the Eucharist, how could we overcome our own deficiency?”

Dear deacons of the Diocese of Phoenix, always keep the Eucharist at the center of your lives. Let your love of Jesus be reflected in the reverence that you exhibit during Mass and before Christ in the Blessed Sacrament. Kneeling, genuflecting, bowing – all those bodily gestures that the Church asks us to do in reverence for Christ speak louder than words about our faith in the Eucharist. If words alone were sufficient, Jesus would never have become a man in the womb of Mary. If words were enough, He would not have needed to offer His body to be nailed to a Cross. Recall how the Letter to the Hebrews tells us (5:7): “In the days when He was in the flesh, He offered prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears to the one who was able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His reverence.”

I want to thank you, dear brothers, for all you are doing in these days and weeks to help our people to understand and to put into practice the GENERAL NORMS OF THE ROMAN MISSAL. This present implementation of liturgical norms, like previous ones, can irritate some of our brothers and sisters. It may even put our own patience to the test! But do not doubt that this concerted action of the whole Church is inspired by the Holy Spirit and will bear rich fruit in a greater reverence at Mass and a deeper devotion to the Sacred Liturgy. Yes, it requires repeated efforts to explain and to answer questions, to listen to complaints and to persuade with charity. Let these words of John Paul II in his encyclical on the Eucharist strengthen us in our efforts (#52): “Our time, too, calls for a renewed awareness and appreciation of liturgical norms as a reflection of, and a witness to, the one universal Church made present in every celebration of the Eucharist. Priests who faithfully celebrate Mass according to the liturgical norms, and communities which conform to those norms, quietly but eloquently demonstrate their love for the Church…No one is permitted to undervalue the mystery entrusted to our hands: it is too great for anyone to feel free to treat it lightly and with disregard for its sacredness and its universality.”

“The bishop will also exhort married deacons to lead an exemplary family life.”

In his Apostolic Letter, NOVO MILLENNIO INEUENTE, Pope John Paul II encourages us, at the beginning of this 21st Century, not to look back in empty nostalgia, not to keep saying “if only this… if only that,” but to “look ahead” with hope and conviction. He urged us to have courageous thoughts, repeating Jesus’ words to St. Peter and his companions: “Put out into the deep.” We must not allow ourselves ever to be lulled into a sense of complacency or to be paralyzed by fear and doubt. Rather let us launch out into deeper commitment to Christ and into the pursuit of holiness.

One of the great challenges facing us at this time in history is the breakdown of the family, with the accompanying opposition to marriage as a sacred, lifelong bond between one man and one woman, designed by God from the beginning of creation, ordered to two inseparable goals, unity and fruitfulness.

Often, the Holy Father has spoken about “the culture of death” that expanded to such tragic proportions during the 20th century and manifested itself in such horrific events as the killings of millions of innocent victims at Auschwitz and Dachau, in Laos and Burundi, in Uganda and Iraq, and here at home in abortion. But, knowing that God’s mercy in Christ is stronger than all evil and more powerful than death, John Paul II has urged us to overcome the culture of death by building up a “culture of communion and of life.” Certainly, that remains a high priority for us today. A culture of communion and of life is a culture where life flourishes and where love shines forth brightly. In other words it is a culture where marriage and family life are strong.

How could a bishop not be deeply grateful to God, then, for married deacons and their wives who live their married life joyfully as a vocation and mission from the Lord? What you are doing in your homes is no less than the constructing of a culture of communion and life. You are putting out into the deep. You are steering a course that runs counter to major forces in our media-driven pop culture. You are making a bold act of faith in the Lord of Life.

We know there are title waves of destructive force that assail marriage and family life today. We see all too clearly the destructive force of sin, what havoc has been wrought through child abuse and spouse abuse, what sadness and confusion have spilled forth because of infidelity and pornography. We see what damage to marriage has come from contraception, when the two meanings of marriage are unnaturally separated from one another, that is, when the fruitfulness of the marriage act is separated from its expression of loving communion. All these acts, which run contrary to God’s plan for marriage and the family, inevitably leave behind heartbreak, loneliness and confusion.

On the other hand, never was there a time when fidelity to God’s plan for marriage could speak more eloquently by sheer contrast to the predominant pop culture. And who better to bear witness to this plan of God for marriage than permanent deacons and their wives. Just by faithfully living your married vocation with joy, you are proclaiming the truth that sets us free. This truth no evil can destroy. This truth, which is embodied literally in the Son of God, Jesus, is the cornerstone of the Church and of the culture of communion and life that He is now building among us.

Dear Deacons, this is why John Paul II asks us bishops to encourage our married deacons “to lead an exemplary family life.” I want to thank you for doing that.

Jesus and love, Eucharist and marriage: these words can never be separated.

The mission of the Church flourishes where the love of Jesus in the Eucharist is a daily reality and where husbands and wives love one another, in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health, until death. Even before we can put it into words, we know in our souls how good it is to live in communion with Christ and with one another, just as Christ is one with the Father and the Holy Spirit.

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