Serving with Joy by Silas Henderson

Author:Silas Henderson [Henderon Silas S.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781504037747
Publisher: CareNotes
Published: 2016-04-19T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER IV

Accompanying the Laity in Evangelization

by Deacon James Keating

Not long before Jorge Cardinal Bergoglio became Pope Francis, he had this brutally honest statement to say about deacons: “I don’t really like deacons [he saw them as clericalized laity], but the Virgin came to me last night [in a dream] and asked for three deacons for Buenos Aires.”1 I hope he has changed his mind since that mystical experience, but perhaps not.

It is not uncommon for Jesuits to know little or nothing about deacons, since their experience of them within that religious order is minimal. And there is little need for deacons at Jesuit institutions or parishes, since the members of the order take on many roles that a deacon might.

So with this rather embarrassing revelation from his own mouth, what might we glean from some of Pope Francis’ writings that would assist deacons in their ministry? I would answer this by marveling at the partial truth that is in Cardinal Bergoglio’s comment: a deacon is not a clericalized layman, which is simply a way of criticizing a layman whose actions or politics mimics those found within a clerical culture. But ironically, a deacon is a cleric who lives a lay life.

This truth is not a weakness, but one of the deacon’s greatest gifts to the Church and, ironically, the reason why it is such a gift can be found in Pope Francis’ very own teaching from Evangelii Gaudium:

In our world, ordained ministers and other pastoral workers can make present the fragrance of Christ’s closeness and his personal gaze. The Church will have to initiate everyone—priests, religious and laity—into this “art of accompaniment” which teaches us to remove our sandals before the sacred ground of the other (cf. Exodus 3:5). The pace of this accompaniment must be steady and reassuring, reflecting our closeness and our compassionate gaze which also heals, liberates and encourages growth in the Christian life (169).

Tellingly, the Pope does not mention deacons by name here, but that is understandable since deacons make up a very small space in the ecclesial imagination of both priests and laity. Since the permanent diaconate is only closing in on 50 years in its restored state, it will take the Church many more years to have the word “deacon” flow trippingly off the tongue as one is listing ecclesial vocations. No matter. What the Pope says and hopes for in this quote, however, is already established in the deacon’s vocation, at least as it is lived out in its largest populations in North America.

Overwhelmingly so, the deacons of North America retain their secular profession even after ordination. Having a cleric embedded in factories, law offices, sales, education, healthcare, and more, allows these environments to be affected by the grace of ordination which the deacon receives from Christ and shares with others as he labors among them.

Because of this, the deacon, as one who is vulnerable to the very compassion of Christ by reason of his sacramental character, others can find “the fragrance of Christ’s closeness and his personal gaze.

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