By Archbishop Thomas Wenski - The Archdiocese of Miami
Archbishop Thomas Wenski preached this homily at the ordination of eight new deacons for the Archdiocese of Miami. Along with 6 others also studying for priesthood in other Florida dioceses. They are “transitional deacons” because it is their last step before their ordination to priesthood. The ceremony took place March 29, 2025, at St. Joan of Arc Church in Boca Raton.
With the imposition of hands and the prayer of consecration, the Lord will pour out the Holy Spirit upon these acolytes and consecrate them deacons. To the families and friends of these soon-to-be deacons, we thank you for your support during their vocational journeys.
These men are ordained as “transitional” deacons as opposed to the married men who are ordained to the permanent deaconate: They hope — with the help of God’s grace — to be called to the presbyterate and to being ordained priests — hopefully next year.
Pope St. John Paul II spoke about the deaconate as “sacramentalizing” service in the Church. The Old Baltimore Catechism — which is still valid — said that sacraments are “outward signs instituted by Christ to give grace.” So, deacons — both permanent and transitional — are to be visible and effective signs of service or charity.
As deacons you are ministers of Jesus Christ, who came as one who served and stooped to wash the feet of his disciples. So, follow his example: Seek to do the Lord’s will in all things — do it from the heart and not begrudgingly; as a helper of the bishop whom you owe respect and obedience, serve God’s people as you would the Lord himself — with love and joy.
If we can associate the words “Christian” and “ambition,” it should only be when “Christian ambition” describes the Christian’s passion to serve. For “service” is the highest calling of every Christian. Even the Pope – who is the “highest” figure in the hierarchy of the Church – is rightly called: the Servus servorum Dei, the Servant of the Servants of God. Your diakonia or service is the threefold: service of the Word, service of the Eucharist, and service of the poor.
As deacons who will “transition” to priesthood, your ministry of service will be exercised by you in the celibate state which you freely embrace today so that you may cling to Christ more easily with an undivided heart. Celibacy is both a sign of pastoral charity and an inspiration to it as well as a source of spiritual fruitfulness in the world.
“In good times and in bad,” as deacons, you will have the duty of proclaiming the Gospel and helping the priests explain the Word of God. Today, I will entrust you with the Book of the Gospel with these words: Receive the Gospel of Christ, whose herald you have become. Remember, brothers, it is his Gospel, not yours; it is the Word of God, not our own! As a herald, you must always speak in his name and not your own.
Living in the world but not of the world, the Church has a unique service to render to the world – it is the diakonia of the truth, the service of the truth. As ministers of the Church, you must understand that it is the truth that judges events – not vice versa, as so often happens today in our current culture. By your faithful service to the Gospel in its integrity – without compromise, without accommodation, hesitation or fear – you must help the world to discover that Truth that has a human face, the Truth that is a person: Jesus Christ.
As deacons, you are the first co-workers of the priest in the celebration of the Eucharist. As co-workers of the priest, you also are servers of the Mysterium fidei, the great mystery of faith.
All Christ’s faithful can come to a fuller and deeper understanding of and participation in these “mysteries,” if your service at the altar helps to underscore the “sacredness” of this sacramental encounter with the Living Christ. At the altar, your language, your demeanor must in no way be profane or given to an informal familiarity – for in this Holy Sacrifice we meet our Lord and Redeemer.
Our communion with Christ in the Eucharist, for this reason, must lead us to seek communion with our brothers and sisters. Nourished on the Eucharistic bread, we all must pay attention to the needs of others, noticing their pain and suffering, and thus be in the world as witnesses to hope.
As this beautiful ordination ceremony so richly makes clear, as deacons, you are born from the altar – from within the heart of the Eucharistic Sacrifice. You are born in prayer.
Prayer offers you an intimate relationship with God and will protect you from any possible “intimacy deficit” that could generate “a sense of emptiness, a perception of frustration or difficulty in managing loneliness, needs and affections.” And prayer – and only prayer – will sustain you and keep you faithful to your triple diakonia of Word, Eucharist and Charity.
For this reason, the Liturgy of the Hours is entrusted in a way to the ordained ministers of the Church. The Liturgy of the Hours belongs to you – no less than it belongs to the bishops and priests.
As deacons you can be instrumental in better acquainting the laity to the Liturgy of the Hours. And your own efforts to pray daily the Liturgy of the Hours can help you grow in vigor, be strengthened in faithfulness and increase your ability to serve. And, since it is a prayer offered in the Spirit to the Father in the name of Christ for the Church and for the whole world, it is itself another form of diakonia.
Chè pèp Bondye a, lapriyè pou yo pou yo swiv egzamp Jezi a, li menm ki Bon Gadyen an. Menm jan li te fè, se pou yo fè tou.
Epi chè frè m, fè volonte Bondye a ak tout kè ou: ak anpil renmen epi nan kè kontan sèvi pèp la jan ou ta sèvi Granmèt la.
Hermanos, hagan la voluntad de Dios de corazón: sirvan a las personas con amor y alegría, como servirían al Señor.
