On the Call to the
Diaconate
The Call
One day Eli was asleep in his
usual place. His eyes had lately grown so weak that he could not see. The lamp
of God was not yet extinguished, and Samuel was sleeping in the temple of the
LORD where the ark of God was.
The LORD called to Samuel, who
answered, “Here I am.”
He ran to Eli and said, “Here I
am. You called me.” “I did not call you,” Eli answered. “Go back to sleep.” So
he went back to sleep.
Again the LORD called Samuel, who
rose and went to Eli. “Here I am,” he said. “You called me.” But he answered,
“I did not call you, my son. Go back to sleep.” Samuel did not yet recognize
the LORD, since the word of the LORD had not yet been revealed to him. The LORD
called Samuel again, for the third time. Getting up and going to Eli, he said,
“Here I am. You called me.” Then Eli understood that the LORD was calling the
youth.
So he said to Samuel, “Go to
sleep, and if you are called, reply, ‘Speak, LORD, for your servant is
listening.’” When Samuel went to sleep in his place, the LORD came and stood
there, calling out as before: Samuel, Samuel! Samuel answered, “Speak, for your
servant is listening.” (1 Samuel
3:3-10)[1]
Over my decades in the service of the Church I have seen
this kind of call and response played out in various ways many times. Too frequently, the one in Samuel’s role did
not understand what was happening and did not have an “Eli” to help him
understand.
The call to diaconal service is unique in that, unlike the
call to the priesthood, there is no specific set of duties or service to which
the one called is directed. To use an
analogy, if a parent saw from a young age that their child had a gift for
mathematics, they might encourage the child, directing their studies in that
discipline. Similarly, if a child showed
a gift for working with wood, the parents might encourage the child in
carpentry. Calls to the priesthood
generally come at a fairly early age, we are told. The young boy feels that call, and the parent
hopefully encourages the boy in that direction.
The call to the diaconate is more complex, partially because
deacons are called to serve the people of God, not just sacramentally, not just
inside parish or diocesan structures, but in an infinite variety of ways. To make things even more confusing, many of
the ways in which the deacon is called by God to serve can and are being
accomplished through committed lay persons.
The question often asked by those discerning a call to the diaconate is:
“Why do I need to be ordained at all? I
can serve the Lord and his people without that added grace.”
Rhetorically, we could ask the same question of a person who
has found faith in Christ our Savior through a personal encounter or invitation
from another Christian. Why should that
person, who can go to Mass, hear the word of God, and carry the Word into the
world, become baptized? Each sacrament
provides its unique grace. As the
Catechism of the Catholic Church says:
Celebrated
worthily in faith, the sacraments confer the grace that they signify. They are
efficacious because in them Christ himself is at work: it is he who baptizes,
he who acts in his sacraments in order to communicate the grace that each
sacrament signifies. The Father always hears the prayer of his Son's Church
which, in the epiclesis of each sacrament, expresses her faith in the power of
the Spirit. As fire transforms into itself everything it touches, so the Holy
Spirit transforms into the divine life whatever is subjected to his power.
(CCC 1127)
For those of us who
have answered the call and gone through formation and ordination, I will answer
the discerners who still ask that question.
What happens with ordination is remarkable. The spirit of service is infused with
strength and the Holy Spirit finds new power within the one so
transformed. The grace of diaconal
service comes alive in a new way.
All of this is wonderful but the basic question must still
be answered: Is the call to the diaconate genuine or is it just a compulsion to
be more visible in ministry? Is it the
frustration of one who thought earlier in life he may have had a call to the
priesthood, but found instead a vocation to married life? How does one know the call is from God?
Discernment
Then the
LORD said: Go out and stand on the mountain before the LORD; the LORD will pass
by. There was a strong and violent wind rending the mountains and crushing
rocks before the LORD—but the LORD was not in the wind; after the wind, an
earthquake—but the LORD was not in the earthquake; after the earthquake,
fire—but the LORD was not in the fire; after the fire, a light silent sound.*
When he
heard this, Elijah hid his face in his cloak and went out and stood at the
entrance of the cave. A voice said to him, Why are you here, Elijah? (1 Kings 19:11-13)
It would be wonderful if God spoke to us clearly and said:
“This is what I would like you to do for me.” Very few people get this level of
direct instruction. Most of us struggle
to understand what God wants from us and many times we only see God’s
fingerprints long after he touched us.
Making things even worse, the call can be a moving target. Like conversion the call changes over time. As we come to understand the Lord, working
hard to understand him through prayer, the sacraments, and scripture, we see
his will more clearly. It is like
looking into a mirror. From a distance
we see an image and the image may look pretty good. As we get closer, we start to see flaws,
things that could be done better. The
closer we draw the more imperfections we see.
So, discernment does not stop with ordination. It is a constant effort.
When Should the Call
be answered?
Before birth
the LORD called me, from my mother’s womb he gave me my name.
He made my
mouth like a sharp-edged sword, concealed me, shielded by his hand. He made me
a sharpened arrow, in his quiver he hid me.
He said to me, you are my servant, in you, Israel, I show my glory. (Isaiah 49 1b-3)
The Church in her wisdom has said that Permanent Deacons
must be at least 35 years old to be ordained.
In a secular vocation, a 35-year-old is well into his career and has
generally established himself in his profession. It is also in that early career that advanced
training is undertaken to further these pursuits and to gain skills that will
serve them throughout their lives. Most are married and have been in mature
relationships for over five years and have a mature faith life. There is a saying among those who are
involved in diaconal formation that: “Formation
does not make deacons. Rather it finds
deacons already serving in the Church, provides training, gives them
sacramental grace in ordination, and them puts them back into their faith
communities more able to fulfill Christ’s servant role in the world.”
There has been an unfortunate trend among many who are
responsible for allowing individuals to enter formation for the diaconate to
require men who feel called to this ministry to delay their formation until
they no longer have children at home.
The logic for these decisions has been, on the surface,
paternalistic. The man called to serve
the Church should not be distracted from his ministry in the domestic church,
his home. He should therefore delay
taking on the additional load of formation classes and ministerial service that
follows until his family no longer needs his intense involvement in those
formative years.
If this same attitude were held by professional managers and
leaders in the secular environment, there would be few individuals who would
take advanced degrees while working and no teachers, since they are required to
take ongoing training while they work. Virtually
all organizations recognize that individuals who have the aptitude and ability
to assume greater responsibility in the organization should be given, even
encouraged, to take on additional training to advance their worth to the
organization.
Does this additional burden of taking classes while they are
working and raising a family upset the balance necessary for good performance
as an employee and good performance as a parent? In some cases, the individual bites off more
than they can chew and needs to drop the course work or adjust priorities. In a vast majority of cases, especially in
well-managed firms where there is vetting prior to allowing a person to take on
the advanced load, the individual is successful and all parties benefit: the
company has a more skilled employee, the family benefits from greater income,
and the person is more fulfilled in their profession.
When a policy is developed in a diocese that says deacons
should not be allowed to enter formation until later in life, when the demands
of family are lessened (and even that is an assumption that is problematic), we
are denying sacramental service to the Church from an individual at the peak of
his physical and intellectual ability.
The assumption made by those who establish the policy is that they know
what is best for a man who, at 30 or more, has already established himself in a
career, taken on the role of father to children and husband to a wife in the
vocation of marriage.
Further, the formation process itself is a discernment
process, for the aspirant/candidate and for the program leadership. There is plenty of opportunity to assess
readiness issues, personal spirituality, and family situation. If during the process an individual finds
himself in a situation where the active pursuit of a vocation should be
delayed, there is a straightforward mechanism for that built into most
formation programs. It is, after all,
not unusual for a candidate or his family to experience some unexpected change
that impacts ongoing pursuit of the vocation.
I have spoken to a number of deacons over the years (I was
ordained at 36) and have spoken to a number of deacons who had wanted to pursue
their vocation earlier in their lives but were told they needed to wait. In all cases, the deacon has said they
regretted the time lost to ministry by being forced to delay. Those of us who were allowed into the program
with children in the home found that our increased example was a help rather
than a hindrance in developing our family spirituality.
It would be my strongest recommendation, as a deacon of over
30 years, as a human resources professional who has managed training and degree
programs, and as a father and grandfather, to look at each situation
individually, rather than making a blanket determination that does more harm
than good about the criteria under which a man should be admitted to formation
for the diaconate.
The Lord calls each person to serve as they are able. As servants of the Lord, we must be open to
possibilities and let prayer guide us.
[1]
Scripture texts in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised
edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine,
Washington, D.C. and are used by permission of the copyright owner. All Rights
Reserved. No part of the New American Bible may be reproduced in any form
without permission in writing from the copyright owner.
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