It is often said that with God there are no coincidences. Today’s readings are a great illustration of that. They are very dear to me, especially the first reading from the Acts of the Apostles. It was read at last year’s Permanent Diaconate Ordination Mass. My classmates and I chose it because it recounts the selection and ordination of the first deacons in the Church.
The timing of this reading in our liturgical year also comes at a perfect time. This coming Saturday, May 9th, three men will be ordained as Permanent Deacons for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. It is the culmination of a faith journey that centered on discernment and formation.
The account we read in Acts 6 is quite similar to what we see in the Church today. There is a need within the church community because the harvest is plenty but the workers are few, and as men feel called to discern serving the Church, they are invited to explore this call in a more formal way. The time they spend discerning and learning is important because it helps the men (with their wife and children) and the formation team get to know one another better. This discernment is two-fold: for the men it is a deepening of their understanding of what service in the Church God is calling them to, and for the formation team it is a discernment about the men’s formation and growth in the faith. Together, they explore whether service as a Permanent Deacon is indeed what God is calling the men to.
After this discernment and formation, the men are presented by the church community to the successor of the Apostles, the archbishop, who through prayer and the laying on of hands ordains them to the Holy Order of the Diaconate.
Stephen, Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicholas of Antioch are the first of this Holy Order of service to the Church in the person of Christ the Servant. Throughout the ages, the role of the deacon has undergone changes as the needs of the church community changed. But as it was then, it is now: responding to God’s call is letting yourselves be built into a spiritual house. And through our firm belief in Jesus Christ, we will do the works that he did, and greater ones than these, to the glory of God the Father.
The three men who will be ordained as Permanent Deacons will serve in a public ministry, but is only one example of God’s call. We are all called to serve God’s Church in some capacity, in small things and in big things, in public and behind the scenes.
Let us always be attentive to the call God places upon on hearts, and respond with courage, love, and humility.