I gave this homily this weekend on the occasion of a parishioner, Mickey Redfearn, receiving the sacrament of Holy Orders. Mickey was ordained a permanent deacon on Saturday by Archbishop Hebda at the Cathedral of St. Paul.
HOMILY FOR THE SECOND SUNDAY OF ADVENT, YEAR B, 2017
On this 2nd weekend in Advent, Mickey Redfearn, our brother parishioner, received the sacrament of Holy Orders at the Cathedral of St. Paul. Today he is now an ordained deacon. Fr Kevin thought it important for me to preach today and speak about the ministry of the deacon.
Remembering my own ordination to the diaconate 23 years ago, there were three ritual actions that stand out for me. The first was kneeling before the Archbishop Roach and as placing my joined hands in his, I promised my obedience to him and to his successor bishops. The second, was the actual ordination itself, as the Archbishop placing his hands on my head and prayed the prayer of consecration. And the third, was the Archbishop coming to me and placing the Book of the Gospels in my hands and saying to me, “Receive the Gospel of Christ, whose herald you now are. Believe what you read, teach what you believe, and practice what you teach.” It is appropriate that that today’s scripture readings are about being heralds of the Good News for that is what the deacon is called to do.
What does it mean to be a herald of Christ? As a deacon, it is more than proclaiming the Gospel and occasionally preaching when assisting liturgically at Mass. The deacon is a living sign of Jesus Christ, the Servant of God. I have found in my 23 years as a deacon that it means ministering to people in places I never would thought I would find myself. There are times as a deacon you are a herald in a place where you are welcomed by the people. There are times you find yourself being a herald in places where you are not welcome. As deacons, we find ourselves ministering to people living and suffering in darkness. You will find deacons ministering in prisons, as chaplains in police and fire departments, in nursing homes, hospitals, hospices. Deacons minister to those in our immigrant communities, to those caught up in addictions, to those who are homeless and mentally ill. You will find deacons teaching in faith formation, the RCIA, and, some function as administrators of parishes.
Within my first year as a deacon I found myself the Catholic chaplain for the Carver County jail. I have ministered to the homeless and the mentally ill on the streets of South Minneapolis. I have ministered to men and women in the gay and lesbian community. I have ministered to the Mexican and Ecuadorian immigrant communities in South Minneapolis, learning Spanish so that I could baptize their babies, officiate at their weddings, and preside at their funerals, and preach at Masses in their own language. For the past 23 years I have ministered to women and children suffering from physical, sexual, and emotional abuse, trying to remove them from dangerous living conditions, and, at times advocating for them in court. I minister to people going through separation and divorce, to families grieving the suicide of a loved one. I am present to pray with and accompany people in their illnesses, both physical and mental, and to pray the prayers of the dying at the death beds of people. I help prepare and officiate at the baptisms, the weddings and the funerals of our parish community. Steve and Mary Frost often call on me to do the funerals of people who have been unchurched most of their lives. This is some of what the deacon does as a herald of the Gospel. This is the life into which Mickey Redfearn is ordained today.
What must be made clear is that being a herald of God is not confined to those of us ordained to Holy Orders. Each and every one of you are called to be heralds of God. At your baptism, when you were anointed with the oil of Chrism, you were anointed priest, prophet, and King. From that moment on, you, the baptized, were given the mission of being heralds of God. As the prophet Isaiah states in the first reading, you are to go to the highest mountain and crying out at the top of your voices proclaim the Good News to the world, “Here is your God! Here comes with power the Lord GOD, who rules by his strong arm; here is his reward with him, his recompense before him.”
You don’t have to be clothed in camel’s hair and eat bugs and honey, like John the Baptist, nor do you have to be dressed in an alb and stole like a deacon or a priest to be a herald of God. You are to go forth into those places of the world in which you live and by word and example proclaim the Good News of God’s salvation to all people.
Your ministry as heralds of the Gospel is vitally important to the mission of the Catholic Church. In the past, we use to say that this was the job of priests and nuns. That was a false idea then, and it is very false today. The number of priests, deacons, and nuns are dwindling. There are not enough priests, deacons, and nuns to do this job today. I was at the funeral of two more of my deacon classmates this year. There are only 3 of us left from my ordination class of 9. All of us have serious health issues. I stand here falling apart in front of your eyes. I tell my kids that if an arm falls off, pick it up before the dog plays with it. The job of being heralds is all our job. My brothers and sisters, you can go into places and reach people in ways in which priests, deacons, and nuns cannot. The Catholic Church needs you to be heralds of the Gospel in the places in which you work. The Catholic Church needs you to be heralds of the Gospel in your community and neighborhoods. The Catholic Church needs you be heralds of the Gospel in the grocery store, the gas station, the bowling alley, the coffee shops, and the saloons. Most importantly, the Catholic Church needs you to be heralds of the Gospel in your own homes.
Brother and sister heralds, we, like John the Baptist, are to go forth and prepare the way for our Lord Jesus Christ. Today and every day, let us go forth as the prophet Isaiah says, and “make straight in the wasteland a highway for our God!” Let us go forth as heralds so that every valley be filled in, every mountain and hill be made low. Let us go forth as heralds so that the glory of the LORD may be revealed and that all people see it.
