The Diaconal
Ordination of Tavis Reginald Goski—Holy Redeemer Church, Kanata, ON
Fourth Sunday
of Advent (Year “C”)-December 20, 2015
THE FAMILY:
HOME OF LOVE AND MERCY
[Texts:
Micah 5.2–5a [Psalm 80]; Hebrews 10.5–10; Luke 1.39–44]
Dear brothers and sisters in
Christ,
“The Bible says the most
beautiful thing that God created was the family.” Pope Francis spontaneously
said this at the World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia. This was after
families from around the world told their stories of war and strife.
“In families there are always
difficulties,” Francis said, “...Only love is able to overcome them.”
The pope added, “God’s love
is so overflowing that…it had to be poured out of him.” “A family is truly a
family when it is able to open its arms and receive all that love.”
The spotlight the Church placed
on the family through two Synods of Bishops has led us in the Church of Ottawa
to choose as our theme for this Pastoral Year, “The family, home of love and
mercy,” with the scriptural motto “Be merciful just as your heavenly Father is
merciful” (Luke 6.36).
In the Scriptures today, we
see Mary immediately after her vocation, when she was called to be the Mother
of the Saviour of the World. She exercises a “diaconal” ministry by going to
serve her aging kinswoman Elizabeth who, after years of barrenness, had
conceived John the Baptist, Christ’s forerunner. Mary shows that she is the
“Mother of Mercy,” modelling for us the spiritual and corporal works of mercy.
The gospel and our pastoral
year theme evoke one goal: to help our parishioners in their families to
experience love and, where love has been wounded in their families, God’s
healing and renewing mercy.
Tavis is being ordained a
deacon in the early days of the Jubilee Year of Mercy. I pray, Tavis that mercy
will imbue your ministry, as you serve God and his Church,
conveying his love to all you meet.
Pope Francis asks us not only
to look for mercy, but also to show mercy. This sacred time is for mending
bridges, putting things right, and welcoming the estranged.
Mercy is also about giving
aid to those who need it. The corporal and spiritual works of mercy provide
practical ways in which we should commit to helping others.
The readings we have just
heard enrich the occasion of this ordination rite.
The prophet Micah lived in the eighth and seventh
centuries BC. Micah’s powerful utterances are credited with converting King
Hezekiah. This led to the reform of the southern kingdom of Judah and the
renewal of its worship and life.
False prophets in Micah’s day ingratiated themselves
with the rich. Unlike them, Micah did not court popularity. He was zealous for
justice. He preached God’s judgement on sinfulness as well as God’s favour
toward those who repented of injustice.
Micah summarized God’s expectations this way, “what
does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness and to
walk humbly with your God” (6.8).
The book of Micah has been compared to a preacher’s file
of sermons. Oracles of doom are mingled with words of encouragement. Some scholars
describe the middle section of the book (chapters 3–5) as “false leaders
denounced, a righteous king promised.”
Today’s verses contrast Israelite kings of the past with
the glorious leader God has in mind, “whose origin is from of old, from
ancient days.”
Kings born in Jerusalem had failed to meet the ideal.
God promised to go back to Bethlehem, where King David was born, to find a
messiah worthy of his lineage.
The New Testament describes God’s fulfillment of the
ancient promises about his messiah with words like “lowly,” “humble,” and
“hidden.”
In the last days of the reign of Herod the Great, who
died in 4 BC, God sent angelic messages to an otherwise inconsequential couple,
Mary and Joseph, announcing the virginal conception of Jesus, who would inherit
forever the throne of his ancestor David. With faith, they agreed to
participate in God’s design for humanity’s salvation.
In Luke’s gospel, to illustrate that “nothing will be impossible with God,” the angel Gabriel pointed to the conception of a child by Mary’s kinswoman, Elizabeth, despite her old age. This was the prelude to today’s gospel of the “Visitation” in which Mary, “in haste,” made the approximately four-day, 130-kilometre journey from Nazareth to “a Judean town in the hill country” to visit her relative.
Christians have made Elizabeth’s praise of Mary their
own through the ages: “Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit
of your womb.” Mary is blessed, above all, for her humble faith, which is a
model for all believers: “Blessed is she who believed there would be a
fulfilment of what was spoken to her by the Lord!”
In humility, Mary declared her praise of God in the
Magnificat, which follows Elizabeth’s greetings in today’s gospel. During your
seminary formation, Tavis, you have prayed Mary’s prayer yourself every evening
at Vespers. My brother Tavis, imbibe Mary’s simplicity and humility, and stay
close to your spiritual mother all your life long.
*****
Beloved brothers and sisters:
since this our son, who is your relative and friend, is now to be advanced to
the Order of deacons, consider carefully the nature of the rank in the Church
to which he is about to be raised.
Strengthened by the gift of
the Holy Spirit, he will help the bishop and his priests in the ministry of the
word, of the altar, and of charity, showing himself to be a servant to all. As
a minister of the altar he will proclaim the Gospel, prepare the sacrifice, and
distribute the Lord’s Body and Blood to the faithful.
Furthermore, it will be his
duty, at the Bishop’s direction, to exhort believers and unbelievers alike and
to instruct them in holy doctrine. He will preside over public prayer,
administer Baptism, assist at and bless Marriages, bring Viaticum to the dying,
and conduct funeral rites.
Consecrated by the laying on
of hands that comes down to us from the Apostles and bound more closely to the
service of the altar, he will perform works of charity in the name of the
Bishop or the pastor. With the help of God, he is to go about all these duties
in such a way that you will recognize him as a disciple of him who came not to
be served, but to serve.
Now, dear son, you are being
raised to the Order of the Diaconate. The Lord has set an example that just as
he has done, you also should do.
As a deacon, that is, as a
minister of Jesus Christ, who came among his people as one who served, do the
will of God from the heart: serve the people in love and joy as you would the
Lord. Since no one can serve two
masters, look upon all defilement and avarice as serving false gods.
Since by your own free
choice, you present yourself for the Order of the Diaconate, you should be a
man of good reputation, filled with wisdom and the Holy Spirit, as were once
those chosen by the Apostles for the ministry of charity.
You will exercise your
ministry committed to the celibate state: know that celibacy is both a sign of
pastoral charity and an inspiration to it, as well as a source of spiritual
fruitfulness in the world. Compelled by the sincere love of Christ the Lord and
embracing this state with total dedication, you will cling to Christ more
easily with an undivided heart. You will free yourself more completely for the
service of God and man, and minister more effectively in the work of spiritual
rebirth.
Firmly rooted and grounded in
faith, you are to show yourself chaste and beyond reproach before God and man,
as is proper for a minister of Christ and of a steward of God’s mysteries. Never allow yourself to be turned away from
the hope offered by the Gospel. Now you
are not only a hearer of this Gospel but also its minister. Hold the mystery of faith with a clear
conscience. Express by your actions the
word of God which your lips proclaim, so that the Christian people, brought to
life by the Spirit, may be a pure offering accepted by God. Then on the last
day, when you go out to meet the Lord, you will be able to hear him say, “Well
done, good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your Lord.”
Photos: Christopher Choquette
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