Homily for the Jubilee of Deacons

 Pope Francis is currently in hospital and so was not able to celebrate Mass for the Jubilee of Deacons earlier today. His homily was read by Archbishop Fisichella, the pro-prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelisation. The full text is available from the website of the Holy See: Holy Mass and Ordinations to the Diaconate.

In a manner typical of Pope Francis, the homily was structured around three words:

The message of today’s readings can be summed up in a single word: “gratuity”. That is surely a word dear to you as deacons, gathered here for the Jubilee celebration. So, let us reflect on three specific aspects of this fundamental dimension of the Christian life in general and your ministry in particular: forgiveness, selfless service and communion.

It is a short passage at the end of the homily that caught my attention (my emphasis added, as it reflects something of my previous post for the Jubilee of Deacons):

Dear deacons, your mission sets you apart from society only to be re-immersed in it in order to enable it to be an ever more open and welcoming place for everyone. It is one of the finest expressions of a synodal Church, one that “goes forth.”

Soon some of you, in receiving the sacrament of Holy Orders, will “descend” the steps of the ministry. I deliberately say “descend,” and not “ascend,” because being ordained is not an ascent but a descent, whereby we make ourselves small. We lower ourselves and divest ourselves. In the words of Saint Paul, through service, we leave behind the “earthly man,” and put on, in charity, the “man of heaven” (cf. 1 Cor 15:45-49). 

 

Jubilee of Deacons

 The days 21-23 February 2025 are to be marked as a Jubilee of Deacons, that is, as a celebration of the life of the Permanent Diaconate in the life of the Church. Alongside the immediate events of the Jubilee, the Dicastery for the Clergy are holding an International Meeting: Deacons in a Synodal and Missionary church: being witnesses of hope, intended to examine the future of the ministry of Deacons in the Church and launching a consultation to that end.

The introduction to the Basic Norms for the Formation of Permanent Deacons (1998) refers to how, in its Constitution Lumen Gentium, Vatican II allowed for the restoring of a Permanent Diaconate, indicating three reasons for this choice:

The second Vatican Council established that “it will be possible for the future to restore the diaconate as a proper and permanent rank of the hierarchy....(and confer it) even upon married men, provided they be of more mature age, and also on suitable young men for whom, however, the law of celibacy must remain in force”, in accordance with constant tradition. Three reasons lay behind this choice: (i) a desire to enrich the Church with the functions of the diaconate, which otherwise, in many regions, could only be exercised with great difficulty; (ii) the intention of strengthening with the grace of diaconal ordination those who already exercised many of the functions of the Diaconate; (iii) a concern to provide regions, where there was a shortage of clergy, with sacred ministers.

The Basic Norms for the Formation of Permanent Deacons (n.9) describes the office of the Deacon as follows:

The ministry of the deacon is characterised by the exercise of the three munera proper to the ordained ministry, according to the specific perspective of diakonia.

In reference to the munus docendi the deacon is called to proclaim the Scriptures and instruct and exhort the people. This finds expression in the presentation of the Book of the Gospels, foreseen in the rite of ordination itself.

The munus sanctificandi of the deacon is expressed in prayer, in the solemn administration of baptism, in the custody and distribution of the Eucharist, in assisting at and blessing marriages, in presiding at the rites of funeral and burial and in the administration of sacramentals. This brings out how the diaconal ministry has its point of departure and arrival in the Eucharist, and cannot be reduced to simple social service.

Finally, the munus regendi is exercised in dedication to works of charity and assistance and in the direction of communities or sectors of church life, especially as regards charitable activities. This is the ministry most characteristic of the deacon.

 So far as I can tell, the ministry of Permanent Deacons in my own country is exercised mostly in the context of parishes. I think this does lead to a problem, in that the ministry of the Deacon is too easily perceived and experienced as being carried out as a delegation from the parish priest. It also lends itself to the phenomenon of "retirement ministry", that is, the Diaconate being undertaken as something that is done as a man retires from a secular job.

On the contrary, I feel that the Permanent Diaconate is more fully exercised in a secular or professional context. A Deacon who is a school chaplain, for example, can readily exercise aspects of all three of the munera described above within the educational context, and in all likelihood with Qualified Teacher Status. Likewise, a hospital chaplain can exercise their ministry within the professional context of a health care setting, and might well be a trained healthcare professional themselves. Port and industrial chaplaincy can likewise be areas of work for a Deacon who has themselves a competence in one or other of those environments.

Some years ago now Deacon Pat Kearns posted Catholic Deacon - is he a parish activist or something else?, a post in which he describes how he understands his office as a then recently ordained Permanent Deacon. Deacon Pat has now, so far as I can tell from more recent posts on his blog, at least "semi-retired" from a post as a Director of Nursing at a 99 bed in-patient psychological hospital, a post which he held for a number of years. He had previously served as a medic in the US Navy, before working in the civilian nursing profession. If you wish to explore further the life and ministry of Deacon Pat, the homepage of his blog is Diakonia - Deacon Pat Kearns.

Jubilee of Artists and the World of Culture

The days 15-18th February 2025 are being marked as a Jubilee of Artists and the World of Culture. The Press Conference held ahead of the event is reported here.

The Constitution Gaudium et Spes (n.53) explains the idea of culture as follows:

Man comes to a true and full humanity only through culture, that is through the cultivation of the goods and values of nature. Wherever human life is involved, therefore, nature and culture are quite intimately connected one with the other.

The word "culture" in its general sense indicates everything whereby man develops and perfects his many bodily and spiritual qualities; he strives by his knowledge and his labor, to bring the world itself under his control. He renders social life more human both in the family and the civic community, through improvement of customs and institutions. Throughout the course of time he expresses, communicates and conserves in his works, great spiritual experiences and desires, that they might be of advantage to the progress of many, even of the whole human family.

Pope St John Paul II was in his lifetime a strong proponent of a correct understanding of the idea of culture, both in his philosophical studies and in his exercise of his mission as the Successor of St Peter. His address to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) on 2nd June 1980, during a visit to Paris, contains much of his thinking on the subject and offers analyses of different questions arising with regard to the understanding of culture. My excerpts cannot do it justice, in particular with regard to the way in which it responds to the challenges Pope St John Paul II sees in different aspects of the contemporary situation with regard to culture.

[The] fundamental dimension is man, man in his fullness, man who lives at the same time in the sphere of material values and in that of spiritual values. Respect for the inalienable rights of the human person is at the basis of everything. [n.4]

Man is the subject of culture in that it arises from his own activity; and he is the object of culture in that it is through culture that he becomes more fully man. 

One cannot think of a culture without human subjectivity and without human causality; in the cultural field, man is always the first fact: man is the primordial and fundamental fact of human culture.

And man is always that: in the completeness of his spiritual and material subjectivity.

If the distinction between spiritual and material culture is correct in terms of the character and the content of the products in which culture is manifested, it is necessary to note at the same time that, on one hand, the works of material culture make apparent always a "spiritualisation" of the material, a submission of the material element to the spiritual forces of man, that is to say, to his intelligence and to his will; and on the other hand, the works of spiritual culture show, in a specific way, a "materialisation" of the spirit, an incarnation of that which is spiritual.

In cultural works, this double characteristic appears to be equally primordial and equally permanent.[n.8]

In taking note of the educational dimension of culture, Pope St John Paul II argues that man needs to develop his culture both with others and for others, and so culture becomes not only an individual possession but also a shared heritage. In this light, he asserts a right of a Nation in relation to its culture:

The Nation is in effect a large community of men who are united by varied links, but above all, precisely, by culture. The Nation exists "by" culture and "for" culture, and it is therefore the great educator of men that they may "be more" in the community.

It is this community that possesses a history that goes beyond the history of the individual and of the family....

There exists a fundamental sovereignty of a society which is manifest in the culture of a Nation. [n.14]

 In his Letter to Artists of April 1999, Pope St John Paul II speaks more specifically of the vocation of the artist:

A noted Polish poet, Cyprian Norwid, wrote that “beauty is to enthuse us for work, and work is to raise us up”.

The theme of beauty is decisive for a discourse on art. It was already present when I stressed God's delighted gaze upon creation. In perceiving that all he had created was good, God saw that it was beautiful as well. The link between good and beautiful stirs fruitful reflection. In a certain sense, beauty is the visible form of the good, just as the good is the metaphysical condition of beauty. ...

It is in living and acting that man establishes his relationship with being, with the truth and with the good. The artist has a special relationship to beauty. In a very true sense it can be said that beauty is the vocation bestowed on him by the Creator in the gift of “artistic talent”. [n.3]

 After surveying the way in which art and the Gospel have been connected through history, a theme that is also present in the address to UNESCO, the letter ends with an appeal to artists:

Mine is an invitation to rediscover the depth of the spiritual and religious dimension which has been typical of art in its noblest forms in every age. It is with this in mind that I appeal to you, artists of the written and spoken word, of the theatre and music, of the plastic arts and the most recent technologies in the field of communication. I appeal especially to you, Christian artists: I wish to remind each of you that, beyond functional considerations, the close alliance that has always existed between the Gospel and art means that you are invited to use your creative intuition to enter into the heart of the mystery of the Incarnate God and at the same time into the mystery of man.... [n.14]

Beauty is a key to the mystery and a call to transcendence. It is an invitation to savour life and to dream of the future. That is why the beauty of created things can never fully satisfy. It stirs that hidden nostalgia for God which a lover of beauty like Saint Augustine could express in incomparable terms: “Late have I loved you, beauty so old and so new: late have I loved you!”.[n.16]

Jubilee of the Armed Forces, Police and Security Personnel

The days 8-9 February 2025 are indicated as a Jubilee of the Armed Forces, Police and Security Personnel. The Catechism of the Catholic Church (nn.2310-2311), referencing the Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes (n.79) teaches:

Public authorities... have the right and duty to impose on citizens the obligations necessary for national defence.

Those who are sworn to serve their country in the armed forces are servants of the security and freedom of nations. If they carry out their duty honourably, they truly contribute to the common good of the nation and the maintenance of peace.

Public authorities should make equitable provision for those who for reasons of conscience refuse to bear arms; these are nonetheless obliged to serve the human community in some other way.

The life of a French soldier, Marcel Valentin, offers a testimony to a life of military service that was, in different places, at the service of peace. In 1993, he was for six months the commander of the UN Protection Force in the Sarajevo sector during the Serb siege of that city. In 1999, he commanded a NATO force in Macedonia at a time when large numbers of refugees came to Macedonia to escape the conflict across the border in Kosovo. Two years later, Valentin commanded KFOR in Kosovo for 12 months, with a mission to provide a secure environment for the development of a normal society at a fragile time for that region. He finally held commands in his native France, as military governor of Paris and commandant of the Ile-de-France and French overseas territories, where he took a particular interest in promoting contact between the military and civil society.

General Valentin's career is celebrated in a book length interview that was published in 2006: General Valentin "De Sarajevo aux banlieues, mes combats pour la paix". At one point in the interview, General  Valentin is asked how he would define the role of a soldier today [pp.148ff]. He first of all points out an aspect of the role that has not changed - the soldier receives a delegated authority to use force, and not just in legitimate self defence. The soldier is allowed to use force when ordered to do so to attack an enemy who may not represent a direct immediate threat to them as an individual. What has changed is the way in which that use of force must be adapted to the circumstances in which it is exercised. At one time there may have been a well defined enemy (Soviet Russia during the Cold War) and a well defined mission to defend national territory and national populations. Nowadays, soldiers are often deployed among adversaries to bring about the wishes of the international community:

... the soldier is obliged to be a communicator, to address themself towards civilian populations, to be a diplomat. Force is still their principle means but it is necessary to widen their know-how and to use different abilities.

One expression of the commitment of the military vocation in favour of peace is the International Military Pilgrimage which takes place in Lourdes each year. During this pilgrimage, soldiers of many different nations, including nations that may have been in conflict with one another, come together in pilgrimage. Writing in this context, General Valentin describes how the vocation of a soldier has changed in recent times.

Acting more and more on the side of those who have become hostages or victims of crises, (soldiers) find themselves living alongside them, sharing their distress and their misery in which more often than not they are the only ones who can bring some relief. Confronted with the possibility of violent death, like their predecessors, they appreciate the true value of civil peace and the need to safeguard it.

In the Bull of Indiction for the Jubilee 2025 (n.8), Pope Francis writes:

The first sign of hope should be the desire for peace in our world, which once more finds itself immersed in the tragedy of war. Heedless of the horrors of the past, humanity is confronting yet another ordeal, as many peoples are prey to brutality and violence. What does the future hold for those peoples, who have already endured so much? How is it possible that their desperate plea for help is not motivating world leaders to resolve the numerous regional conflicts in view of their possible consequences at the global level? Is it too much to dream that arms can fall silent and cease to rain down destruction and death? May the Jubilee remind us that those who are peacemakers will be called “children of God” (Mt 5:9). The need for peace challenges us all, and demands that concrete steps be taken. May diplomacy be tireless in its commitment to seek, with courage and creativity, every opportunity to undertake negotiations aimed at a lasting peace.

Hope and prophecy

 Can there be legitimate prophecy about history? This is the question that opens the last chapter/lecture in Josef Pieper's short book Hope and History.

Christianity answers this with a clear yes. For example, among its sacred texts is the prophetic book of Revelation (the Apocalypse), and in it, (although not in it alone) there are assertions about the ultimate future of historical man - not so much, then, about how history will continue but rather about how it will end.

Josef Pieper points out that the acceptance of such a revealed prophecy presupposes that human existence takes place within a framework that reaches beyond what we can immediately sense in this world, and which, in that sense remains beyond an empirical grasp; and in the same sense the beginning and end of human history and individual human biography remain beyond empirical grasp. He also reprises what he has already referred to in previous chapters/lectures that attempts to develop and understanding of the future of human history in terms only of this world fall down in the face of the reality of the death of men.

Josef Pieper gives the following account of the image of history conveyed by the Apocalypse:

Since this conception takes account of human freedom to choose evil and also of "the" evil as a dark and demonic historical force - for that reason alone, dissension, breakdown, irreconcilable conflict, and even catastrophe cannot, in principle, be alien to the nature of  human history, including its everyday course of events.

And yet this is not the last word of apocalyptic prophecy. Its last word and its decisive report, all else notwithstanding, is the following: a blessed end, infinitely surpassing all expectations; triumph over evil; the conquest of death; drinking from the fountain of life; resurrection; drying of all tears; the dwelling of God among men; a New Heaven and a New Earth. What all this would appear to imply about hope, however, is that it has an invulnerability sufficient to place it beyond any possibility of being affected, or even crippled, by preparedness for an intra-historically catastrophic end - whether that end be called dying, defeat of the good, martyrdom, or world domination by evil.

 At one point, Josef Pieper draws attention to the "implicit faith" that St Thomas Aquinas attributes to those who, though not being explicit Christian believers, have some conviction that God will set men free (S Th II, ii, 2, 7 ad 3). Josef Pieper writes:

In precise correspondence to this, one should also, it seems to me, speak of an "implicit hope". Whoever, for instance, invests the power of his hope in the image of a perfect future human society, in which men are no longer wolves to each other and the good things of life are justly distributed - such a one participates, precisely thereby, in the hope of Christianity.

In a not dissimilar way, Josef Pieper also suggests that any efforts towards human fraternity have a link to the hope of Christianity. He refers first to Plato's thought with regard to the dwelling together of gods and men, and their shared banquet:

But Plato would never have been able to dream of the communal banquet in which Christianity recognizes and celebrates the real beginning and pledge of that blessed life at God's table. Since earliest times it has been called synaxis, or communio....

A more profound grounding for human solidarity cannot, it seems to me, be conceived. But the reverse also holds true: wherever true human communion is realized, or even just longed for, this universal table community is, whether one knows and likes it or not, quietly being prepared ...No matter where and by whom the realization of fraternity among men is understood and pursued as the thing that is truly to be hoped for, there exists, eo ipso, a subterranean link to the elementary hope of Christianity.

It is perhaps worth recalling, during this Jubilee Year dedicated to the theme of hope, the significance of the prayer that occurs in the Eucharistic Liturgy immediately after the Lord's Prayer. We can read it against the background of the view of apocalyptic prophecy described above by Josef Pieper: 

Deliver us, Lord, we pray, from every evil, graciously grant peace in our days, that, by the help of your mercy, we may be always free from sin and safe from distress, as we await the blessed hope and the coming of our Saviour, Jesus Christ.