HOMILY FOR MASS OF ORDINATION TO THE DIACONATE OF CONSTANTINE RODRIGUES, JOHN TING & GREGORY ALESSI – St. Mary’s Cathedral, Sydney

HOMILY FOR MASS OF ORDINATION TO THE DIACONATE OF
CONSTANTINE RODRIGUES, JOHN TING & GREGORY ALESSI
St. Mary’s Cathedral, Sydney, 22 November 2017

“So, what do you do?” It’s the great conversation starter, especially with a stranger whose temperament and history is unknown, indeed when you’re not even sure if you’re sitting beside a terrorist. From tonight our three ordinands will need a new answer to that question. But what do deacons do? Are they altar-boys and acolytes in fancy dress? Or seminarians having a brief stop-over in the Singapore of Diaconate en route to the Rome of Priesthood? Or are they old guys whose kids have grown up so they’ve got time on their hands to help out by being kinda’  priests? When Catholics ask what deacons do, they are really asking: what can you do that lay people can’t and what can’t you do that priests can?

The simplest answer might be: deacons are specialists in sacred hatch, match and dispatch; they do baptisms, marriages and funerals, at least when Father’s not around. They preach sometimes too, so people get some variety, but they’re not supposed to outshine the parish priest. And they do other things, depending on what needs doing…

Well, these are fair questions and answers. But when people say, “So, what do you do?” it can be for two very different reasons. Sometimes it’s just fish-filler for conversation, more interesting than the weather and safer than politics, a potential launch-pad for a few more questions. It’s probably not a good idea to ask a girl on a first date if she would please articulate her deepest ontology: the response will likely be a big yawn or a slap across the face. Those more expert in these things tell me it’s safer to ask her what she does. But if its ontology you’re after, that might just be the way in: Jane writes, so she’s a journo; Nyugen flies planes, he’s a pilot; Jemima cares for her children, she’s a mother. Knowing what people do helps situate them in a family, workplace and community, gives some sense of their gifts, temperament and responsibilities, offers a glimpse of the WHO behind the DO.

Our three candidates have studied enough philosophy and theology now to know that function revolves around nature, not vice versa. If you want to know what a thing is, you look at what it does, sure enough; but in the end what it does depends on what it is. People are more than their jobs; some are ill-suited to them, others well-suited but it’s that more-that-they-are that explains how and why they do it. Some things run deep in us, like our natural humanity and baptismal divinity, our personality and relationships, gifts and deficits, core beliefs and character. Function revolves around nature, activity comes from ontology…

So what, deep down, are deacons? When the fathers of the Second Vatican Council decided to reinstate the order of deacons, they were aware that for the Church’s first few centuries deacons, priests and bishops all flourished; but that from the middle ages onwards the only deacons in the Western Church were ‘transitional’ ones on their way to being priests. Yet the Council knew that there are three ordained sharings in the priesthood of Christ, three degrees of Holy Orders essential to the nature of the Church. Other roles like acolyte, sub-deacon, monsignor or cardinal might come and go as are useful. But deacons are a permanent feature of the Church and the Church is not fully herself wherever deacons, priests or bishop are lacking.

Our words diaconate and deacon come from the Greek word ÄéÜêïíïò meaning service and as every newbie employee at McDonalds can tell you, service is an attitude, a commitment, not just a task. In tonight’s Gospel Jesus says it’s not always easy; at times divine service can be like being sent as “a lamb among wolves” and being as ill-prepared as someone without wallet, briefcase or running shoes (Lk 10:1-9). Like Jeremiah in our First Reading, we can feel as speechless as a child, not much chop at our job and totally reliant on God’s grace to carry us through (Jer 1:4-9).

If a deacon is a who before he is a do, the who is a servant: whether he’s preaching at Mass, taking Viaticum to the dying, assisting the bishop in the chancery, organising charitable works, or hatching, matching and dispatching sacramentally – he is first and foremost about service. St John Paul II called deacons “the Church’s service sacramentalized” and “living signs of the servanthood of Christ’s Church”. Even more clearly than others, deacons must demonstrate Christ’s exitus and reditus, His descent from heaven to become the servant of all, especially the sick and suffering, before returning to the Father in glory. In their involvement in the community, their outreach to the poor, and their fostering of Eucharistic communion, deacons sacramentalize the Church’s service. And by calling and ordaining deacons the Church is saying something fundamental: that service is at the heart of the human and divine mystery.

In that most multicultural of societies that is the Catholic Church and its most multicultural corner that is the Church in Sydney, it is no surprise that one of our deacons-to-be is from India, one from Malaysia and CASS (a Sydney province of China), and one of Italian-Australian background. Con has worked in the computer business, John in the petrochemical industry, and Greg as a chef. But all alike they’ve served the Church: as husbands and fathers, as counter or parish finance councillor, state school catechist, youth group leader or acolyte. 

Constantine was praying, worshipping and serving in his parish but wanted to do more. During World Youth Day he asked a visiting American priest what that more could be and was told “You should become a deacon.” Being a typical Catholic, he had no idea what a deacon was, but with the encouragement of wife and PP he explored this further and he we are tonight!

Meanwhile John had taught English with the Maryknoll Society in China, introduced Antioch to Singapore, and ultimately became leader of the Catholic Asian Students Society here in Sydney. But he, too, wanted to do more for God…

Like the other two, Gregory is very much a man of the Eucharist, Rosary and Bible. The diary of St Faustina Kowalska, Divine Mercy in My Soul, also had a profound effect. Called by his parish priest into service as acolyte, he gradually discerned a vocation to an even more Eucharistic life of self-giving to God and the Church.

My sons, these are challenging times to start a clergy life in Australia. Some shepherds have let down their flocks, especially the lambs, abandoning them in their need or even preying upon them. We are ashamed, we are chastened, we are determined to do better in future. What we need right now are new examples of Christlike diakonia, of trustworthiness and (dare I say) purity, poured out in service of God and others.

These are challenging times to start a clergy life in Australia. For secularisation and relativism continue apace, most recently in the marriage vote and push for euthanasia. Values such as life and love, once treasured as divine trusts, are now treated as play-things to be redefined by popular will or eliminated with state sanction. What we need right now are examples of Christlike diakonia, of active faith and morals, expressed once more in service of God and neighbour.

These are challenging times to be ordained deacon: yet here you three are, ready to give yourselves over as ministers of the altar, assisting at Mass, distributing Holy Communion, and presiding at Sacred Liturgies; as ministers of the Word, proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ, preaching, instructing and forming His people; and as ministers of charity, facilitating the Church’s charitable works and being involved in outreach yourselves. Be those things for us now, when the Church in Australia is on her knees and needs new inspiration and example. Be a sign for our age of Christlike purity, fidelity and love.

WELCOME TO MASS OF ORDINATION TO THE DIACONATE OF
CONSTANTINE RODRIGUES, JOHN TING & GREGORY ALESSI
St. Mary’s Cathedral, Sydney, 22 November 2017

Welcome to St Mary’s Cathedral for the Ordination to the Permanent Diaconate of Constantine Rodrigues, John Ting and Gregory Alessi. Along with our candidates I especially welcome their wives Leonora, Fiona and Mimi, without whose support they would not be here tonight. We also recognise Constantine and Leonora’s children Dojel, Giselle and Chantelle, John and Fiona’s children Amelia and Xavier, and Greg and Mimi’s Catherine and Patrick, and their extended families.

Tonight we also acknowledge those who’ve assisted our candidates in discerning their vocation and forming them for it. I thank in particular Rev. Dr. Thomas Carroll, our Director of the Permanent Diaconate, and Rev. Dr. Gerard Kelly, President of the Catholic Institute of Sydney, with their staff; and the parishes in which our three men have had pastoral experiences.

I also acknowledge my brother priests of the Archdiocese and beyond. It is with great joy that the deacons of the Archdiocese of Sydney welcome three new members to their college this evening, and the clergy and people of the Archdiocese three new ministers of the word, of the altar and of charity.