Homily For Mass Of Ordinations To The Permanent Diaconate

HOMILY FOR MASS OF ORDINATION TO THE PERMANENT DIACONATE OF CHRISTOPHER ROEHRIG AND WILLIAM FERNANDES

St. Mary’s Cathedral, Sydney, Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran

You are a temple… Treat your body as a temple. It’s a tenet of new age spirituality. Indeed the hippie blogsite Feel Good, Live Better explains: “Your body is a temple… so nourish it with only happy thoughts, good health, and positive energy”. Life-coach Flora Morris Brown writes: “For increased happiness treat your body like a temple, not a dumpster”. The New Light Wellness site promotes organic fruit and deep-tissue massage as the way to treat your body like a temple.

But is this what St. Paul had in mind when he told the Christians of Corinth tonight “You are a temple” and later in the same epistle to “treat your body as a temple” (1Cor 3:9-17; 6:19-20; cf. 10:31; 12:27; Rom 12:1-2)? Was he into paleo, yoga, mindfulness, perfumed candles, nudism? Would he have us look into the mirror each day and say out loud: I worship you!

I think not. Paul was no sensitive new age guy. He never bought into the radical individualism and comfy lifestyle of the snags. Happiness, on his account, was not to be found in always getting our own way; holiness, not to be achieved by private acts of self-worship. No, for Paul, happiness and salvation were things we found together, in company, with others, through the gift of the self. When he said “you are God’s building” it was you plural. When he said “you are God’s temple, with the Spirit of God living among you”, he was addressing the Church as a whole, not just one reader. So Paul’s thought for the Church’s ministers tonight is: build on what has gone before you and with a view to what will live long after; promote the diverse gifts of every church member, so they can build with you; serve the whole and not yourself.

Secondly, when Paul reminds us that we are God’s temple, he is not congratulating us or inviting smugness: he’s challenging us. Paul’s indicative is always segue to an imperative. You are God’s temple, so act like it. Don’t be undermining the Church, but build it up, beautifying it by your deeds. For the Church’s leaders, there is another message: you are stewards of the mysteries of God, so be Christ’s true servants, worthy of his trust (cf. 1Cor 4:1-2).

Thirdly, if the whole Church is called to be holy together, so are its individual members. So, Paul goes on, treat your body as something holy, glorifying God by the good things you do with it (1Cor 6:9-20). Fill you mind with holy thoughts, “things true, and good, and beautiful, things noble, pure, and honourable” (Phil 4:8; cf. Col 3:15). So he charges the Church’s deacons, priests and bishops: teach and admonish in all wisdom (Col 3:16), so all may come to life in Christ. There’s a lot packed into the simple thought that you are God’s temple!

Paul’s talk of temples comes to us tonight because of the Feast of the Dedication of the Archbasilica of the Most Holy Saviour and of Saints John the Baptist and John the Evangelist in the Lateran. It’s quite a mouthful! But St John Lateran is the oldest public church in Rome, the seat of the Bishop of Rome (the Pope), and known as the mother of all churches. So our three readings touch upon the old Temple of Jerusalem (Jn 2:13-22), the new ‘temple’ that is the Christian faithful (1Cor 3:9-17), and the dreamed-of temple that is heaven (Ezek 47:1-12). None is really about a building. John makes clear that Jesus “was talking about the sanctuary that was his body”. Paul likewise talks of a basilica with Christ as the foundation and Christians as the bricks or side-chapels. And Ezekiel’s vision is of a temple of beauty, of plenty, and of healing, all in the age to come.

So the Church is something received – from Christ, from the apostles, martyrs and saints, from our forefathers and mothers in faith; and something yet to be realized – when Christ will raise us up to the Liturgy of the new Jerusalem; but also something we are making right now, in the faith we preach, the worship we render, the service we do.

The variety of stones with which Christ builds His Church is shown in our two deacons-to-be. Christopher, like his namesake Christ, came from a family of carpenters, but took to the waters, not of Lake Galilee but of the Aleutian Islands. He was a U.S. marine stationed there when his ship hit by an iceberg. Providence brought it for repair to Garden Island in this very parish, and during that time he met his Aussie wife Kristen. They married soon after and in due course had Lynn, Peter and Annaliese.

The family moved to and fro between Australia and U.S., finally settling back here just in time for the Sydney 2000 Olympics. Meanwhile Christopher studied Business and Drafting at the UTS, Architecture at UNSW, and Heritage Conservation at Sydney. Among other things he designed the new chapel at ACU North Sydney – so the scriptures about church building tonight were doubtless for him!

In Ashbury parish Fr Andrew Feng Xiang drew Christopher into service at the altar, and encouraged by him to consider the diaconate programme. Having looked up to the deacons in his home parish in Defiance Ohio as a boy, Christopher was hesitant at first, but also remembered their spirit of faith and service, and with Kristen’s encouragement he studied theology and hopes now to build up the Church in new ways!

If God quarried the stone that is Christopher in America for his Church in Australia, he took a gem from Goa in India for us also – in the form of William Fernandes. From a devout Catholic family, he was introduced to the Catholic Charismatic renewal and migrated to Australia in 1986. He was for two decades an engineer before taking up the study and practice of counselling. His work with individuals, couples and families will certainly hold him in good stead for his new ministry as deacon.

When William was first interested in the diaconate, the Archdiocese was not receiving new candidates into formation. So he served as acolyte, visitor to the elderly, and chair of his Parish Council. When the diaconate programme was reopened, his own brother piqued his interest in it, and since then William has engaged in the formation path towards tonight and beyond, with the constant support of Dorothy.

My sons, our readings tonight speak of the life-giving stream that flows from the Temple of God and Christ’s crucified body. In that water and at your hands babies and adults will become children of God through holy Baptism. You will assist at the altar as bread and wine undergo an equally extraordinary transformation into the Body and Blood of Christ, and will tender that sacred banquet to the faithful, the sick and the dying. You will witness singles become couples and families through the awesome sacrament of Matrimony. You will experience the conversion of the unevangelised and uncatechised, through the saving Words of God. You will attend to the transformation of the poor, through works of diaconal justice and mercy.

Finally, as deacons you will witness Christian lives brought to their fulfilment, as you bury us in the dust and commend our souls to God. As servants of the word, the altar and the people, you will be servants of God. Draw us closer to Jesus Christ the true temple, as He draws you closer to Himself.

INTRODUCTION TO ORDINATION TO THE PERMANENT DIACONATE OF

CHRISTOPHER ROEHRIG AND WILLIAM FERNANDES,

St. Mary’s Cathedral, Sydney, Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran

 Welcome to St Mary’s Cathedral for the Ordination to the Permanent Diaconate of Christopher Roehrig and William Fernandes. Along with our candidates I especially recognise their wives, Kristen and Dorothy, without whose support they would not be here tonight. I also welcome Christopher and Kristen’s children: Lynn with wife Damia and newborn son Laurent; Peter (a former St Mary’s Cathedral chorister) with fiancée Taylor; and their youngest, Annaliese, a recent recipient of the Sydney Schools Archbishop’s Award. William and Dorothy Fernandes are also blessed to have their children Luke and Pippa with them tonight. I would also like to acknowledge staff from Casimir Catholic College, along with members of the Passionist community, and the parishes of St. Brigid’s Marrickville and St. Mel’s Campsie. To these and all the extended family, friends, and fellow parishioners a very warm welcome.

Tonight we acknowledge those who have assisted our two candidates in discerning their vocation and in their formation for it. I thank in particular Rev. Dr. Thomas Carroll, our Director of the Permanent Diaconate, and Dr. Isabell Naumann ISSM, President of the Catholic Institute of Sydney, with their staff. I also acknowledge concelebrating with me Auxiliary Bishops xxx, Vicar-General Fr Gerry Gleeson, and clergy of the Archdiocese and beyond. It is with great joy for the Deacons of the Archdiocese of Sydney, especially, to welcome two new members into their ranks this evening, and for the clergy and people of the Archdiocese two new ministers of word, altar and charity.

To everyone present, including visitors and more regulars, a very warm welcome! And now, conscious of the call to each of us to service, we repent of our failures and ask God for pardon and peace…