ST. RONALD OF CYRENE - PRESSED INTO SERVICE

Without warning, the gospel tells us that Simon of Cyrene was "pressed into service" to help Jesus carry his cross.



Without much notice, Bishop Gordon got the bright idea that I might as well do a class for his deacon candidates on preaching the morning I was to leave for the airport to come home.

He is a hard man to resist, so I said, "OK, I'll do an hour class on preaching." 

I just happened to have a short paper on the relationship of deacons to the bishop and the priests of the diocese and an insight or two about what kind of preaching a deacon ideally does. I have included it here.

I also just happened to have some expanded notes on preaching in POWERPOINT from the retreat I had just finished for him. The night before, I was able to use a section from that presentation and put together a decent class for the deacon candidates for the Diocese of Bridgeport, Barbados. 

Bishop Gordon has a policy of getting as much mileage as he can out of me even when I am just passing through on my way to St. Vincent and the Grenadines. 

Doing my thing with the deacon candidates, a seminarian and Sister Cheryl in Barbados.




Bishop Gordon taught after I finished. He is wearing one of his new clergy shirts that he wanted and I was able to get from Tonini  Church Supply here in Louisville.

TWO ARMS OF THE BISHOP

PRESBYTERATE AND DIACONATE

Rev. J. Ronald Knott

As long as Moses kept his hands raised up, Israel had the better of the fight.

Aaron and Hur supported his hands, one on one side and one on the other, so that his hands remained steady till sunset.

Exodus 17:12

I cannot read the story of Aaron and Hur holding up the arms of Moses without thinking about one of the best descriptions of the diaconate and its relationship with the presbyterate I have ever read. It is in Walter Cardinal Kasper's book Leadership in the Church: How Traditional Roles Can Serve the Christian Community Today.

One of the great things to come out of Vatican Council II was the restoration of the deaconate. Now various motives were behind this restoration, including a vision of relieving the pressure of a future priest-shortage. The council rejected this idea because the diaconate is an autonomous grade of the sacrament of orders, not a substitute in places where priests were lacking nor one particular form of lay ministry. The council fathers saw the diaconate as vitally necessary to the life of the church and, with the presbyterate, one ordained ministry, of which the episcopacy is the fullness, going back past medieval developments to early church ordination liturgies and patristic theology. The diaconate and the presbyterate have different tasks and denote two different structures, but must collaborate with one another because both participate in the bishop's ministry and both are immediately subordinate to the bishop.

The Council saw the diaconate and the presbyterate as graded participation in the bishop’s ministry. The diaconate is not a subordination to the presbyterate.  The presbyter and the deacon are subordinate to the bishop directly – his two arms so to speak. The deacon is not an "almost priest,” nor is he one who fills in the gap where no priests are available, nor is he necessarily in a transitional stage on the path to priesthood.

The main role of the deacon, as the bishop’s representative, leads, inspires and motivates the whole church to service in collaboration with priests. Deacons do not do service for the church, but make sure the church is doing service. This necessary leadership role does not dispense the laity, the bishop or the priest from their own service tasks. Deacons are charged with promoting the deaconia of the whole church, to inspire, motivate and train others for deaconal service, not to "do it" "for the church."

At liturgy, it is the deacon’s responsibility to bring the needs of the community, especially the poor, to the table. It is the deacon who trains and guides volunteers, as well as lay ministers. The deacon is the contact person to governmental services. No matter what he is doing, the deacon’s role is to make sure the church is serving, not to be a “almost priest” or, as I have experienced on occasion, a “dress-up deacon” who likes to wear robes and pectoral crosses bigger than the bishop himself and perform liturgical functions, but could care less about service.

Neither priest nor deacon carries out his own ministry. Both help the bishop carry out his ministry. The gradations in the participation in the bishop's ministry thus denote two separate arms, which have different tasks but must collaborate with one another in unity. That unity is symbolized when the bishop has traditionally worn a chasuble, dalmatic and tunic all at once. In one ministry, priests hold up one arm of the bishop and deacons the other.

In a real sense, both the diaconate and presbyterate "make the bishop present" in the communities entrusted to them.