(Read Acts 4:32-35)

by Reverend Deacon Lawrence A. St. Onge

          First of all let me begin by saying that I not sure why I was given this particular talk, because in the strict sense of the word, I’m not a religious. There is a reason why I say in the strict sense of the word, but I will talk about that later on.

          What I am is a Deacon. More specifically, a permanent deacon, in contrast to what is called a transitional deacon. Before I explain what the difference is between a permanent deacon and a transitional deacon, however, let me first briefly explain what a deacon is.

          A deacon is part of the clergy of the Catholic Church, which consists of deacons, priests, and bishops. He is ordained by the bishop of his diocese and receives the same sacrament of Holy Orders, as do priests and bishops. A Deacon, in being ordained by the bishop, gives a vow of obedience to the bishop and commits his life to the service of the Church. In order to strengthen him in this task, he receives the sacrament of holy orders, which is sacramental grace received from God to help the deacon (and the priests and bishops, as well) in their response to a call by God to be servants of his people.

          The difference between a permanent deacon and a transitional deacon is that a transitional deacon is one who is ordained a deacon for only a short period of time, usually six months to a year, before going on to be ordained a priest. The permanent deacon, on the other hand, is ordained by the bishop but will remain a deacon for life. In other words, I was not ordained a deacon with the expectation of eventually becoming a priest. I will remain a deacon, as I am, for the rest of my life.

          One other important difference is worthy of mention. A deacon can be married, as I am, whereas priests and bishops cannot. They must take a vow of celibacy. Thus, besides receiving the sacrament of Holy Orders, as do priests and bishops, I have also received the sacrament of marriage. The one restriction relative to married deacons is that they must be married before ordination. Once ordained, if something happens to their wife, they cannot remarry. There are also single deacons who also take the vow of celibacy as do priests.

          For those of you who may be sitting there thinking to yourselves what is all this about ordained deacons who are married clergy, and why is the Church bringing in all this new stuff anyway, let me assure you, that while the permanent deacon is something new in our lifetime, the permanent deacon is nothing new within the history of the Church. The deaconate as a permanent order within the clergy of the Catholic Church was around from the beginnings of the Church, and remained so for quite a few hundred years (See Acts of the Apostles 6:1-15). The deaconate, as a permanent order, began to die out around the 7^th century, for reasons I won’t go into here, leaving the deaconate as a transitional order to the priesthood, until it was finally restored by the second Vatican Council.

          I’ve given you some background about the deaconate, but I’m sure many of you are still wondering what a deacon actually does and how he differs from priests. Let me start by explaining, very simply, as to what the role of a bishop and a priest is first.

          A bishop is a direct descendant of the Apostles of Christ. It is his role to be the teacher, pastoral leader and guiding force of his local church, which we call a diocese. Since a diocese is usually quite large, and the bishop cannot do all the work by himself, he has assistants. His assistants are priests, who help the bishop carry out his work by doing pastoral work within the local parishes and by offering the sacrifice of the Mass.

          The deacons too, are assistants to the bishop but in a different function. Although they can do many of the things a priest can do, such as: baptize, marry people, distribute communion, read the Gospel and preach at Mass, by the same token there are some things they can’t do. These include, for example: hearing confessions, offer the sacrifice of the Mass, or anoint the sick. It is, rather, the main role and function of the deacon to be of service to the people of God in anyway he can, using his own particular and personal gifts and talents.

          I realize I’ve spent quite a bit of time speaking about who and what a deacon is, and I have somewhat gotten away from the main topic of this talk, the religious life, but I feel that it’s important for you to have an understanding of where I’m coming from, and what I, in my own personal vocation as deacon, am about. This is especially true in view of the newness of the deaconate within the universal Church, and even more so, within our own Fall River Diocese, at this time.

          I’m pretty sure if asked most of you to give me a definition of what a religious is, and what the religious life is, you would probably answer me in much the same way my own teenage daughter did. She said that a religious and the religious life was either a priest, nun, or deacon whose life revolved around religion.

          Although part of her definition was correct in the strict sense of the word, that was the phrase I used at the beginning of my talk which I said I would explain later, it was also not altogether accurate. You see, not all priests or deacons either, are necessarily what we term "religious", although some are.

          I bet I have you thoroughly confused now. Well, let me try and explain.

          Although all nuns, or sisters, as we often refer to them, and all brothers are what we call religious, not all priests are religious. The distinction is that some priests are religious priests, while some are what we call diocesan priests. While the work of the priesthood is basically the same, the two types of priests have developed over the centuries in order to better carry out this work. The diocesan priest is ordained for a particular diocese, is bound by the law of celibacy, and provides for his own support from a small salary. The average parish priest is a diocesan priest. A religious priest by contrast, belongs to a particular religious community and may move from diocese to diocese or even to other countries to carry out their particular priestly work.

          To be a religious and to live the religious life means to be a part of, and to live in a particular religious community. Some examples of these religious orders for priests are: the Jesuits, Dominican Fathers, Franciscans, Sacred Heart Fathers, the LaSalettes and many others. There are several hundred religious orders throughout the world. Examples of religious orders for nuns include: Sisters of Mercy, Sisters of St. Joseph, and the Carmelites. Again there are many more orders throughout the world.

          To live the religious life, priests, nuns and brothers (and let me also mention that some brothers are now deacons) live by a particular spirit and "rule". They live particular ways of life governed by certain rules, and do particular works in the Church. In other words, they commit their lives to life in a particular community where they do some special work in service to the people of God.

          Another distinguishing factor of religious and the religious life is that they share a common life together in community. They usually live together, have some daily pattern of prayer and work together, and to a greater or lesser extent, share what they own with one another. Maybe now you see the connection with the scripture passage I started my talk with.

          In addition to the other things I have mentioned, the third distinguishing feature of religious is that they take vows, or solemn promises, of poverty, chastity and obedience. By these vows, they seek to more fully imitate Christ, serve the Christian community, and to be a sign whereby all members of the Church are attracted to live an effective and prompt fulfillment of the duties of their own Christian vocations.

          A word of caution is perhaps in order at this point. I do not, nor should anyone else, suggest that because of their special vows or way of life, the religious are in some way in a higher state of living or are holier than anyone else. Let me assure you that it isn’t true. By their particular way of life, the religious join together in a stable way of life, with the hope of by so doing, they may attain the perfection to which all Christians are called. By their lives, they try to be a living sign to us all of our own call to Christian vocation to be imitators of Christ and to love one another as God loves us.

          The vows that the religious take, which I mentioned earlier, have tremendous meaning and form the basic structure of religious life. The vow, of celibacy, which seems to be a much discussed topic today, is taken voluntarily, but not necessarily easily, for religious are still human beings with their own individual emotions, needs, and feelings. But this greatest of gifts from God is given in sacrifice that they may witness to the reality of God among us, and so that they can give themselves totally to the service of all within the Christian community. In my own life, for example, although I am in ordained ministry, I am also married with a family, and therefore, have to divide my time and energies between my family and my ministry. Those in the celibate state, however, are free to devote all their time and energy in service to all the Christian community.

          By their vow of poverty and dependence on the community, the religious are detached from the material things of the world, which enables them to give themselves more fully to God and to others, and also, to become a sign of the dependence a Christian must have on God alone. Those of us, who live in the material world of owning things, by contrast, lose the freedom and security of not being tempted to accumulate more and more material goods. We run the constant risk of getting caught up in accumulating more and more things €o the exclusion of doing good to our neighbor, which is Christ’s command to us.

          And, finally, by their vow of obedience, which is more than mere obedience to those in positions of authority over them, but rather, a vow to be obedient to God’s will, the religious go out in this obedience to God’s will and serve the Christian community as best they can. Sometimes this isn’t easy. As human beings, we all have our own short-comings and our good days and bad days. Many times trying to be obedient to God’s will requires putting aside self- interest, and focusing in on the more desperate needs of others. Thus, the religious by their vow of obedience, become a concrete sign that all Christians are called to spread the Good News of Salvation, that is, God loves us and wishes to share his life with us, and that we are to show our love for him by loving one another, as he loves us.

          To love God, or anyone else for that matter, we first have to know him. You can’t love someone you don’t know. In order to know God, we have to communicate with him. Or put another way, we have to dialogue with him, because communication is a two-way street. This is what we call prayer, dialoguing with God. And thus, prayer has to be the very foundation of any religious community as any Christian community. It is the cement which holds everything together. Prayer has to be the very basis of our life in Christ. It is only through prayer that we can be concrete signs to the fact that our relationship with Christ is deep, personal, and solid.

          In the beginning of my talk I said that in a strict sense of the word, I was not a religious. Hopefully by now, most of you know what I meant. Now, however, I ‘m going to throw you a curve and tell you that in a broad meaning of the work, we are all religious in a sense, and are called to live the religious life.

          Through the sacrament of baptism, we became a chosen people. A people set aside by God for his own. Through baptism we receive the gift of faith and the sacramental grace necessary to live out the life of faith, if only we call upon it. Unfortunately, many times we forget to ask God to strengthen us with this special grace he has given us. But there is also something else that happens to us through baptism. We become members of the priesthood of Christ. Christ was both perfect sacrifice and perfect priest. As priest, he offered up the most perfect sacrifice of all, himself. Since through baptism, we become brothers of Christ, we also share in his priesthood. It is not the same as an ordained priest, who offers up the sacrifice of the Mass for us, which is Christ truly present in body and blood, but rather, a share in a priesthood where we are called to ministers to one another. We are called to preach to one another of the Good News of Salvation. Not from the pulpit, but by the way we live our lives in accordance with the way Christ taught us. We are called to be the living sign of Christ’s presence among us. The sign of Christ’s presence among us today, as scripture tells us, is his Church, the community of believers living their lives in imitation of him. And what, we ask, is the sacrifice we are to offer up as members of this priestly people? It is the sacrifice of our selves and our own self-centeredness; that tendency to turn inward to ourselves, rather than, turning outwards to others, and thus to God. As Christ says to us (Matt 25:40), whatever you do to the least of my brothers, that you do unto me.

          I know I’ve said quite a bit up to this point, and I’m sure some of you are sitting there thinking to yourselves, it’s alright for him to talk like that, but what does he know? He’s all wrapped up in being a deacon, it’s easy for him. Let me assure you right now, whatever and whoever I am today didn’t come easily, and as a matter of fact, it came quite difficultly.

          Many years ago their was a movie called "Rebel Without a Cause", starring Jimmy Dean. Maybe some of you have seen it on television. It was about a teenager who was rebelling against everything traditional and institutional around him, but never really knowing why. Well, my life, a number of years ago, was much the same.

          Although I had been raised in the Catholic Church by parents who always went to Mass and everything, somehow, I never developed any personal relationship with God. God tome at this time was a pie-in-the-sky God. He was up there and I was down here, and that was that. Then at about the age of twenty-three or so, I just sort of drifted away from the Church. After all, it had no meaning to me; it just didn’t seem relative to anything. I became completely caught up in the materiality of the world, acquiring all those things, which were supposed to make me happy. I developed an attitude of me first and everyone else second.

          I can tell you from personal experience, an attitude of self-centeredness grows and spreads like a deadly cancer. It starts small and grows slowly at first, but then, as it gains momentum, it starts to snowball until it’s almost impossible to stop. In my own case, it did snowball until it even started to affect the relationship with my wife and family.

          But then, just when this snowball seemed unstoppable, something inexplicable happened. Although by the world’s standards, I guess, I was somewhat of a success; I had a good wife, a family, owned my own home, had a pretty good job with security, and earned a decent wage, and therefore, should have been happy, I suddenly started feeling very uneasy and uncomfortable with my life.

          I started thinking to myself, is this it, is this all there is? There must be something more, but what? For some unknown reason at the time, which I now know was God’s loving grace, I began to re-evaluate my life’s values.

          Where I was, where I was going, what the meaning of it all was, and most importantly of all, what was after this life?

          It was at about this point; I found my thoughts turning to God, of my relationship with him in terms of my life up until this point. I found that I desperately wanted to get back to God and his Church, but it was not to be done so easily. I had been away from God and Church for so long , twelve years to be exact. I saw myself as a worthless miserable sinner, a piece of junk in my own eyes; how could I expect God to forgive me and take me back.

          After coming to the realization that I desperately needed to get back to the Church and thus to God, but was being prevented from doing so by some unknown power, I turned to prayer for probably the first real time in my life; real prayer that came from the bottom of my heart. It was simple prayer to say the least. Just a constant repetition of the only two prayers I knew, the Our Father and the Hail Mary, along with a constant pleading with God to forgive me and to help me find my way back to him. My prayer was not what one would call eloquent, but I was persistent. For well over a year, I prayed like that, often crying to myself while I prayed.

          Never let it be said that God doesn’t hear or answer our prayers. I can testify from personal experience that he does. Through a strange series of events that took place, which I won’t go into because of time, I found myself on a Marriage Encounter weekend with my wife. Interestingly enough, we later found out that neither of us wanted to be there, but then, who can understand the mysterious ways of God.

          At the beginning of the weekend, everyone was asked to give what they thought was their spouse most endearing quality. Do you know how I quickly and easily answered that question? I said that it was because she was always so considerate of others. She cared about other people. Now this was remarkable when you consider that it was the opposite of my own attitude, that of self-centeredness.

           That Marriage Encounter weekend turned out to be a milestone in our lives, especially mine. Although I experienced some pain and shed many tears on the weekend, something new and wonderful resulted. We have to remember that in our lives, as is manifested by the suffering, death, and resurrection of Christ, the things of any real value are usually born out of some suffering and pain. Though I suffered and died a little to myself, something new and wonderful came out of it. I was able to reconcile myself to God and the Church. I was able, because of it, to go to confession and receive the Eucharist for the first time in many, many years.

          Again a series of events took place in my life and I ended up making a Cursillo weekend. It was a result of the Cursillo weekend that my understanding of God and his plan for each of us was deepened and strengthened. I know now that it also helped to set the stage for my eventual application to the permanent deaconate program.

          Even my applying to the deaconate, itself, was not easy. Although I sensed a call by God to the deaconate, which I have to admit, I knew almost nothing about at the time, I didn’t respond graciously, quickly, or willingly. I threw up every roadblock I could think of and then some. I kept telling myself, you have to be mistaken, there is no way God could want you as an ordained minister to his people. After all look at my past, why would he want me. I am totally unworthy.

          Again, to make a long story short, I finally gave in and responded to his call. But you know what? I realized later that I was right. I’m not worthy. But you also know what? Neither is anyone else for that matter. None of us, and I use "us" in the all inclusive sense, because as I said earlier, we all have a vocational call as Christians, none of us are worthy to be God’s ministers and servants. But God is infinitely compassionate and merciful and loving. He accepts who we are, as we are. But at the same time, however, he also calls us to become more than we are. He calls us to be imitators of his beloved son, Jesus Christ, who was the willing and submissive servant to the will of the Father. He calls each of us to become holy as He is holy by becoming servants to one another, and by loving one another as he loves us.