The Deacon

Jesus desires to live his passion within us. Accepting this mystery expands the scope of our “being with him,” our intimacy, and increases our participation in his saving love. Jesus living his passion within us is a feature of our divinization. Jesus’ passion is his self-emptying love for us, is his loving filial surrender to the Father’s will. This kenotic love and filial abandonment is his glorification. He wants to share his glorification with us.

While preaching a recent retreat for deacons, I was approached by a veteran deacon seeking input on a difficulty he was living through: A troubled staff member had made complaints about the deacon’s behavior, the pastor and others determined that the staff member was in the wrong but acquiesced to avoid conflict, the deacon was asked to transfer to another parish, the bishop did not want to adjudicate, and so on. Everyone pretty much admitted as much. A well-received deacon with a fruitful ministry suddenly suffered a rupture in life, a bewildering loss of reputation, an injustice. Spiritual directors, advisers and others advocated on his behalf, to no avail.

I suggested that perhaps he was being invited into a deeper realization of Jesus living his passion in him and that his prayer needed to be a Gethsemane — a pouring out of his heart to the Father (Ps 62:8) and a surrender to the Father’s will — and that the experience meant he was entering a deeper and more fruitful diaconal ministry. As Pope Benedict XVI said, “There is no love without suffering” (Homily, June 28, 2008). Love is always fruitful.

At the end of the retreat, the deacon said our conversation did more for him than months of advice from others, and that it revolutionized his understanding. Perhaps. Certainly Jesus spoke in a way the deacon was able to receive: “I desire to live my passion within you.”

When Jesus calls us to abide, to remain, to stay with him, it means a greater participation in his passion. Because “the Son of God became man so that man might become God” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, No. 460), it means a greater participation in his passion. If eternal life, abundant life (Jn 10:10), begins when we die and rise with Christ in baptism (rather than when we pass through death at the end), then eternal life now means a greater participation in his passion. If we eat his flesh and drink his blood and so have eternal life within us and so abide in him (Jn 6), then we will participate in his passion. When Jesus calls us to love as he has loved us, it necessarily means a greater participation in his passion. For “eternal life” means “divine life poured out”; “love” means “suffering for the sake of those undeserving of love”; “abide in me” means “be with me in my passion.” Jesus is living now, he is pouring his life out now, he is united with us now. And so: Jesus desires to live his passion within us.

Should we expect anything less? The deacon is the icon of Jesus the Servant. Deacon St. Stephen the Protomartyr is the living icon. He embodies Jesus living his passion within us: Stephen offers his body, his life as his “spiritual worship” (Rom 12:1). And so he dies unjustly. But not without Jesus’ words on his lips: “Lord, do not hold this sin against them” (Acts 7:60).

The passion will come in infinite variety: the hiddenness of the diaconate, unjust treatment, not being able to preach, dark nights in prayer, even desolation and our own sin. Jesus desires to live his passion within us. For our sake and for the sake of others. This is fruitful diaconal ministry.

DEACON JOSEPH MICHALAK is the director of the Office for Synod Evangelization in the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis.