Two ordained transitional deacons
Editor’s Note: Diocese of Wichita Bishop Carl A. Kemme delivered the following homily during the ordination Mass held on Thursday, May 21, at Wichita’s Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception. That evening, he ordained Dominic Jirak and Conrad Sissell as deacons.
Praised be Jesus Christ!
Our diocese gives humble and profound thanks this evening for these two men who have presented themselves for ordination to the order of deacon, Mr. Dominic Jirak and Mr. Conrad Sissell. I thank those who have helped them in any way to come to the realization that they have been chosen to serve the Lord and his Church in this ordained ministry. I especially thank their parents, family members, pastors, parish priests, fellow parishioners, seminary formators, and friends, all who have all helped to form these men into the worthy instruments God chooses to use as his servants, soon to be configured to Christ the servant, Christ the deacon.
Dominic and Conrad, over the years of your formation with us, you have distinguished yourselves as good, hardworking, honest, and dedicated men, who have the capacity for offering a persevering and fruitful ministry in the Church.
Dear sons, in just a few moments you will make solemn promises before you are ordained, recognizing that though you have accepted this vocation and call, more importantly, it has been chosen for you, as it was for the first deacons in the account from the Acts of the Apostles. In this ministry, you will be charged to offer a humble and charitable service, assisting the priestly order for the benefit of the Christian people. You must be an ardent and faithful collaborator with our priests and me so that, with the full complement of ministries, our local community of faith will have all it needs to advance on the path to salvation and holiness of life.
You will be charged to proclaim our faith by word and deed, according to the gospel and the Church’s tradition. May your preaching be always rooted in God’s eternal word and faithful to the holy tradition that has been handed down to us. May your preaching never devolve into trivial matters or be solely about you, but always about Jesus and the mysteries of our faith, offering our people a preaching of substance and depth. Remember St. Paul’s words to the Corinthians in the second reading, “For we do not preach ourselves but Jesus Christ as Lord and ourselves as your slaves for the sake of Jesus.”
You will be charged to dedicate your lives so completely to God and his Church that you pledge to remain celibate and chaste for the rest of your lives, all for the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven and the service of God and others. Though challenging and in varying ways different at different stages of your life, the charism of celibacy is a great gift to the Church, one she treasures in her ordained ministers with maternal care and protection.
You will be charged to live a life of prayer, praying every day the Liturgy of the Hours with and for the people of God and for the whole world, knowing that willfully breaking this promise constitutes a serious – if not a grave – sin, for prayer is no longer an option, but a necessity for anyone who has been chosen for sacred ministry. The people of God deserve bishops, priests, and deacons who pray, who plumb the depths of the mystery of God’s love and who bring their intentions daily before him.
Finally, kneeling before me at the Cathedra, with the supreme desire to do always what God wills, you will surrender your God given freedom to determine your own life by promising respect and obedience to me and to my successors, endeavoring to see in those who have been given authority over you the hand of God.
These are the sacred promises you will make very soon, after which we will call upon the saints of Heaven to pray for you as you prostrate on the floor of the sanctuary, surrendering it all to the Lord, offering into the seedbed of the Kingdom of God that grain of wheat, which if it dies to itself, will produce much fruit. In this solemn act of surrender, lay your entire life down, lose it, exchange it for a life of unfeigned love, concern for the sick and the poor, a life of unassuming authority, with purity of innocence and a life of spiritual discipline. With these virtues firmly in your grasp, you will rise a new man in this world, a true and devoted servant of Jesus Christ.
May God who has begun this good and holy work in you bring it to fulfillment now and in the day of Christ Jesus!
Praised be Jesus Christ.
