Diaconal Humility to Obedience in Christ the Servant

'Jesus and the Samaritan Woman at the Well' - circa. 1420
Metmusum.org (Public Domain)

Brothers,

In these holy days, the Church draws us again to the center of everything we are and do: the Cross of Jesus Christ.  As Father Conrad Pepler beautifully reminds us, “Our Lord is the unique source of life in the Church… and this life flows from one source, the Cross of our Lord.” Every grace, every prayer, every act of ministry we offer as deacons ultimately flows from Calvary.

Fr. Pepler writes that all Christian prayer is oriented around the crucifix, because its power comes from the Passion of Christ. The sacrifice of the Mass is not merely remembrance; it is the living participation of the Church in the sacrifice of Calvary. There, he says, “the whole Church prays in unison as one living organism.” Brothers, this means that our diaconal life is never individual or private. We stand together, shoulder to shoulder, at the altar of Christ’s sacrifice.

Sunday’s Gospel gives us a striking image of this truth. We know it well; Jesus sits beside the well and tells the Samaritan woman, "Whoever drinks the water that I shall give will never thirst."  He reveals that the true wellspring of life is not found in the wells of this world, but in Him. And the water He offers is nothing less than the grace that flows from His saving mission, a mission that will reach its fullness on the Cross.

Notice also how the encounter moves outward. One woman meets Christ, and soon an entire village comes to believe.  This is the pattern of the Church. The grace we receive from Christ is never meant to remain hidden. It flows outward through witness, through service, through ministry.

And this is where obedience becomes love, because it stems from love.

Christ Himself showed us that obedience to the Father is not mere compliance, it is the path of sacrificial love. When we embrace the small obedience’s of our vocation, we unite ourselves to that same love flowing from the Cross.

This includes even the simple external signs of our ministry. As I mentioned in my recent audio message, the wearing of the brown lanyard with the Deacon Cross is not about decoration or preference. It is a visible sign of our humility in obedience to God's Church through our Archbishop, and unity and identity as ordained ministers of the Church. When worn properly, especially during our gatherings, liturgies, and particularly Saturday evening and throughout Sunday, (as we will be wearing our black clerics), it quietly proclaims that we belong to Christ and to His Church.

In the coming days we will live this unity in powerful ways. We will gather as the Body of Christ at the funeral liturgies of a brother Deacon, and a brother Deacon's wife,  standing together in prayer and hope in the Resurrection. We will gather again at our Convocation, where three Prelates of the Church will address their Deacons, a rare and powerful sign of ecclesial unity.

Brothers, let us also humbly ask our wives, families, and parishioners to pray for us. No deacon stands alone. For truly, as Fr. Pepler writes, "the Passion is the hinge of time joining it to eternity."  And it is from that Cross, the deepest well of living water, that our diaconal life receives its strength, unity, and joy.

In Christ the Servant + Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam
Receive + Believe + Teach + Practice