This weekend the Diocese of San Jose will celebrate the ordination into the transitional diaconate of two men: Victor Trinidad and John Hoang. At their ordination Victor and John will be asked to commit themselves to a life of service and love, a life of service and love that will be strengthened through their relationships with the people of God. In my work in Worldwide Marriage Encounter we recognize how the Sacraments of Holy Orders and those of Holy Matrimony mirror one another as Sacraments of relationship.
While the below promises are but a small part of the ordination rite I would ask you to reflect on how God calls us all into a relationship of love in the proper vocation we are called to live.
Are you willing to live a chaste celibate life? This is the promise that so many people focus on because it seems so counter to our culture…but this has always been the case. It is a call to chaste celibate love were the relationships of the ordained are found in the friendships and bounds of intimacy that our outside of sexual activity. The call to celibacy must always be first found in chastity were we form our hearts and minds to seeing the beauty of God’s creation as faithful witnesses to true and holy love. In a similar way the husband and wife promise to be faithful in a chaste intimate love where they form their hearts and minds to see the beauty of the other and exercise the beauty of their sexual love in an intimacy exclusive of all others. While not as counter cultural, think about how many people today decry marriage and pooh-pooh the idea of chaste faithful love.

Are you willing to be ordained? This same question is echoed in the question to the husband and wife in asking them if they have come to the altar freely and without coercion. This is a question when answered freely and with love informs the next two questions to be asked. It reminds both the man to be ordained and the woman and man to be married they are offering themselves to something greater and something that goes beyond their individual self and is joined in a mysterious way to the other.

Are you willing to dutifully fulfill the ministry? I often think when people look at what priests and deacons do in their ministry they look too often at the outside and not the inside of the life. Just as husband and wife must choose to interiorly conform themselves to the other the deacon and priest must do the same. We can look at the duties of husband and wife in the same way we look at the duties of priest and deacon and miss the mark completely. The willingness to fulfill the ministry is not a willingness to exchange one thing for another but the desire to give and share all that you are with the other. For the husband and wife this is a sharing of one to the other in a profound intimacy, for the priest and deacon is too is a sharing of oneself with God through the community of the Church in a blessing of love.

Are you willing to live the life? As the sacramental union of husband and wife is an eternal gift, “until death do us part,” so the desire to live the life as a priest and deacon is a choice to know we are bound in a sacramental bond to God and His holy Catholic Church. The formation of a man to be ordained a deacon and then priest take more than five years where he is asked the difficult question about sacrifice and suffering in the name of Jesus Christ. It is the desire and hope of the Church that when the man steps forward he is at peace with the choice of following God’s call to serve. I remember talking with a friend as we shared experiences of our sacramental days where he said when he saw his wife enter the church on their wedding day his heart both exploded with excitement and joy at the same time a deep peace grew as he knew his bride was his Sacrament.

Are you willing to pray for the Church? This should be easy enough…if you are unwilling to pray daily for and with your beloved you should rethink your decision to enter into marriage and certainly as marriage grows the prayer of both husband and wife as individuals and a couple should grow deeper and stronger…same with the priest and deacon.

Are you willing to obey your Bishop and Church? Last but not least…obedience. To obey in love is perhaps the hardest question to ascent to because it requires a total gift at times that hurts deeply. In this we recognize what St. Paul meant when he called for both obedience and sacrifice even unto death to self in the gift of love. Obedience in love requires that we trust our beloved that all they will ask of us will bring us closer to God and enrich and strengthen our Sacrament. If we place that much trust in God through our Bishop or our spouse then obedience becomes a joyful gift we offer and receive daily in our life.

Please pray for Victor Trinidad and John Hoang in thanksgiving for their yes. Please continue to pray for the sanctification, purification and healing of Our Catholic Church.

God Bless
Fr. Mark