During the Second World War, some 5,000 Catholic priests were imprisoned in the NAZI concentration camp at Dachau. Huddled together in the barracks, they discussed various ways to re-evangelize the culture once the war was over, including the idea of re-establishing the diaconate as a permanent order in the Church. Some twenty years later, at the second Vatican Council, the council fathers approved this plan, and soon men who were ordained to the diaconate as a permanent state re-appeared in large numbers in the Church for the first time since the 9th Century.
The Sacrament of Holy Orders can be conferred in three degrees: Bishop, Priest, and Deacon. Of these three orders, the two that are the most similar to each other are Bishop and Priest; the Bishop is ordained to the fullness of the Sacrament, while the Priest is ordained to participate in the Bishop’s ministries of sanctifying, teaching, and governing. Although there is a unity to the three Holy Orders, the Order of Deacon is different from the other two. Deacons are ordained to serve.
Bishops and Priests are configured as icons of Christ as priest, prophet and king; Deacons are configured as icons of Christ as servant. Although the vocation of Deacon is vastly different from the vocation of Priest, Deacons are ordained members of the clergy, and have been since the very earliest days of the Church. It is at ordination to the diaconate that a man promises respect and obedience to his bishop, and if he is unmarried, he also promises life-long celibacy.
People most often see deacons when they assist the priest at Sunday Mass, including reading the Gospel, distributing Holy Communion, and sometimes preaching the homily. Although highly visible, this is only a small part of the deacon’s service. Deacons are not called to be set apart, they are called to be embedded in every aspect of society. They live in neighborhoods, they support themselves by working in secular occupations, and many of them have wives and children. Deacons are heralds of the Gospel, and ministers of God’s love, in places where priests cannot go. As Father Joseph Komonchak noted, “Vatican II did not restore the diaconate because of a shortage of priests, but because of a shortage of deacons.”
Deacons conduct baptisms and burials, witness marriages, and lead prayers. They cannot celebrate Mass, absolve sins or anoint the sick. But it would be a mistake to define the order in terms of what a deacon can and cannot do, in terms of what functions or sacramental “powers” he might or might not have, for the Order is not about powers, but about service.
So, what is the difference between a Deacon and a lay person who might be doing the same actions? Diaconal service is public, permanent, and sacramental. It is the Church’s way of sacramentalizing a life of service. The Deacon serves in the person of Christ and in the name of the Church. Along with Baptism and Confirmation, Holy Orders is one of the sacraments that cannot be repeated (although it is conferred in three degrees). These sacraments cannot be repeated because they cause an ontological change, a change in the very being of the person; they change who and what the person is. A person does not work as a Deacon, he is a Deacon. The next time you see a Deacon, from the way he goes about his duties may you recognize him as a disciple of Jesus, who came to serve, not to be served.
Christopher May is a Deacon of the Diocese of Allentown. Photo by Ed Koskey.
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