Ordinations to the Permanent Diaconate 2023

Most Reverend José H. Gomez
Archbishop of Los Angeles

Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels
June 10, 2023

My brothers and sisters in Christ,¹

With great joy we gather this morning for the ordination of our brothers as deacons for the family of God here in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.

Brothers, thank you for your gift of yourselves for this beautiful ministry of service and love. I also want to thank your wives and families, who are accompany you in this ministry.

As we heard in the second reading, from the beginning of the Church, our Lord has set apart some men for a sacred ministry of service — to assist at the altar, to proclaim his Word, and to bring his love to the poor.

The deacon’s mission is the service of love. So brothers, be servants of love.

Serve the Lord and serve God’s people; serve with sacrifice and without fear; serve without expecting gratitude or anything else in return.

This is how Jesus served. And this is how you are called to serve.

By this sacrament you will be configured to Jesus Christ, you will be marked with his “imprint.”

This is what Jesus means in the Gospel today when says, “I have called you friends.” 

Friendship for Jesus is not simply a warm feeling. Friendship with Jesus Christ means putting on a new identity. It means your life can never be the same again. The steps you walk in now, are his steps.

The Second Vatican Council puts it beautifully. As “dispensers of Christ’s mysteries and servants of the Church,” deacons are called to live “as personifications of goodness and friends of God.”²

This is who you are, my dear brothers. To be a deacon is truly a privilege and a blessing.

And our Lord tells you today, you did not choose him, he chose you. And as the prophet says in the first reading, the mystery of this election, this calling to holy orders, begins from the womb.

Before you were born, our Lord knew he wanted you for his own. It is amazing to reflect on the mystery of God’s love for every soul, his plan for each of us.

So his plan for you is to serve. And to serve means much more than just doing things for other people. When you serve “in persona Christi,” you are doing the work of salvation.

Because of your ordination, you will be called to serve in this image, in the person of Jesus, who is the servant of all.³

As Jesus Christ came to serve, so you are called to serve — with humility, with abandonment to the will of God, and making sacrifices for the salvation of others.

So my brothers, Jesus is your model. Reflect on his words and example every day. He is your friend now. Walk with him. Pray with him. Watch what he does, listen to what he says.

Jesus tells all of us today: “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”

So there is no limit to the love that we are called to as his disciples! Love means laying down our life for one another.

So that does not mean “dying” for one another, necessarily. It means living for one another, every day and every hour.

Love means thinking about others before we think about ourselves. It means setting aside our own priorities, listening and looking with compassion, with empathy. To love as Jesus loves and means looking upon every person with love, it means bringing love into every situation. 

And my brothers, he is calling you today to be leaders in love, just as the first deacons were.

As we heard today, those first deacons were “reputable men, filled with the Spirit and wisdom.” 

In the writings of St. Paul, deacons are described as dignified, serious about their vocation, “holding fast to the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience.”⁴

Brothers, your parishes, the whole family of God, are looking to you for clear teaching of the faith, and clear personal witness to the commandments of Jesus.

Jesus tells you today: “You are my friends if you do what I command you.”

So my prayer for you is that you will show our people how to live and how to love, as Jesus taught us.

So my dear brothers and sisters, Jesus is speaking to all of us today when he says: “Remain in my love.”

As we pray for our new deacons and their wives and families, let us renew our own dedication to the mission of the Church — to serve one another in love, with humility and with sacrifice.

We ask Holy Mary, the Mother of the Church, to watch over our new deacons and to help all of us to remain in the love of her Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.