“Be servants of compassion and mercy.” “Today we do not bring, like Moses, stone tablets,” but rather “we bring your lives, the lives of all of you with which the Lord wants to write His diaconate.” With these words, Cardinal Carlos Osoro, Archbishop of Madrid, began a heartfelt sermon, from start to finish, with the chords of a God passionate about all human situations. The solemn ordination ceremony of 20 deacons, among whom was the Legionary of Christ Nicolás Núñez, took place last Saturday, June 10th, at the Almudena Cathedral. A homily in which the cardinal emphasized the importance of the deacon in his mission of accompanying people and their personal encounter with Christ.
Tell of God’s mercy
The Lord “will form in your life that diaconate of His, that face of service and dedication to the poorest, to those who need it most.” The prelate encouraged them not to keep their lives for themselves but to expose them. “Life is not yours; it is the Lord’s,” he said. “And the Lord wants it to be of the people, of men, and for all men.” Because “you are not deacons only for a specific service; the Lord wants you to launch yourselves into this world and to all the men you meet along the way to tell them, with your own life, what compassion and mercy of God are.” The how and where had only one path and one answer, and it was confirmed by the emotional eyes of the bishop: “In concrete service and in their concrete needs.”
The cardinal, hand in hand with Moses and anchored to the promise of the Old Testament, encouraged the deacons to “feel,” “welcome,” and “live” what the prophet experienced: “Incline yourselves before the Lord, cast yourselves to the ground.” In this way, “take as a great passion of your life to intercede like Christ for those in need; in various needs, not only material ones, but those that come from not knowing they are children of God and brothers of men.”
Love as He loved
In this sense, he affirmed that the diaconate that the Lord entrusts to them has a special song for them, made alive with a series of notes: “Be deacons of hospitality, listening, joy, hope, and discernment.” Step out of yourselves, he pointed out, “to joyfully welcome the part of truth in the other, which the other communicates to me,” and “walk alongside the other, together, toward the full truth, which is Jesus Christ, whom you want to serve.” This, he emphasized, “is the great hospitality that the Lord asks of you: it is an essential note in your life.”
Thus, deeply rooted in the hearts of everyone present, he highlighted: “Be deacons of joy, of that joy, which is the joy of the Gospel.” Because today’s world “needs that joy that comes from encountering Christ and brothers, from open and sincere listening to the word of God.” Joy, he reaffirmed, “is a beautiful reality that must be in your life as deacons.” And in this challenge to fulfill, he stated: “Do not make a sad Church, because it is a sad Church. Do not do this.” And love “as He loved and without holding anything back” because, like St. Paul, “consider everything a loss if we do not have Jesus Christ.” And go out “like Jesus,” he concluded, “not judging, but loving.”
With Father Nicolás Núñez, L.C., deacon seminarians from the Madrid Conciliar Seminary, the Redemptoris Mater Missionary Seminary, and two religious from the Disciples of the Hearts of Jesus and Mary were ordained.
