The following is a transcript of Bishop Caggiano’s homily, given Sunday morning, October 20, at St. Augustine
My friends, let’s give our brothers a round of applause, shall we? Why don’t you sit?
My dear brothers, my dear friends in the Lord, it was an audacious request to ask for a place at the right or the left in the glory of eternal life to their Lord who had no interest in power, money, wealth, or status, was certainly audacious, to say the least. But when you consider, my friends, that the portion of the gospel we do not hear today, immediately preceding what we did hear, claimed, when we hear that the Lord, right before James and John, opened their mouth, He revealed to them that He was to suffer and die and give His life over as ransom for the many.
When you consider, those were the last words Jesus said before they said, Oh, yeah, and by the way, I want a place in glory. It’s more than audacious. One could ask, what did they not understand? What did not register in their minds? But the truth is, my friends, for all the Apostles, they were only beginning to glimpse what the Lord was trying to teach them, and perhaps glimpse it in their minds But their hearts still had a long journey to walk, to understand what the Lord was truly trying to teach them.
And the lesson became clear at the foot of the cross, at which all but one ran. For you see, my friends, what the Lord was trying to teach them, and you and me, is the great mystery of the type of love He is asking us to offer to the world. For you have often heard me say in my homilies that the world out there understands love simply as an emotion, a feeling, a pleasure, and perhaps all of that is somewhat true.
But Jesus did not come to teach us a love that seeks gratification or pleasure. In His entire life, the Lord offered Himself to those around him in self-sacrifice, choosing to do it each day to those who accepted Him and those who did not, those who followed Him and those who turned their back on Him, those who would ultimately understand and accept the good news that that He was the savior and redeemer, and those who’s cried out, Crucify Him, and watched the Romans put Him to death. In every place, in every circumstance, to every person, the Lord was teaching those who followed Him and those who came after them the true meaning of love.
It is a choice you and I make every day, hundreds lots of times a day, to do what’s good for our neighbor, our friend, our coworker, our spouse, our children, our grandchildren, and those we don’t like, and even those we could claim to be our enemies. It’s a choice that does not always feel good and never seeks something in return. It is self-gift. I have come not to be served, but to serve and give my life as ransom for the many.
My dear friends, if discipleship has a hallmark, it is that. It is the one characteristic above all else that should mock us as followers of Jesus Christ. And how sad it is that there are so many who bear His name but do not do what He asks. And we become part of the woodwork of the modern world.
You three, my brothers, have come here because you have heard a call in your heart not to be served, but to serve. You have lived lives of discipleship already with your spouses and children, and you have learned here and here what the Lord is asking. You have struggled with it as I have.
You have not always loved freely, selflessly, nor have I. But you understand what the Lord is asking from all of us. And in the mystery of His love for you, He is calling you into the sacrament that will be assigned to all of us of what we are all called to do every day. For as a deacon of the church, you will serve His word. You will become lectors today. And what will you proclaim? You will proclaim the good news of God’s merciful, forgiving, liberated love in the world. You will serve the altar, but you will also be a minister of charity, a minister of that which James and John, at this point in their life, could not see. How many of your brothers and sisters cannot see it.
The task before you is to grow ever more wholly in life, ever more selfless in your love of the Lord Jesus, that your sisters and brothers will see it in you. Seeing it in you, they may have the courage to live it in their own lives as well. I’m very grateful that you have said yes to your vocation and that you will be a minister of love, the only love that truly gives us joy and hope, peace and destiny in this life.
In a world that seeks self-gratification, self-absorption, one that is distracted in so many ways, I pray that as you continue your formation, and if it is God’s will that you be ordained the deacon, and please God, I will see it and be the one to ordain you. When that that comes, may you be a deaconal apostle in the world to remind them of what the Lord is asking of us, to be women and men of love, to choose the other over us, to sacrifice so that others may have life, to learn to forgive and have mercy in a world that seeks revenge and vengeance, to be able to look upon our neighbor and seek to know their name and to choose to do what is good for them, even if they walk away from us. That, my brothers, and that, my friends, is the task before us. So allow me to ask you, are you seeking a place of glory at His right side? If you are, He will will not give it to you now. Are you seeking a seat on the left side of power and privilege? If you are, the Lord will not grant it to you now.
He has something far more important to give you in a life to come. But if you are truly, you, I, us, and you, my three brothers, are truly committed to walk in His footsteps, to bear His name worthily, and to be those who will not be served, but to serve and love others, then I invite you to look upon the seat He will give you, all of us in this church, a seat from which we will learn evermore each day what it is to love as He loved. And from that place, my sisters and brothers, with the grace of the Holy spirit, call the nations to peace, and we will allow the world to see the path you and I have glimpsed, which is the road to glory.