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| The new deacon: Wiseman Nkomo with Fr Ncamiso Vilakati (left) and Fr Zweli Ngwenya (right) ordained priests last year |
On Saturday 28 November we gathered at the Cathedral for the ordination to the diaconate of Wiseman Nkomo. Below, "the English part" of the homily
* * *
What
is it going to be…?
This
is the question I have been carrying in my heart these days. There is
a similar one in the gospel of Luke at the birth of John the
Baptist. People seeing the wonders surrounding his birth asked
themselves: ‘What
will this child turn out to be? ... And indeed the hand of the Lord was with him.' (Lk 1:66)
Mine
is slightly different. I certainly believe the hand of the Lord is
and will be with you. But in each one of us there is always a
dimension of “choice”. We choose to do or not to do something. We
choose to be in one way or another.
What
is it going to be…?
On
your journey towards priesthood you are today ordained deacon.
Hopefully you won't remain a deacon. You are not being ordained to
remain as a “permanent deacon” which is another call in our Church. Yours is a step towards priesthood. One could even say, this
time as a deacon will be the foundation of your priesthood.
It
is interesting to know that in the past a bishop would wear the signs
of the three ordinations he had received: diaconate, priesthood and
the episcopal one. We do not that anymore.
What
is it going to be…?
Deacons
are particularly associated with “service”: service of the table,
service of the word, service of the poor.
There
are two types of service and I thought of reminding you about them
with a familiar story. You (and all) will probably forget everything
I have said and will say but the story, I guess, will remain.
“A
pig and a chicken decide to travel together around the world. They
then arrived at a very poor village. They are struck by the hunger of
the children and the pig says: 'this
is so terrible, we must do something for them'.
The chicken immediately agreed and said: 'You
are right my friend, why don't we offer them bacon and eggs?'.
The pig froze and replied: 'Wait
a moment because what for you is an act of generosity, for me is the
sacrifice of my life'”
Now,
what
is it going to be? Eggs or bacon?
Not
long ago on Sunday and again this past week on Monday we came across
the text of the widow who put just a few cents in the collection but
that was all
she had to live on.
It was not “leftovers”. It was not just a few eggs from her
basket. It was bacon. Literally.
What
is it going to be? Bacon or eggs?
I
trust you want to "offer bacon". At least that is what I seem to understand from
the readings you chose. Particularly the gospel. In Christian terms
it is good to offer eggs but true life comes out of bacon. In other
words, you need "to die".
“In
all truth I tell you, unless a wheat grain falls into the earth and
dies, it remains only a single grain; but if it dies it yields a rich
harvest.”
The
sacrament of Holy Orders puts you and me not as professionals who go
to work for some or many hours and go back home to do something else.
We are like that type of people who never take distance from who he/she is.
Think of a doctor! He goes to a party and someone comes to know
he is a doctor and will say… “can
you help me? I have some pain here...”.
A
friend of mine took me out for supper at a pub/restaurant in South Africa and
introduced me to the people (who by the time we arrived had already had “one or two”) saying: “this
is the bishop”.
They all started: “bishop
we want to go to church...”.
We
are like parents who are parents 24 hours' a day. No mater the time,
no mater the day, no mater the age of their children!!!
That
is why, giving some eggs is good but it is only bacon,
that gives true life, particularly in our case as we are called to witness the one
who died for us.
Click HERE for photos of the ordination
