Given at the ordination to the diaconate of Jonathan Goodall on 5th March 2022
My brother Jonathan,
‘Through the words of the Gospel may our sins be wiped away’.
The deacon or the priest prays these words when he kisses the book of the gospel immediately after proclaiming the Word. They speak to us daily of the mercy of God and the forgiveness of sin that comes through the mystery of Christ’s Passion, Death and Resurrection and they remind us of the words of the apostle Peter, ‘Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy’ (1 Pet 2:10). They are very pertinent today as we hear St Luke’s account of the calling of Levi or Matthew. They are an invitation to a renewal of your original calling when Christ called you to set out and follow him, to the calls which you have received that led to your reception into full communion on Our Lady’s Birthday, and a call to renewal at the beginning of Lent. The kissing of the book of the gospel as a sign of veneration shows the love that is in our heart as we follow Christ and thank him for his gift of salvation to us. The daily recitation of these words deepens our love for the Word and its power to set us free. It is a summons to engage in the warfare against selfishness and sin and the daily call to conversion.
This passage and, especially, its synoptic parallels always remind me of the wonderful painting of the conversion of St Matthew by Caravaggio in the Church of San Luigi dei Francesi in Rome. The light of Christ falls on Matthew and summons him to new life. Like Matthew, we may ask, is it really me Lord that you want to follow you and undertake these responsibilities?
The final sentence of today’s gospel was a favourite of Cardinal Basil Hume; ‘the most golden sentence in the whole of the bible’, along with some others! He often identified with, and encouraged others to identify with, the humble tax-collector in the parable of the Pharisee and the tax-collector who recognised that he needed God’s mercy. He could say that, ‘Judgement is whispering into the ear of a merciful and compassionate God the story of my life which I had never been able to tell’.
In Searching for God (Ninth impression, 1979, p77), Cardinal Hume writes of humility, ‘Far be it from me to make human weakness a kind of mystique, but it is consoling to know that I am inadequate, ineffective, the divine physician’s hand is there to heal… humility is the basis of the spiritual life – basis in the sense that it is the beginning: since as a result of original sin we tend to be self-centred, self-seeking, and have to learn to become Christ-centred and, through Christ, God-centred, so that our lives may be dedicated to God and not to the exultation of ourselves.’ The words after the proclamation of the gospel remind us each day of this reality and the call of the deeper consecration of one’s whole being to God.
The dalmatic that I wear today is a reminder that the bishop and priest is also a deacon and called to the service of the word, of the altar and of charity. We prayed in the Collect that you may be ‘effective in action, gentle in ministry, and constant in prayer’. The diaconate is a reminder that ministry is a call to service, including being a witness and servant of God’s mercy.
At the end of the Mass the deacon may dismiss the people in the words, ‘Go and announce the Gospel of the Lord’ or ‘Go forth glorifying the Lord by your life’. These words remind us that in word and act we are to build a ‘culture of mercy’ as Pope Francis articulated at the end of his Apostolic Letter Misericordia et Misera at the Conclusion of the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy, ‘We are called to promote a culture of mercy based on the rediscovery of encounter with others, a culture in which no one looks at another with indifference or turns away from the suffering of our brothers and sisters.’ (Misericordia et Misera, 20) The spiritual and corporal works of mercy provide a framework for being servants of mercy to those whom we accompany on their pilgrim way.
I conclude with the words of Pope Francis at the Mass with new Cardinals created at the consistory in February 2015,
‘The Church’s way, from the time of the Council of Jerusalem, has always been the way of Jesus, the way of mercy and reinstatement. This does not mean underestimating the dangers of letting wolves into the fold, but welcoming the repentant prodigal son; healing the wounds of sin with courage and determination; rolling up our sleeves and not standing by and watching passively the suffering of the world. The way of the Church is not to condemn anyone for eternity; to pour out the balm of God’s mercy on all those who ask for it with a sincere heart. The way of the Church is precisely to leave her four walls behind and to go out in search of those who are distant, those essentially on the “outskirts” of life. It is to adopt fully God’s own approach, to follow the Master who said: “Those who are well have no need of the physician, but those who are sick; I have come to call, not the righteous but sinners.”’
Bishop John Sherrington