Our People

Homily for the Ordination of Br Mannes Tellis OP to the Sacred Order of Deacons

St Dominic’s Priory Church, Camberwell, Advent Ember

By Most Rev. Anthony Fisher OP
Auxiliary Bishop of Sydney
22/12/2007

The last Saturday before Christmas was traditionally an ‘ember day’ – one of those special days of fast and almsgiving intended to consecrate the four seasons of the year. They were celebrated on the Wednesday, Friday and Saturday after Ash Wednesday, after Pentecost, after the Exaltation of the Holy Cross and before Christmas. So no doubt after today’s ordination the brethren will be celebrating in style – with stale bread and tepid water!

The last of the ember days, ‘Ember Saturday in Advent’ – i.e. today – was also the favoured day for Ordinations from at least the fifth century. This allowed the whole community to join the ordinand in a joyful celebration of his calling around Christmas, that feast on which all humanity received its vocation to become in some measure divine. But celebrating the ordination on the last fast day before Christmas also allowed the community to share in the bishop and ordinand’s last preparations for that day. The Dominican Missal claimed that this custom of associating the laity with the bishops in prayer and fasting and in calling down God’s blessing on those about to be ordained was instituted by the apostles themselves; whatever of that, the New Testament tells us that from apostolic times ordinations were preceded by fast and prayer (see Acts 13:3).

Were prayer and fasting not enough, in the Rite of Mass for today used until the late 1960s and still today the ‘Extraordinary Use of the Roman Rite’ there were five Readings (‘Lessons’) each with its own Responsorial Psalm (‘Gradual’) and prayer (‘Collect’) before we even got to the Opening Prayer for Advent and the First Reading (‘Epistle’). Anyone ready to be installed as Porter received that ministry after the First Lesson, the Lectors after the Second, the Exorcists after the Third, the Acolytes after the Fourth and the Subdeacons after the Fifth. Finally, any Deacons were ordained after the Epistle and any Priests after its Responsorial Psalm. So if you think today’s ordination Mass is long, spare a thought for our predecessors who arrived at Mass with bellies emptied by fasting and then endured a full morning of liturgical hijinks!

The Old Testament reading and psalm immediately preceding the deacons’ epistle in this tradition was taken from the story of the Three Young Men consigned to the fire in the Book of Daniel (ch 3). The prayer referred to God’s mercy to them and prayed that we, his servants – in Greek, ‘deacons’ – not be consumed by the flames of vice. This retelling of a story of salvation from fire took on a special meaning in the early Church when Christians were subjected to flames or wild animals for execution and sport. Perhaps the most famous was the Roman Deacon Lawrence.

His story is perhaps best told in the Vatican Palace where our Blessed brother, Fra Angelico, covered every square centimetre of the Nicholas V Chapel with a painted homily on revelation, the Church and the ministry to which Mannes is ordained today. On the ceiling are the four evangelists, for it is from the Sacred Scriptures that Divine revelation comes down to us. On the pillars are the holy doctors and popes, for it is by way of the Sacred Tradition and the living magisterium of the Church that the Gospel is safeguarded, interpreted and transmitted through the ages. Angelico rather daringly included St Thomas Aquinas, though he had not yet been declared a doctor of the Church and would have to wait more than a century more until a Dominican bishop, St Pius V, gave Thomas a second doctorate. On the walls of the chapel Angelico painted a cycle of holy scenes, replete with the costumes, faces and buildings of his then-contemporary world, for it is to the real people around us now that that divine Truth must be spoken by us. And that cycle of paintings was, of course, of the life of the deacon Lawrence, martyred under the Emperor Valerian in the year 258.

A detail from the first painting in that series, St Lawrence’s ordination by Sixtus II, is on the front of our Mass booklets. Liturgical historians have identified in it elaborate details of the late medieval ordination rite: a humeral veil is held by a priest, the Gospel Book by a deacon, a thurible by an acolyte, with the pope on his crimson faldstool wearing pallium and triple-tiara. In the next two paintings Lawrence is given all the wealth of the Church to distribute amongst the poor. When the Roman authorities came demanding the loot, Lawrence could with his customary frankness and wit point to the poor and say ‘there is the wealth of the Church’. Missing no opportunity to preach, he then cheekily preaches to the emperor at his trial. The story stood as a reminder to deacons and popes alike of the central importance of charity and preaching in the life of all the clergy. And the flames decorating Lawrence’s dalmatic pointed to the potential cost of so publicly preaching or enacting the Catholic faith.

That the Sacred Order of Deacons was an ancient and integral part of the hierarchy of the Church is shown by Fra Angelico’s cycle on the opposite wall of the same chapel, on the life of the Deacon Stephen. As the Acts of the Apostles (chs 6 & 7) testifies, the diaconate was established by the Twelve, under the influence of the Holy Spirit, specifically to serve the people in their temporal needs, and to free up the clergy to focus on preaching, sanctifying and governing. As Fra Angelico illustrates, Stephen and Lawrence gave both financial and spiritual alms to the poor and this led to Stephen being stoned and Lawrence being barbecued. Thus the service of the deacon – in all its elements – tells the story of that Saviour who came to bring Good News to the poor even at the ransom of his life (Luke 4:18, 7:22).

If the deacon is therefore a kind of sacrament of the Poor and Preaching Christ – a visible sign effecting that grace which he signifies – then he is most obviously this is the context of the Eucharist. There Mannes, already consecrated by his religious profession and many years of study and formation to the great work of preaching, will now proclaim the Holy Gospel and preach it. There, at the altar, he will from today stand in a unique position between priest and people, vested and kissing the altar stone and raising and distributing the chalice as if he were a priest, but kneeling before the Holy Sacrifice, serving the Mass and ‘directing traffic’ as one of the people.

Angelico’s beautiful painting of the ordination of St Lawrence, focusing on the moment of the traditio – the handing on – of the sacred vessels to the deacon, is only the beginning of the sacred service this man would give. The last painting in the cycle is of the Lawrence naked, roasted alive and taunting his executioners with “I’m cooked on this side – turn me over.” Dear Mannes, Christ promises you also trials, as this ember day of penance hints, and the heat, as this image of Lawrence intimates. You must be ready again and again to give your all, with the courage, generosity and good humour of St Lawrence, into the hands of God and sinful men, as you did forever in your profession.

Your blood family and your religious family must offer you also. In today’s first reading Elkanah and Hannah offer young Samuel to be deacon to old Father Eli (1 Samuel 1: 24-28). I know how proud Gerald and Cathy are of their son today, of his perseverance and his willingness to give himself whole-heartedly to the service of God and his people. Delighted, too, are your brothers in Dominic. I remember well when Paul first came to us here at St Dominic’s. I was his Postulant Master and in due course his Student Master – the first of three he has worn out so far – and I was as new at offering formation as he was at suffering it. Paul was then a gifted, faith-filled but diffident youth. He returned from his American novitiate much clearer about his vocation and with the new name of St Dominic’s brother Mannes. I remember well his mother’s questions about why he was given the name Mayonnaise when he had been given a perfectly good preacher’s name at baptism!

The Church invites us to consider what it means for this man, our now grown-up son and brother to be raised to the Order of Deacons. He will draw new strength from the gift of the Holy Spirit. He will help the bishops and priests as a servant of the word, the altar and the people. As servant of the word he will proclaim the Gospel to believers and non-believers alike. As servant of the altar he will prepare the sacrifice and give the Lord’s Body and Blood to the faithful. He may also preside over public prayer, baptize, assist at marriages, give benediction of the Blessed Sacrament, bring viaticum to the dying and lead the rites of burial. As servant of God’s people he will perform works of charity in such a way that people recognize him as a disciple of the One who came to serve, not to be served, and to be the ransom, slave and deacon of all (Matthew 20:28; Philippians 2:7; cf. 1 Corinthians 9:19).

Mannes, you have told me that you see the diaconate as enriching your prior Dominican vocation as a preacher of the Gospel. Never turn away from the hope which that Gospel offers; for now you must not only listen to God’s word but preach it. Remember that you are first and foremost a servant of that Word who has called to you from all eternity. It is His words that you must preach, not some fancy of your own or something more comfortable for your hearers. Express also in action what you proclaim by word of mouth. Serve the poor generously and cheerfully. Reject the false gods of unchastity, avarice and ambition; for no man can serve two masters. Renew then your profession of the evangelical counsels, for you are, as you have rightly told me, no longer your own.

In religion, Br Mannes Maria Tellis, you are known not only by the name of St Dominic’s brother but also by that our Holy Protectress. In addition to this Saturday being traditionally an ember day and an ordination day, 22 December was traditionally the Feast of the Patronage of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary of our order. Today’s Advent Gospel is providentially the Magnificat (Luke 1:46-56), her hymn of praise which has long been and will forever be your evening prayer, as it is of every friar and every person who joins in the Evening Vespers of the Church. May you join her every night, day and night, in the Dominican mission laudare, benedicere, prædicare – as your soul also praises the Lord, your spirit also blesses God your Saviour, and your voice also preaches the great things the Almighty has done for you and for us.