Brothers,

In the words of Saint Melito of Sardis, we are drawn again into the heart of the mystery we serve:

“The lamb that was slain has delivered us from death and given us life.”

Melito does not let us look away from the cost. Christ “clothed himself in that humanity,” taking on “a body capable of suffering,” and in that body “took the pain of fallen man upon himself.” He is “led forth like a lamb… slaughtered like a sheep,” entering fully into the weight of the world’s sin and sorrow.

And yet, this is not a reflection meant to leave us at the Cross alone.

“He is the One who brought us out of slavery into freedom, out of darkness into light, out of death into life.”

This movement, this passage, is the pattern of Christ’s life, and therefore the pattern of ours.

Melito traces Christ through the whole story, “In Abel he was slain, in Isaac bound, in Joseph sold… persecuted in David, dishonored in the prophets.” The Lord we serve is already present in every suffering we encounter. Nothing is outside His reach.

But then comes the decisive word:

“He is the One who rose from the dead, and who raised man from the depths of the tomb.”

Brothers, our ministry lives in that tension, between the Lamb who was slain and the Lamb who lives. We stand daily in places marked by sacrifice, at the altar, in service, in the quiet hidden cost of fidelity. Yet we do so as men who know the outcome.

The sacrifice is real, but so is the Resurrection.

And it is precisely there, in that passage from death to life, that the deacon stands, serving, proclaiming, and quietly witnessing that the Lamb who was slain… lives.

In Christ the Servant + Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam
Receive + Believe + Teach + Practice

"...If we don't have you doing your role, this archdiocese is missing something..." ~ ~Archbishop James Golka to his Deacons at Deacons & Wives Dinner (03.24.26)