I have been stuck thinking about what St. Augustine said a few days ago in the second reading in the Office of Readings on the memorial of the Presentation of Mary. If you recall, he said that Mary saw her discipleship to her Son as conferring a greater degree of dignity than her having physical maternity of Jesus. He pointed out that Mary, though surpassing us in sanctity and unique in her path as a disciple, remains a member of the Church, a member of the Body of Christ, just as do we.
This thought continues to stew in my mind. Mary having given human flesh to our Lord, i.e., having been the mother of Jesus and thus Mother of God, held in greater esteem her discipleship. That she accepted and kept perfect custody in her Immaculate Heart the Word of God that came to her, and she perfectly followed that Word in the totality of her life. That her life as a disciple, as a member of the Mystical Body of Christ was what she held as a higher dignity.
It does leave me reflecting on how this can be applied to the diaconal life. We deacons are ordained to be heralds of the Gospel, bearers of the Word, custodians of the Word of God. We are to embody every human and Christian virtue. We are to become Icons of Jesus the Servant. In other words, we are to be sacramentally disciples of the Lord. It is the Word we accept and bear in our souls that is of primary importance and that gives us our true dignity for it is to that Word that we are to orient our lives, that we are to be disciples. It is in bearing that Word within us that we give flesh to Jesus the Servant, we become the visible presence of He who is servant of all.
In that way, our discipleship, our following of God’s word in our lives, is what underlies any dignity that may be ours because of our office. In the end, it is our discipleship that will bring us into eternal life. Ours is of course a diaconal discipleship, it is a sacramental sign of God’s living and effective Word in our world today.
