Bishop Larry Silva: There is the martyrdom of love

WITNESS TO JESUS | DEACON ORDINATION OF VINCENT AHN VU

Here are extended excerpts from the text of the Bishop Larry Silva’s homily for the ordination to the diaconate of Vincent Anh Xuan Vu, Dec. 28 at the Co-Cathedral of St. Theresa, Honolulu.

Many times I have been here to celebrate the feast of the Vietnamese Holy Martyrs, those 117 men and women whose blood became the seed of a vibrant Catholic faith in Vietnam, a faith we celebrate today in this community which has nurtured Anh and his call to the priesthood. Today the Church celebrates the Holy Innocents, those little boys of Bethlehem who were so cruelly put to death by the murderous jealousy of Herod, and whose grieving parents may never even have known the One in whose place they were put to death. Two days ago we celebrated St. Stephen, one of the first seven to be chosen deacons to wait on table so that the apostles could be more dedicated to prayer and preaching. But the Lord touched his mouth with a Word of truth, and his preaching was so powerful that it stung many and caused them to stone him. St. Vincent the Deacon was also martyred, after being tortured mercilessly and still being so joyful that he converted the warden of the prison where he was held. While there was a time when these deaths were a source of grief and mourning, now they are the source of celebration and joy, because the victory of truth over falsehood and of love over fear has united these martyrs to become a prophetic sign that Jesus, the Victor over sin and death, is the Word who can never be ultimately silenced.

Not all martyrdom ends in death, however. Saint John Paul II spoke of the martyrdom of misunderstanding by which the Word of God that takes flesh in the lives of the followers of Jesus causes division between those who are faithful to the Word and those who are faithful to the false and sinful realities that they call their own truth. There is the martyrdom of love, which suffers with those who suffer and rejoices with those who rejoice, despite what the person himself may be feeling. There is the martyrdom whose weapons are criticism and cynicism, which can be as brutal as a sword, and which shout falsehoods about life, about marriage, or about authentic human sexuality, so that they can cower the Word of truth into silence. There is the martyrdom of complete and total dedication, which on a daily basis makes sacrifices of love for others, so that they may know the love of Jesus himself.

Today, Vincent Anh, after having learned the ways of the Lord and reflected upon them in the heights of theology and Church history as well as in the profound depths of the encounter with the Lord in the prayer of your heart, you offer yourself to the service of the Lord, laying down your life in love. You come here not only as a proven servant of the Lord, but as his intimate friend, because he has chosen you to go and bear fruit that will remain. …

And so you make promises today. You promise that you will be a servant of the Lord, in humble charity to the benefit of the Christian people. Most of the time you will be blessed with their love, but you may suffer the martyrdom of misunderstanding and criticism. Let this promise today ring in your mind and heart so that you will love them even when love is not returned to you.

You promise to hold fast to the mystery of faith with a clear conscience and to proclaim this faith in word and deed at a time when we are all painfully aware that not all the servants of the Lord have been faithful to this promise, but instead have compromised a clear conscience and have indulged their own selfish, lustful and abusive desires. Even with a clear conscience, you will suffer the martyrdom of affiliation with those who have hurt so many and so selfishly tarnished the Bride of Christ and their beloved children. Let this promise strengthen you to turn the other cheek as the Lord urges us to do when we are unjustly criticized.

You promise to keep forever the commitment to remain celibate for the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven and in service of God and neighbor. This special way of loving will bring you much joy as you enter deeply into friendships with the friends of Jesus. But surely you will suffer the martyrdom of mastery over self as you are immersed in a culture of self-indulgence. Let this promise help you be faithful to the end to the paradox of emptying yourself so that God may fill you up and make you not your own, but his special witness.

You promise obedience to your bishop, who represents Christ himself and his beloved Bride, the Church; and working in harmony with me and my successors, with your brother priests and deacons, and with all the people of God will bring you much fulfillment. But you must realize the martyrdom of submitting your own will to the will of God, which may not always seem palatable to you, but will always nourish your soul and the souls of all entrusted to your care.

You promise to commit yourself to prayer throughout the hours of the day so that the wellspring of your love can always flow freely with the living water of Christ. Yet you will be tempted to be so involved in the cares and demands of ministry that it will truly take a martyr’s determination to never let the oil of gladness that can only come from God run dry in your heart.

You promise to conform your way of life always to the example of Christ, of whose Body and Blood you are a minister at the altar. What greater privilege could be bestowed upon you? Yet was there ever a martyrdom so profound as the cross, on which the sacred Body was battered and the blessed Blood poured out? It is this glorious martyrdom, once thought a tragedy, but now known to be the greatest gift of love ever given, to which God calls you to share from this day forward into eternity. It is this Word of victory he places in your mouth. And it is this wonderful truth that he chooses and ordains you to proclaim with your words and with your humble diaconal service.