The cantor sings from psalm 118 verse 24: This is the day that the Lord has made, let us be glad and rejoice in it, let us be glad and rejoice.

Yes, today is a day to rejoice and to give thanks for our brother, your son and our friend, who is presenting himself to Bishop Jon for ordination to the transitional diaconate.  As he kneels before the bishop and has hands placed on his head I imagine that all of us gathered here have a wide range of feelings.  For Noel’s parent, and his brothers and sister who cannot be here today,  it is a day of great pride and tender love; for us as Redemptorists it is a day of rejoicing to see a brother coming closer to having his dreams fulfilled and for us to have another colleague enter more fully into our ministry; for friends of Noel and for all gathered here today it is a day of rejoicing that someone you know and love is responding to God’s call to preach the Gospel and give service to the Church; for me it is an honour and privilege to be invited to share these thoughts with you and to see one of my former novices and students respond to the grace of God’s call with love and generosity.

The readings Noel chose for this ordination ceremony reflect his understanding of his call.  The first reading from Acts speaks of the passion the early church had in proclaiming the gospel and preaching the person of Jesus as the source of this good news.  The second reading reminds us that we all are called to an active role in the Church, each with our own gifts. And the gospel recalls the importance of love as the foundation of our lives as Christians and followers of Jesus.

Let me begin by speaking about Noel and then offer some reflection on the Word of God as it applies to Noel and each one of us.

The first reading reminds us how zealous the early church was in preaching Jesus. Passion, energy and enthusiasm are words that come to mind when I think of Noel.  His face expresses what the African American spiritual declares with a slight editing: How can I keep from smiling.  No storm can shake my inmost calm, while to that rock I’m clinging.  Since love is Lord of heaven and earth, how can I keep from smiling.  We all know how quickly Noel radiates a smile.   Sharing this joy and love is central to Noel’s being.  He has a deep love for the Church, the person of Jesus and for people.  All were and are welcome under his tent, beginning in Vancouver his home base, to Toronto for studies and novitiate, San Antonio for theological studies, St Anne de Beaupre, Grande Prairie, St Paul’s hospital and Tucson for summer experiences, Yellowknife and St John’s for pastoral ministry.  In every place he found people who became friends whether they were churchgoers, on the tennis or pickle ball court or at Tim Horton’s. 

Noel told me how in every community he felt people’s kindness and how every person he encountered revealed something of God’s loving goodness.  His response was a loving welcoming heart.  Love is not just a beautiful ideal for Noel but a way of life, an opportunity to serve God’s people.  Noel went onto say that every place he has served has become a classroom where Jesus has taught him how to love.  As he enters the ministry of preaching and service for the church as a new deacon his prayer is that the love of God will overflow through his preaching and service to everyone he meets in or out of the Church.

Love is the overarching thread that ties Noel’s sense of self and ministry with today’s gospel passage.  The word love is used eleven times in this passage. Love begins the gospel passage and love ends the reading. 

The passage from John is within the context of the Last Supper.  Jesus reminds the disciples and us that the love they have experienced from him has been a mirror of the love with which the Father loved Jesus.  In other words, what I have says Jesus in my relationship with the Father, you must now have in relationship with me.  If we are to live out our vocation as disciples of Jesus we need to become a living icon, a living portrait of Jesus to others.

What does this mean for Noel and for each one of us?  St. Alphonsus, our founder, says that God is “pazzo d’amore” with us.  God is crazy, outlandish, in his love for us.  This is seen in His Son who gives his life out of love.  Jesus says we are to abide in his love.  This will be more than keeping a set of rules or the commandments.   It’s allowing God’s grace through Jesus to transform us in our daily lives, to shape our words, our thoughts and actions.  Alphonsus states, because we have been loved so lavishly we in our turn must love.  Jesus calls us to abide in his love.  We are to dwell in, make our home deep within Jesus’s love, to realize that we are entirely surrounded by Jesus’s love every moment of every day. We are to know that that is where we belong, where we find our home.  We cannot be at home in that love unless we are authentically striving to love with that same generosity and self-giving spirit.

Love one another as I have loved you.  This can mean “love one another in the same way as I have loved you,” it could also mean Love one another since I have love you, because I have loved you.  If we are conscious of just how much love Jesus has showered upon us, the only appropriate response is to love in return, and to love by following his example both as an inspiration and as a model for others.

Our connectedness with Jesus is not only something only for Noel as a deacon, but for each one of us.  It is our perpetual vocation every day and every minute of our lives.  In the same way that fish can live only as long as they are in water, so true Christian living can only continue as long as we are immersed in love and make it our reason for living.  Apart from love our faith quickly withers.  It becomes as love in a tennis game – as Noel all too well knows love in tennis means zero, nada, nothing.

Jesus goes on to say:  You did not choose me but I chose you and I appointed you to go out and bear fruit.  Jesus stresses that it is he who has selected and called his apostles and us by name for the mission of proclaiming the Gospel.  He entrusts each one of us according to the gifts He sees in each one.  Paul in the second reading states we have gifts that differ according to the grace given us.  Today we give thanks for the grace that brings Noel to the altar of service, preaching and self-giving as a deacon.  We can recall the words of Dag Hammarskjold, a former secretary general of the United Nations, who said:  We give thanks for all that has been and Yes for all that will be.

We give thanks for the grace that has led and transformed Noel into being the person he is today.  We pray that he will persevere in his Yes and continue to grow in love for Jesus, for the people of God and his ministry.  We pray for ourselves that we, too, will be open to the Lord’s love and be eager to return that love by our love for one another.

This is the day the Lord has made, let us be glad and rejoice in it.