ALUMNI UPDATE
Deliver Us
from the Sofa
Deacon Kevin Breen is associate director for permanent
deacons for the Archdiocese of Detroit. He is a 2004
graduate of Sacred Heart.
INTO THE VINEYARD
Alumni Advancing the New Evangelization
I
was privileged to accompany my daughter’s youth ministry
group as an adult chaperone to Krakow, Poland, for World
Youth Day 2016. We felt great anticipation while we waited in
the vast treeless fields of Campus Misericordia outside of Krakow for Pope Francis’s Saturday evening prayer vigil address,
along with the other pilgrims numbering in the hundreds of
thousands. The pope’s message was well worth the weary wait.
Pope Francis’s message was meant not
only for the youth and young adults, but it
was a message meant for all Catholics of any
age and vocation. The message resonated
with me as a lifelong Catholic, a husband
and father, a permanent deacon in the parish, and as associate director for permanent
deacons for the Archdiocese of Detroit.
The pope proclaimed that “Jesus is the
Lord of risk. . . . Jesus is not the Lord of
comfort, security and ease.” We all must
be ready “to trade in the sofa for a pair of
walking shoes and to set out on new and
uncharted paths.” Francis reminded all
that it is God “who teaches us to encounter
[God] in the hungry, the thirsty, the naked,
the sick, the friend in trouble, the prisoner,
the refugee, and the migrant and our neigh-
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bors who feel abandoned.”
Pope Francis was reminding the pilgrims
that evening that we need to renew our
lives and to encounter Christ in all we do,
just as he encouraged all Christians in his
apostolic exhortation Evangelii Gaudium: “I
invite all Christians, everywhere, at this very
moment, to a renewed personal encounter
with Jesus Christ, or at least an openness to
letting him encounter them; I ask all of you
to do this unfailingly each day.”
This is what the New Evangelization is
about and what we as Catholics in the Archdiocese of Detroit are being called to live.
As a permanent deacon assigned to a parish, I am not just to have a presence in the
sanctuary at Mass or the parish campus. I am
to be available to the entire community of
Sacred Heart Major Seminary | Mosaic | Fall 2016
southeast Michigan and beyond. Wherever
the need exists, the gospel message of Jesus
must be shared with those who are lost, lonely, or have no faith. It may just be on the street
corner ministering to those in need with a
prayer, a hug, or a free rosary. Wherever that
need exists, that is where a permanent deacon
is to minister. That is where all Christians
have an opportunity to minister.
During the formation process, candidates
for the diaconate are encouraged in their summer ministries to “stretch” themselves and do
some form of ministry that is difficult or out
of the ordinary from their normal life experiences; something they may not want to do.
Pope Francis, as well, is calling on Christians
to do something they may not be comfortable
doing. In Evangelii Gaudium, he writes, “Starting from certain social issues of great importance for the future of humanity, I have tried
to make explicit once again the inescapable
social dimension of the Gospel message and
to encourage all Christians to demonstrate it
by their words, attitudes, and deeds.”
Whether single, married, lay, religious, or
clergy, the new evangelization begins with us.
It is time to put away our doubts, stop hiding behind our digital facades, step out of our
comfort zone, and “get off of the sofa.” Let’s
begin living the message of Jesus Christ.