Deacon Ordination of Quinton Thomas

Published: May 13, 2025

Bishop Anthony B. Taylor preached the following homily at Blessed Sacrament Church in Jonesboro on Tuesday, May 13, 2025. It is based on the Gospel of Matthew 20:25b-28.

Bishop Taylor

Quinton, you are the first of five seminarians who will be ordained to the diaconate over the course of this Marian month of May. I know you will be attending the ordinations of your brother seminarians, so just know that what I share with you today applies also to them, and vice versa. And so I will now tell you — and them — that by virtue of your ordination here today, your life becomes officially and irrevocably a life lived for the benefit of others.

As an ordained deacon you become a minister of word, sacrament and charity, a servant of Jesus, his Church and indeed the entire human family. And here I emphasize the word “servant” because that’s literally what the word “deacon” means, and I’ll bet that’s what you had in mind when you chose this Gospel reading from Matthew for your ordination.

Earlier the mother of James and John had asked Jesus to give her sons the most important roles in his kingdom, seating them at his right and at his left, and so Jesus uses the occasion to teach us about true greatness: “Whoever wishes to be great among you shall be your servant; whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave. Just so, the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

And though we say you are being ordained as a “transitional” deacon, that doesn’t mean that unlike permanent deacons you will be a deacon — a servant — for just this one year. The three holy orders are cumulative: I may be your bishop, but I’m still a deacon and still a priest. The same is true even for the pope — indeed, one of his official titles is “Servant of the Servants of God.” And it is only there, in faithful, humble, self-sacrificing service that true greatness modeled on that of Jesus can be found.

One area of sacrifice, of death to self, that deserves special mention is the solemn promise you will make today before God and his Church “to remain celibate for the sake of the kingdom and in lifelong service to God and mankind.” I sometimes hear people relate celibacy to the passage in Matthew 19:12 about becoming a eunuch for the sake of the kingdom of heaven, so let me make this very clear: Being a celibate is not the same thing as being a eunuch.

Unlike eunuchs, we celibates have no shortage of testosterone. We just direct the power of our sexuality — the power of our love and hopes and dreams — to our bride, the Church, just as Jesus does (whose "alter Christus") whose representative we become through ordination.

This can be challenging, but love is always challenging and indeed, years of ministry have taught me that married couples don’t have it any easier — if that were the case, why do 50 percent of marriages end up in divorce? True love always involves death to self (which is hard) and yet is at the same time the only love that truly brings fulfillment.

In this, celibate love and married love are equal — and celibacy is not, of itself, a superior path. The superior path for you is whatever path God has chosen for you, which when embraced with heartfelt trust becomes a source of God-given spiritual fruitfulness far greater than we could ever have produced on our own.

So today, Quinton, you give the Lord — and by extension us — your whole self, with trust and self-sacrificing love for which, I want to be the first to thank you. I rejoice in the knowledge that the commitment you make today will fill your life with meaning and purpose and joy that go way beyond what can be described in words to those who have not yet experienced it themselves.

And I pray that your example will inspire other young men present in this congregation today to open their hearts to the possibility that God may be calling them to the priesthood as well. To those present who know that the Lord has been tugging at their heart, but are afraid of what this might mean, I say: “Open your hearts in welcome!” God doesn’t just call. He’s also the one who enables us to respond. Where Quinton is going, you too can follow.