Our final days of ministry; What shall we do?

It isn’t a retirement from doing the work of God, that could never be the desire of prophets, generations ago or current preachers and writers in 2025. But finding changes in life that may impair our original mandates certainly must create a new path for earnest ministers to keep on going.

The Lord has sworn and will never waver: “Like Melchizedek” You are a priest forever. (Ps 110: 4). There are some that accept the call to ordained ministry and will not deter this plan of God for their lives. However, we find that many are quick to leave this opportunity to serve God in a way that many are called to and when the sacrifice becomes too arduous leave its demands.

As far as the permanent diaconate goes we may find men that retire from secular work and feel that some ministry requirements also take away from family or other necessities. Retiring from these demands is not quitting their religious beliefs but their first choice of married life and raising children becomes their position as a family man. That is a blessing itself and we should admire them for making the right decision.

We learn that following the Lord totally is not taking upon ourselves every possible avenue that presents itself for our time. It becomes a special adherence to divide the vocations we find ourselves in and give whatever is needed to do justice to each without discriminating against the other. This is why the diaconate is special for married men since their place demands more than most men could perform both without hurting the other.

Some of our deacons are working in positions that fit very well with the Sacrament of Holy Orders which enhances their place of ministry within their secular position. Of course there are other deacons who work in positions that are far removed from ministry; or are they that much different? One day while plumbers and electricians were eating lunch in a new house under construction, a plumber looked at me and said, “Ralph, you’ll never convert me.” I responded that “it isn’t me that would convert you, it is God.” My demeanor alone convicted him. What people see in us isn’t a halo hovering over us, they see the Lord somehow that we cannot even explain it. This ordained ministry is not a chance that falls upon us who accept the words of ordination. It is the call that means more than hands upon us.

Looking at the future date some may anticipate fishing, relaxing, and being a man of leisure presents a walking away from doing the same old thing day in and day out. Ministry is not that type of exclusion from reaching out to the world’s needy. People who are needy and lonely are everywhere and as Jesus said, “The poor you will always have with you, but you will not always have me.” (Mt 26: 11). We are the hands and voice for Christ; Our ministry never retires.

Ralph B. Hathaway