Ordination to the Diaconate Tiernan Burke
Whitechurch
30 August 2025
My friends,
To say ‘Yes’ to the call to priesthood in Ireland today calls for deep faith, courage and generosity of spirit. Today, with Tiernan Burke we celebrate the penultimate step on that long journey with his ordination as Deacon.
The priests, deacons, religious and people of the Diocese of Cloyne rejoice that we can celebrate this day because it keeps our focus not on a challenging present but on a horizon of hope and inspiration for the future of the Christian Gospel in our lives and our communities.
Tiernan Burke, your brother, relation and friend will be raised to the order of deacon. In that ministry he will draw new strength from the Holy Spirit. He will assist me, as bishop, and his brother priests and the lay faithful as ministers of the Word, of the Altar and of Charity.
As a minister of the Altar he will proclaim the Gospel, prepare the sacrifice and distribute the Lords body and blood to the faithful. He will preside over public prayer, baptize, assist at marriages and bless them, give viaticum to dying and lead the rites of burial.
Today he will be consecrated by the laying on of hands that comes to us from the Apostles. From the manner of the exercise of his duties, with God’s grace and blessing, you will recognise him as a disciple of the Lord Jesus, who came to serve not to be served.
That sense of service Tiernan has placed at the centre of our reflection on the Word today. The Scripture Readings so aptly chosen in different ways shed light on the nature and depth of the service he is being called to. The words of the Prophet Isaiah are read on Good Friday the day we recall the ultimate price the Lord paid in his unflinching dedication to the cause of truth, justice and peace.
For the deacon there is a special call to the work of charity – to the service of the poor, the one who is carrying a heavy burden in life. In contemporary society there are some who bear the burden of physical poverty but there are immeasurably more who are spiritually bereft and impoverished.
The ultimate model in the service to be rendered is that demonstrated by Jesus in his washing of the feet at the Last Supper and the conversation he has with them ‘round its meaning.
“If I, then, the Lord and Master, have washed your feet, you should wash each other’s feet.” (Jn 13:1-15)
That mission of service is entrusted today to Tiernan as Deacon, but it is not exercised in isolation rather the opposite. His ministry is most fully exercised and fruitful when shared with all the baptised. Because our baptism is the primary sacrament through which all are called to life in Christ, our Lord and Saviour, the one who declared he came that we might have life and have it in abundance. (Jn 10:10)
The contemporary reality is that for many reasons so many are living in a Spiritual wasteland. A great spiritual torpor has overtaken us. In our great freedom many both young and old have become spiritually lazy believing it doesn’t matter in the end.
Our political and social world is experiencing a great absence of vision. We are using regulation and legislation like social ‘patches’ instead of addressing the deeper issue of social fragmentation.
It is into this social context that Tiernan as deacon and God willing as priest is called to serve. Hence my opening observation, “To say ‘Yes’ to the call to priesthood in Ireland today calls for deep faith, courage and generosity of spirit.”
Tiernan, we are thankful to God for you and with you today the day of your diaconate. In the words of the Ordination ceremony,
“May the Lord who has begun the good work in you bring it to completion.”
