The Deacon

By Deacon Matthew Newsome

In the summer of 2025, I attended the annual conference of the Catholic Campus Ministry Association (CCMA), hosted that year by Notre Dame University. I was blessed to assist at Mass each day of the conference, ministering at the altar alongside Bishop Kevin Rhoades of Fort Wayne-South Bend; Archbishop Bernard Hebda of St. Paul and Minneapolis; and Fr. Pete McCormick, the Assistant Vice President for Campus Ministry at Notre Dame. It warmed my deacon’s heart to be able to serve these celebrants, proclaim the gospel, and distribute the Precious Blood to my co-laborers in the Lord’s vineyard.

While I was not the only deacon present at the conference, I was the only one serving at the altar, save for one Mass when a second deacon assisted. Toward the end of the conference, a colleague asked me, “How did you get to serve at all the Masses?” My answer was simple and straightforward: “I showed up.”

Prior to the conference, an email was sent to clergy asking if they would be willing to assist with any of the liturgies. I clicked the link, filled out the form, requested my letter of good standing from the chancery, packed my alb in my carry-on and then did the most important thing one can do in ministry: I showed up. That’s how I found myself before Mass each day, the only deacon in a sacristy bustling with a score of concelebrating priests. I got to serve because I was there.

Prior to my ordination in 2018, I received some advice from my then-pastor that has served me well ever since: “Show up to things.” He was speaking specifically about the tendency for clergy to become sequestered in their own parish ministry and lose connection with the larger diocesan community. I didn’t want to be one of those deacons who was ordained and received his assignment, never to be seen or heard from again. So as much as possible, I have made the effort to attend ordinations, receptions, retreats, and continuing education opportunities offered by the diocese. While not every such offering is necessarily stellar, on the whole, these opportunities to connect with the broader diocesan community have been invaluable.

I have found the advice to “just show up” to be of benefit in other areas of ministry, as well. I was not yet ordained one month when I received an invitation from a priest friend serving as chaplain at Wake Forest University to assist at a special baccalaureate Mass to be presided over by Cardinal Timothy Dolan. My first instinct was to say no. The prospect of serving Mass for such a preeminent prelate so soon into my diaconate made me quite nervous. My pastor would hear nothing of it: “You’re going,” he said. “You don’t get the chance to serve Mass for a cardinal every day. Don’t pass it up. You’ll do fine.”

So I showed up. And just like my pastor said, I did fine. The Cardinal was gracious, and my priest friend guided me beautifully. That experience made me more willing to accept future invitations to minister outside of my comfort zone, such as when I was invited to assist at the priestly ordination of a friend of mine in the Byzantine rite, or when I had the chance to help distribute Communion during the Holy Qurbana in the Syro-Malabar rite.

But the most challenging times in ministry for me have always been non-liturgical. Liturgy is relatively easy, in the sense that you just have to “do the red and say the black.” Ministry away from the altar isn’t always so clear-cut. The times I’ve really been outside my comfort zone have been praying at the bedside of a dying parishioner, bringing the Eucharist to dementia patients, or counseling a father who lost his son to suicide. Not once have I gone into those situations knowing what I was going to say or do. I don’t think I ever will. But I keep following my old pastor’s advice. I show up.

Of course, merely showing up is not enough. It is vital that we deacons have a sound knowledge of the faith and a solid prayer life, so that when we do show up, the Holy Spirit shows up with us. Grace builds upon nature, as St. Thomas Aquinas rightly points out. We have to give God something to work with. But this remote preparation for ministry is also an aspect of showing up: we have to “show up” (that is to say, be faithful) when it comes to study, prayer, and ongoing formation.

Once, due to a miscommunication, I didn’t realize I was the one meant to give an hour-long talk on evangelizing catechesis at a gathering of parish catechists. I tried not to look too ruffled as I did my best, drafting an outline in my head as I went. At the end, the talk was engaging and the catechists were appreciative. Only one person knew the talk had taken me by surprise. She approached me after and asked, “How did you do that without any preparation?” I told her that I had spent the past twenty years preparing!

“Showing up” for preparatory formation is essential to diaconal ministry, but none of that matters if we don’t also show up in the places and situations where God is calling us to serve, where quite often just being there, conveying the loving presence of the Church, is sufficient for the needs of the moment. People don’t always need answers – nor are there always answers to give – but they do need to know that God is with them. When the Apostles were being tossed about by strong winds on the Sea of Galilee, their troubled hearts were calmed when Jesus came to them saying, “It is I; do not be afraid.” (John 6:20) He didn’t offer them a solution. He gave them his presence.

Any time I have been called to minister in crisis situations – comforting a widow, consoling a mourner, sitting by a hospital bed, or sitting across the table and sharing a meal with a homeless woman at a soup kitchen – people were not looking to me, as the deacon, to solve their problems. They needed to know that God was with them in the storm.

As men, we naturally want to find solutions to problems. Our hesitancy to go into difficult situations is often due to the fact that we know we can’t offer people a way out of their suffering. Faced with a problem without a solution, we don’t know what to say or do. But we can show them that Christ is with them. Deacons are Christ’s ambassadors. We carry His presence with us wherever we go. Our role as sacred ministers is not so much to save others, but to remind them they have a Savior. We are ordained to be Christ’s presence in the world, and presence is all about showing up. TD