With the
diaconate ordination approaching, I have taken time to look at the liturgy,
including the questions to which the candidate is expected to answer ‘I am’. I
had always understood that this was the moment at which the candidate took vows
of celibacy and obedience. This is true, in a way. Yet the wording of the
questions surprised me.
To me a vow is
a solemn promise to do something or abstain from something. No doubt this is
the intention behind the questions (an intention which I take seriously!). But
what is literally asked is, ‘Are you willing?’
That is all –
the will in the moment which is expected to endure, and which the candidate is
expected to protect.
In the Gospel
of Luke, Jesus’ long journey towards Jerusalem begins with the sentence, autos
to prosōpon estērisen tou poreuesthai eis Hierousalēm – ‘He fixed his face
to go to Jerusalem’.
