“Are you sure this isn’t a priestly ordination?” an attendee in the back pews at St Joachim’s Lidcombe on Friday night asked out loud.
One could be forgiven for drawing that conclusion from the grand scale of Justin Faehrmann’s ordination to the diaconate on 26 July.
Guests from Catholic communities in Spain flew in, priests from Sydney and other dioceses flooded the pews and extra chairs were arranged almost out onto John Street and around the church’s perimeter.
Drums echoed across Lidcombe as more than a thousand parishioners witnessed the two-hour Rite of Ordination, on what was also the parish’s patronal feast day.
Deacon Justin gave thanks to all who contributed to his journey—family, friends, teachers and more—but reserved his profoundest gratitude for the Lord.
“Thanks be to God who has searched me, who knows me, and who has made known to me how he has called me to respond to his love,” he said.
“Thanks be to God for every joy, every sorrow, every success, every failure, every trial and tribulation, for it is through each one of these—and indeed through every moment of life—that he has formed me and drawn me into a deep relationship with himself.”
Justin presented himself before the congregation, newly-vested in his deacon’s dalmatic, with a smile.
He made his promise to serve in the vineyard of the Lord to cheers and applause.
In his homily, Auxiliary Bishop of Sydney Daniel Meagher said the call to religious vocation bears the responsibility to “radiate that presence [of God] to all.”
“Like all of us, he’ll be called to open up more and more to the love of God, the goodness of God,” the bishop said.
From a love of the faith as a young boy considering Opus Dei, to an accounting career which ultimately left him unfulfilled, God’s servant Justin was called back to a life of service.
“For a long time Justin, as we all do, has been doing his own thing. But, as is true for all of us, God just loves us and loves us and loves us, prods us on to trust him, to live the word, to find happiness,” Bishop Meagher said.
“Justin’s ministry, if he’s open and prayerful and humble, will keep evolving and it will keep getting better because God keeps calling us, keeps loving us, keeps giving us his own Holy Spirit.”
As celebrations continued into the night, the newly-minted deacon made his promise to God and all witnesses at St Joachim’s clear.
“This is only the beginning of a life of dedicated service to God and his people.”