Three seminarians were ordained to the transitional diaconate April 18 by Archbishop Jeffrey S. Grob at the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist, Milwaukee. (Photo by Saint Francis de Sales Seminary)
On the morning of Saturday, April 18, at the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist in downtown Milwaukee, Archbishop Jeffrey S. Grob ordained seminarians Jacob Bruns, Adam Widder and Scott Zarling to the office of transitional diaconate.
Moments before he did so, he asked the three men a powerful question: “Jacob, Adam, Scott: For whom are you willing to lay down your life?”
“No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” (John 15:13) These words of Jesus Christ, uttered on the last night before his Passion and Death, contain within them “everything it means” to be a follower of Christ, said the archbishop in his homily.
“Jesus not only tells us succinctly that we should love one another, but he then gives himself as that perfect model of love,” he told the congregation, which included family and friends of the ordinandi as well as members of the public and dozens of seminarians and priests from throughout the archdiocese.
Less than two weeks after the Church celebrated the Resurrection, the archbishop noted, “we have just walked again with the Lord through another Lenten season, Holy Week, Triduum and beyond, and these occasions have shown that Jesus’ work and ministry was not something that was restricted to the cross.”
And yet, without the cross, what did that work, that ministry, mean?
“His willingness to lay down his life for us is such a powerful proof of the actual depth of that love,” said Grob. “There is no way to doubt what Jesus meant when he uttered those words.”
Dcn. Bruns (whose home parish is St. Mary, Menomonee Falls), Dcn. Widder (St. Robert, Shorewood) and Dcn. Zarling (St. Peter, Slinger, but who is a longtime parishioner of St. Dominic, Brookfield) will spend the next year as transitional deacons anticipating priestly ordination in the spring of 2027.
Dcn. Bruns will continue to serve his teaching parish of St. Monica in Whitefish Bay, Dcn. Widder will continue to serve St. Jerome in Oconomowoc, and Dcn. Zarling will continue to serve at Nativity of the Lord in Cudahy, St. Paul in Milwaukee and Sacred Heart of Jesus in St. Francis. As transitional deacons, their role will change somewhat. Now, they can assist at the altar in the celebration of the Eucharist, witness and bless marriages, proclaim and preach the Gospel, bring Viaticum to the dying, preside over funerals and dedicate themselves to ministries of charity.
“These men are on fire for the Lord and will breathe much life into the parishes of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee,” Fr. Luke Strand, Rector of Saint Francis de Sales Seminary, told the Catholic Herald.
The transitional diaconate is the first degree of the Sacrament of Holy Orders, and as ordained ministers, Dcns. Bruns, Widder and Zarling will “be set apart to be witnesses” of the love that stands ready to lay down its life, said Archbishop Grob.
He encouraged them to be strengthened by that love.
“Do not allow yourself to be turned away from the hope of the Gospel, despite what might come your way. And here’s the spoiler alert: Things will come your way,” he told them. “Don’t be ashamed of the Gospel. Hear it. Preach it. Serve it. Hold fast to the mystery of faith with a clear conscience, and express by your actions the Word of God which your lips proclaim, so that the Christian people, brought to life by the Spirit, may become a pure offering acceptable to God.”
Sacramental grace is not “magic,” the archbishop reminded them. It requires cooperation. It requires a laying down of one’s life.
“This Christocentric love takes place most powerfully only as you continue to personally lose yourself in him, when you cooperate with the help of his grace, and by your willingness to grow in knowledge of yourself,” he said. “There’s no magic here. Just living — day to day to day.”
Archbishop Grob quoted St. John Neumann: “It has the hands to help others. It has the feet to hasten to the poor and needy. It has the eyes to see misery and want. It has the ears to hear the sighs and sorrows of others. This is what love looks like.”
“May your hearts, my dear sons,” he concluded, “always be on fire with such love.”
