I Must Stay With You Tonight

I must stay at your house tonight," Jesus tells Zacchaeus, the short, squirrelly, much-hated tax collector who had climbed a tree to get a glimpse of this radical rabbi. At the time, tax collectors were crooks, white-collar criminals. They worked for the occupying foreign government (Rome) by collecting taxes, and in turn Rome gave them permission to charge more in order to raise their own salaries. When Zacchaeus welcomes Jesus and decides to turn from a life of (legalized) crime, Jesus says, "Today salvation has come to this house, because this person, too, is a child of Abraham. For I came to seek out and to save the lost" (see Luke 19:1-10).

It was this last line that moved some African-American Catholic deacons in 2002 to set up Zacchaeus House on South Parnell Street in Chicago. The children of Abraham the deacons seek out, the lost that the deacons want to save, are men who are "in transition to stability in their lives," according to the profile published in July 2004 on the Black Catholic Chicago web page . They might be formerly homeless guys trying to overcome an addiction. Or guys who've been unemployed longer than they can remember. Or guys just out of prison with nowhere else to go. (Did you know that in the United States, three out of four African-American men in their 20s are more likely to be given a jail cell than a job in this country?)

Deacon Abrom Salley is the director of Zacchaeus House, which bills itself as a "not-for-profit, nontreatment residential facility." The "nontreatment" part means that the House itself does not provide psychological or medical treatment programs, which of course require doctors and government licenses and so on. But Deacon Salley points out that the staff at the House are quick to help the men get into treatment programs offered elsewhere. The main purpose of Zacchaeus House is to provide "a secure environment of respect, order and peace while offering opportunities for sharpening life skills, growth in self-esteem, and spiritual maturity," according to Reverend Mr. Salley.

He lives in the House full-time. Other deacons take round-the-clock shifts as house-monitors or heads of specific programs. They register new residents, lead prayer services and Bible study, and work outside the House to invite the participation of non-Catholic churches and secular organizations.

Zacchaeus House is at 12242 S Parnell, Chicago, 773-568-7822. For more information go to the Black Catholics in Chicago website . To learn more about Catholic deacons, go here: http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Permanent%20diaconate.

Catholic Connections

“At a lower level of the hierarchy are deacons, upon whom hands are imposed "not unto the priesthood, but unto a ministry of service." For strengthened by sacramental grace, in communion with the bishop and his group of priests they serve in the diaconate of the liturgy, of the word, and of charity to the people of God. It is the duty of the deacon, according as it shall have been assigned to him by competent authority, to administer baptism solemnly, to be custodian and dispenser of the Eucharist, to assist at and bless marriages in the name of the Church, to bring Viaticum to the dying, to read the Sacred Scripture to the faithful, to instruct and exhort the people, to preside over the worship and prayer of the faithful, to administer sacramentals, to officiate at funeral and burial services. Dedicated to duties of charity and of administration, let deacons be mindful of the admonition of Blessed Polycarp: ‘Be merciful, diligent, walking according to the truth of the Lord, who became the servant of all.’”
The Second Vatican Council (1962-1965), Dogmatic Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, #29.


Reflection Questions

The order of deacons was re-established in the 1970s because the need to link eucharist and charity in the world was great. What other needs in the world do you see that the church might respond to by organizing another group of people into a ministry, as we did with the deacons?

Join us in our Forum to discuss these questions!