The real test of deaconate formation - as well as all Christian formation, which involves authentic metanoia or conversion or change of heart - boils down to one basic query: Who is loving in places where they have not loved before?

To accomplish this daunting personal task requires "crossing the tracks," Jack Jezreel, founder and executive director of JustFaith Ministries, told some 200 diocesan deacon directors and their spouses April 19 during the 29th annual convention of the National Association of Deaconate Directors at the Omni Hotel in Los Angeles.

"Who is loving in places where they have not loved before is the best evidence of authentic conversion and transformation in Jesus Christ," he said. "I'm not suggesting it's the only thing. I'm just suggesting that it's a telltale, critical symptom of authentic metanoia."

One of the effective strategies of deaconate formation, for Christian formation, "is to invite people to cross the tracks, to go to places where they have not loved before because they were afraid," Jezreel said. "Remember, the opposite of love is not hate; the opposite of love is fear. Love breaks the fear."

Jezreel said social justice formation programs in dioceses and parishes must create opportunities for people of all ages to go places and witness up close the daily struggles of the poor and oppressed. The father of three reported that his own 20-year-old daughter was evangelized by volunteering with the Missionaries of Charity in Haiti and just holding abandoned babies.

He pointed out when privileged young people and adults see the church actively involved in critical, life-giving ministry at home or around the world, Jesus becomes dramatically more prevalent in their own lives.

"Authentic conversion expresses itself in a greater and greater love unto communion with God, who is the great love," he noted. "The way that love gets expressed is by concrete acts of mercy, charity, solidarity, advocacy, justice in places where people have not previously loved.

"And that's our task, in deaconate formation, youth formation and even children's formation, to provide the rich soil where people's hearts can become larger."

Jezreel said people he's encountered who are the most spiritually mature are always individuals with the capacity to love in extraordinary ways. This usually means reaching out to the outcasts of society, because love can't go deep unless it also goes wide. As an example, he gave the once-aristocratic St. Francis, whose conversion happened only when he physically embraced a leper.

But the spiritually mature Christian never crosses the tracks with the intention of becoming holy, he stressed. The goal is always to just place oneself in "grace's way."

"We cross the tracks and put ourselves at the feet of our brothers and sisters who are poor and vulnerable not to prove we're holy, but to put ourselves in the place where the Holy Spirit can change us," he said. "Because that's the point. The path of holiness means constant openness to a new possibility for God. Prayer is the posture of saying, 'God! Change me.'"

Another side
Keith Davis, formation director for the Diocese of Phoenix, told The Tidings that after having JustFaith up and running for only a year, it was too soon for results to be analyzed about the effectiveness of the program, which began in 1989 in a Louisville, Kentucky, parish and has spread to over 600 parishes and churches across the country. Participants in Phoenix's deaconate program have the option of going through the program's 30 weeks of workshops and weekend retreats.

But he said anecdotal feedback has been impressive. One participant, for example, wrote an article to the local Catholic paper lauding JustFaith for allowing him to see another side of the immigration issue by visiting a day labor center.

"It just helped him to have this encounter with people who he would never have encountered otherwise," Davis explained. "He said his eyes were opened, that he had some preconceived notions about immigration and most of them were negative. He said he came to see what the culture says, what the media says isn't the reality of the situation. These are real people with real lives."

Davis said JustFaith is still changing his parish, St. Thomas More, in Phoenix. He called it a tremendous program that had developed some leaders who "really have a heart" for social justice ministry.

But he also acknowledged that the extensive program, which has congregations not only studying the church's commitment to the most vulnerable but actually visiting them, isn't for everybody.

"First of all, it takes commitment," Davis pointed out. "And anything that takes commitment is hard to get people to do. What Jack [Jezreel] is talking about is more than throwing some money into a basket. That's easier to do than it is to get people to do the face to face encounters.

"And when you get into justice issues, you're talking about change - changing people's minds," he added. "That's hard and much more controversial."

Editor's note: An introductory workshop, "The Call to Transform Our Hearts and the World," on JustFaith will be held July 8, 1-5 p.m. at La Casa de Maria Retreat Center, Santa Barbara. Cost is $10 (advanced registration before June 30) and $15 late registration. There is no charge for catechists, but they must register. On July 7, there will be a workshop for JustFaith graduates. Jack Jazreel will conduct both. For information, call Kathy Corcoran at (805) 969-5031x210. To sign up online visit www.lacasademaria.org.