(For the audio version of this blog, please visit: https://brothersinchristcmf.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Mass-Blog-for-the-5th-Sunday-of-Easter-2026.mp3)
Next time you go out to eat, be sure to tip your wait person generously. They represent a highly respected tradition in our early church. Some early waiters are our church’s most honored martyrs. St. Stephen, for example.
He was a deacon of the early Church that was growing from the root of Christ’s cross. The word Deacon evolved from the Greek diakonos (servants or waiters). As this Sunday’s first reading tells us, these deacons helped fill a void in the role the apostles were playing (Acts 6:1-7). They served as assistants, acting as the “eyes and ears” of the apostles—and the muscles that carried and served the worldly goods their growing population needed for survival.
Servers are the foundation of any service establishment, whether a restaurant or a church. The founder of our church is its cornerstone, and we servants are the support system. Those ancient deacons’ focus on practical service freed the Apostles to preach God’s word without worldly distractions. Although the role of modern-day deacons in our church has grown more Apostle-like in sacramentality, they also model a vital support function that dates back to their ancestors serving in Christ’s earthly ministry: as a brick supporting his cornerstone.
By aligning with our Cornerstone’s precise position, angle, and level, we supportive bricks help it function as our Church’s foundational load-bearing reference point. This has ensured our Church’s integrity and stability through the centuries. We do so by announcing “the praises of him who called us out of darkness into his wonderful light,” as St. Peter tells us in this Sunday’s second reading (1 Peter 2:4-9). Through our Church, the priestly functions of Christ’s life, passion and resurrection stay strong and supportive.
What does all this have to do with waiters? You and I serve up God’s will in word and deed. Remember, our boss, the cornerstone of our establishment, put on an apron and washed his apostles’ feet at their last supper together, showing them how service is done.
And this Sunday, as we recall Christ’s last meeting with them (John 14:1-12), he assures them that their service will get better and better through the power of the Holy Spirit he will send them.
“Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes in me will do the works that I do, and will do greater ones than these, because I am going to the Father.”
There is no greater work than to serve up the word of God in word and deed and nourish those we encounter so they can share in and contribute to the strength of the cornerstone supporting our establishment.
–Tom Andel