Lisa Siebold had no idea her son Martin would choose the life of a priest. To be fair, neither did his dad, Larry. Or little sister Lauren, for that matter.
In fact, the only one who had any inkling at all was the late Lucille Kordsmeier, Siebold’s great-aunt. And she was only playing the numbers.
“The Kordsmeiers have been a pretty Catholic family,” Lisa said. “My Aunt Lucille always prayed every day that one of her nieces or nephews would be a priest or religious. Today is her birthday and she’s looking down beaming today.”
The standing-room-only scene unfolded May 18 at Immaculate Heart of Mary Church in North Little Rock (Marche). Folding chairs crammed every available inch of the sanctuary as dozens of diocesan priests, deacons and seminarians stood elbow-to-elbow with the primped and proud native congregation to witness the first diaconate ordination in the parish’s 138-year history.
“I think the coolest thing we see in the ritual is the man is called forth from the people,” Martin Siebold said, referring to the presentation of the candidate.
“(Msgr. Scott Friend, vocations director) says, ‘After questioning the Christian people, he has been found worthy,’” Siebold said. “It’s the sense of calling the man from the people to serve the people; that the people have chosen me. It’s a great honor to be one of the chosen.”
Siebold, the great-nephew of the late Msgr. Charles Kordsmeier, traced his calling to 2007 when during a break on a youth retreat he was invited to watch the vocation video “Fishers of Men.”
“I said what the heck, I’ll give it a shot,” he recalled. “They put it on and through that video, I heard the Lord call me. ‘Serve my people,’ that’s what I heard him say to my heart.”
Words of wisdom
In his bilingual homily, Bishop Anthony B. Taylor spoke directly to Siebold, underscoring the responsibilities he was about to undertake.
“You are making a profoundly counter-cultural commitment,” he said. “A preferential concern for the poor and marginalized modeled on that of Jesus; a life dedicated to the proclamation of the kingdom of God in a world shrouded in darkness, in a society which often gives lip service to Jesus but then turns around and does the opposite. And, of course, nothing could be more counter-cultural or a more powerful sign in today’s hedonistic society than your commitment to celibate chastity.
“You don’t stop being a deacon once you become a priest — or a bishop for that matter — meaning that the three-fold diaconal ministry of charity, ministry of the word and ministry of the altar is fundamental for all ordained ministers in the Catholic Church.”
Next chapter
Siebold, 26, radiated joy with every greeting and well-wisher who came his way and even indulged slight smiles during different parts of Mass, most pronounced when he stepped in front of the altar with the thurible to cense the congregants. He said he wanted his life in ministry to be equally authentic and reflect his personality, where the solemn and the celebratory sit side by side.
“I think we’re all called to be true to ourselves, to be honest and open with who we are,” he said. “It’s once we tap into our own personality, our own identity, and then immerse that identity into the identity of Christ that we really become one of his followers, one of his disciples.
“Recognizing both those things go hand-in-hand, being true to myself doesn’t mean (demonstrating) a false piety or a kind of external locust of self. But rather, being internally comfortable and true to myself allows me to be true to other people.”
This summer he will minister as a deacon at St. Raphael Church in Springdale.
