Just a few years ago, Kenan MacKenzie served the Downtown Eastside as a paramedic, responding to emergencies amid suffering, addiction, and loss. Today, as a permanent deacon serving in the Archdiocese of Vancouver, his vocational journey has come full circle. He walks those same streets carrying not medical equipment but the presence of Christ. In this reflection, he describes his call to ordained ministry, its deepening of his understanding of service, and how it led him to rediscover the Downtown Eastside through his work with the Door Is Open and in the Downtown Eastside.
My first introduction to the permanent diaconate came when the then-director of the Archdiocese of Vancouver’s permanent diaconate office, Msgr. Gregory Smith, led a mission at Holy Family in Sechelt. Later, a parishioner hosting dinner asked us, “Do you know anyone who might make a deacon?”
I asked, “What does a deacon do?”
Msgr. Smith replied, “He serves!”
With a voice I recognize as my own, I heard a positive response. However, to this day, I am uncertain who actually said “yes.”
I did not know the gift that awaited me in the diaconate. It is not like a gift you unwrap on Christmas morning that soon passes away. It keeps getting better and keeps growing. It is a gift that we all receive as we grow in faith.
Throughout four years of study for the diaconate, Scripture came alive for me in a way I had never understood before. The blindness in my eyes began to clear, and I could see Love in a way I had never understood before.
As we grow in love for our Lord, our love for the people around us grows as well. Like Zacchaeus, the tax collector in the Gospel of Luke who climbed a tree to see Jesus coming, I began to contemplate the wood of the Cross to gain an understanding of how greatly the Lord loves us, that he would allow his only Son to die for me.
The final part of our diaconal studies was to complete 50 hours of pastoral care, and I was assigned to the Catholic Men’s Shelter. It was just as the COVID-19 pandemic began and I had just begun understanding the routine when a COVID case emerged. Unfortunately, the shelter was closed to students as a precaution.
During my brief tenure, I was deeply impressed by the compassion and empathy shown by the staff in serving our brothers. It was not merely a job; it was a vocation. One staff member, Alex, took me on a tour of the neighbourhood as we picked up a donation from a bakery. As we walked, Alex greeted the people we met. He explained they were guests of the shelter, people he served with dignity.
I was particularly moved by the joy of the bakery staff who donated to us. Their understanding of the significance of their gift and its potential impact on someone’s life was evident. The Gospel comes alive in service, which made me eager to learn and to serve.
Life was busy following ordination, as I was assigned to serve at my home parishes on the Sunshine Coast alongside Father Vincent Nguyen at Holy Family in Sechelt and Father Jack Dias at St. Mary’s in Gibsons. Juggling family responsibilities, parish service, my real estate career, and a business interest in the Okanagan with partners required much of my attention.
With the help of my daughter who joined me in real estate I was able to free up time from my business and volunteer at The Door Is Open on Thursdays. My family understands that even though they are not directly involved, they are part of the ministry, because without their support, I could not do this work.
The Door Is Open is a beautiful name for a Catholic charity that serves those in need. I never realized that “The Door Is Open” is meant for me as well. To truly heal the brokenness within us, we must open the door within ourselves so that we can encounter Christ. When we think about another and how we can help them, we begin an action through which Jesus, by his grace, can work.
Every person who places a blanket or an article of clothing in a parish collection box is opening the door of their heart and cooperating with our Lord by sharing the love he pours so freely into each of us.
A couple of weeks ago, a brother came into The Door Is Open. I looked down at his feet and said, “You have no shoes.”
He replied, “I have no shoes.”
I then said, “You have no socks.”
He replied, “I have no socks.”
Through the love of the person who placed shoes and socks in the collection box, I was able to go to the clothing room and give him what he needed. He also needed a pillow and blanket to keep him comfortable, as his bed was on the street.
As I write this, I am left with a glow of love. Michael told me that he had encountered Jesus recently, after a life marked by prison and self-harm. Jesus was with him that day, and he allowed us to experience this special grace. As Michael left in his new shoes, he sang Amazing Grace with a lighter step in his stride.
“There, but for the grace of God, go I.” This quote, attributed to John Bradford, a Protestant English martyr, was one I often shared with my partners when I worked as a paramedic in the Downtown Eastside. A friend who works at the Door is Open recently quoted those same words to me in a recent conversation.
Each person in the Downtown Eastside comes from one of our communities. They are someone’s son or daughter, brother or sister, mother or father. None of us wishes to be homeless, but only by the grace of God do we have homes and families.
I would listen to my patients’ stories as I transported them to the hospital, asking where they were from and what they did. Many professionals ended up on those streets due to a unfortunate events.
I remember a mother who arrived from Toronto, desperately trying to find her daughter living on the streets. There was a Christian youth who came to serve at The Door Is Open with his high school class and discovered a friend was among those living outside.
We pray that through our small Christ-like acts of love, our brothers and sisters will once again have a home.
Pope Leo, in his Message for the Ninth World Day of the Poor in November, said the poor are not a distraction for the Church but are our beloved brothers and sisters. Through their lives, words, and wisdom, they place us in contact with the truth of the Gospel.
The celebration of the World Day of the Poor reminds our communities that the poor are at the heart of all pastoral activity. This is true not only of the Church’s charitable work, but also of the message she celebrates and proclaims. God took on their poverty to enrich us through their voices, stories, and faces. Every form of poverty, without exception, calls us to live the Gospel concretely and to offer effective signs of hope.
When I first volunteered at The Door Is Open, co-manager Sister Chita Torres told me, “Many people come down to the Eastside to bring Jesus Christ to the people, and they find Jesus is already here.”
Serving at our Catholic charity, The Door Is Open, is a special gift through which we discover Christ in a way the Gospels continually call us to. When we freely give of ourselves, Jesus becomes fully present in that self-giving.
A volunteer from the Sunshine Coast contacted me after a day of serving at The Door Is Open. He shared that despite waking at 4:30 a.m., catching the first ferry, preparing a meal, and participating in street ministry, he felt both exhausted and guilty. Yet the abundance of grace he experienced was reflected in the love he offered to Christ.
My hope is that every Catholic might receive this abundant gift of grace by serving the poor around them, so that we may all become rich by discovering the presence of Christ within.
While speaking with two residents on the street, they mentioned a friend who hoped to quit drugs. They expressed concern that he might not succeed because he was thinking only of himself and not the impact on others. It is a reminder that each of us belongs to a community, not only within the walls of the Church but also with our neighbours.
We are not all called to heroic acts. Sometimes it is as simple as acknowledging those around us with a smile or a greeting. The heroes include those who set up collection boxes in their churches and those who fill them. We all have coats, clothes, and shoes that sit unworn in our closets, and they are deeply appreciated by our brothers and sisters.
The volunteers and staff at our Catholic charity, The Door Is Open, have a special gift for those they serve. It is the gift of caring—the desire to lift each person they encounter, to bring the tender love Jesus Christ has for each of us, and to let them know they are loved.
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