We Are All Connected in Our Lady

We Are All Connected in Our Lady

May the good Lord be praised, forever and ever. Amen.
My heart was in turmoil when I was informed in the first week of August of my new assignment here in Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church in Wan Chai where I began my life’s journey six decades plus ago. Change is the only one certainty which I know remains unchanged. Wan Chai has changed a lot and I too have grown old. Looking back, the good Lord has been moulding me and polishing me with various encounters so that I could be a handier instrument of His. Whenever I felt settled and retired, He would uproot me with new challenges, ridding me of my inadequacies. In the course of moving around and ahead, I’ve weaved a web of relationships and picked up many treasure stones. Life on earth is genuinely an adventure, a journey to find the way home to our Creator. But in reality, He is always around with us.

At first, I felt nervous about this new assignment because Fr. Thomas Law, our parish priest, taught me Liturgical & Sacramental Theology in the Holy Spirit Seminary College. Every mass in which I assist would feel like a graduation examination! Such an anxiety proves to be groundless and very soon it evaporates. Now I’m able to immerse myself in the masses he celebrates and am animated by his homilies. I discover charity in his prophetic criticisms of the present situation of Hong Kong. Here is a big heart for the people of Hong Kong, in particular the disadvantaged, as well as for the officials who run the show. Fr. Thomas Law continues to be my mentor, opening up in me a new perspective to see God’s relationships with the world.

As a deacon, I’m supposed to be a symbol, a witness of the servant role of the Church in the world. The good Lord set an exemplar of this diaconate role when He washed the feet of His disciples in the Last Supper and told His disciples and therefore the Church to do the same (John 13:13-17). In my previous assignment, I visited together with the parishioners outsourced janitors as well as home alone elderly in the neighbourhood, and prison inmates in Tai Lam. However, I didn’t feel fulfilled. Something was missing. Thanks to my spiritual director, Fr. Francis Tam. He reminded me of the necessity to discern whether there was any improvement in my relationship with the Lord. Am I doing the Lord’s work or my own work? To be candid, I have to admit that there was vainglory in those visits, those “achievements”. I’m supposed to be serving the Lord in them (Matthew 25:40) but I find no progress in my intimacy with the Lord. Here in Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church, I was overwhelmed by your services to the disadvantaged on Fridays. I see very many deacons and deaconesses in this parish. You have done even before His Holiness Pope Francis and His Eminence, Cardinal John Tong appeal you to do in “Pastoral Conversion of the Parish Community in the service of the Evangelizing mission of the Church”. I’m humbled and I praise the good Lord. Alleluia!

The Blessed Virgin Mary is yet another beautiful exemplar. Just as Most Reverend Bishop Joseph Ha, OFM said on our Feast Day celebration, “The Mother of Jesus is Here!” (John 2:1, Acts 1:14) We are blessed to have Our Lady of Mount Carmel as our Patroness and thus our model. She is a caring, trusting and most important of all, guiding exemplar! Dear Brethren. October is the month of the Rosary. Let’s meditate the twenty mysteries of the Rosary diligently and benefit from her intercession. In her, we’re connected as siblings of Jesus. Through her, we gain easy access to our good Lord Jesus.

Our Lady of Mount Carmel, pray for us. Amen.

HOMESTEAD 2021 Sept. edition