By Deacon Andrew Khoo Deacon
Apr 25 2023
Looking at him, Jesus loved him. Mark 10:21. The genesis of every vocation is the loving gaze of Jesus, who calls. Why He calls and who He calls belong to the mystery of election that is obscured to us men and known to God alone. Certainly, He doesn’t call the qualified. Rather, He qualifies those whom He calls.
The convoluted paths of my journey do not merit recounting. Suffice it to say that God’s ways are indeed mysterious. Looking back, I see how blessed I am to have grown up in a home where the faith permeated our lives to such an extent that often it is easy to take for granted how extraordinary a sign of His predilection it was. I recall with fondness our family Rosary and how my grandfather read the Bible to me nightly when I was just a small child.
My grandmother Theresa and my grandfather Alfred have faithfully transmitted that most precious gift they lovingly received, our Catholic faith. They introduced me to Our God so I could know Him and love Him, and now serve Him.
They lived their faith and lived it heroically. It is their lived testimony, their genuine love of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus and His Most Blessed Mother, more than any other human factor, that nourished the seed of God’s call in my heart. In every moment, especially those which are most difficult, their unwavering trust in God and His goodness, and His providential loving kindness, made my life of faith a living reality rather than mere rote truths to be spouted.
The challenges to the faith each person faces in an academic environment prodded my inquisitive nature to deeply study the Sacred Scriptures and the historical record to see whether the claims of the Church can stand up to rigorous intellectual scrutiny or whether like the fables of childhood, they were consigned to ash heaps of archaic good intentioned fairy tales.
Surprisingly, for me at least, not only do the truths of the Catholic Church endure examination, but it turns out they are the only intellectually viable worldview! God the Creator of the world is also the Revealer, and both truths ultimately have the same author, Truth Himself who cannot deceive or be deceived.
Despite serving Him in various capacities in my parish over many years, God’s insistent invitation was for me to identify with Him as a religious of the Incarnate Word, poor, chaste, and obedient, and finally to serve Him and His people by participating in His priesthood, offering my life to be transformed and poured out.
Paraphrasing St Augustine, for you, I am a to-be priest, but with you, I am a Christian. The first is an office undertaken with fear and trembling on account of my unworthiness. The second, recalls to me the name of Him by whose blood I have been redeemed and in whose Most Sacred Heart I take refuge in this tempest-tossed life until in the safe harbour of His loving, welcoming arms, I find my rest. Pray for me. – Herald Malaysia
(Andrew, from the Church of the Immaculate Conception, Penang will be ordained priest of the Institute of the Incarnate Word (IVE) on April 29 at 3.00pm at the Diocese of Lipa, Philippines. Please keep him in your prayers as we remember the community and their mission.)
