By Vanitha Nadaraj
IT was the teachings of Thomas Aquinas on suffering that made an Anglican explore and eventually embrace Catholicism.
Fung Yiyan came across Acquinas’ teachings when researching the theme of suffering in the Book of Job for an assignment in a theological course she enrolled on in 2023.
“One of the questions in the assignment was how can the teachings in Job help us during times of suffering,” she recalled.
Fung thought of putting herself in the shoes of someone going through unjust suffering, such as a mother who lost her only child to a terrible crime and was let down by the justice system.
“Still, I couldn’t find anything satisfactory in the works of Protestant scholars,” she said, adding that they did not say why one needs to persevere amid suffering.
Her search led to Thomas Aquinas and the work of Catholic scholars.
“For St Thomas Aquinas, it is not here in this lifetime where ultimate justice, reward and consolation are to be found. But the afterlife,” she explained.
Aquinas is one of the Catholic Church’s greatest theologians and philosophers. Fung also found that it was not just his teachings on suffering but Catholic theology as a whole that really appealed to her.
“I frequently experienced bouts of spiritual dryness where I felt as if God had abandoned me. It’s a terrible, confusing experience,” the 32-year-old Kuala Lumpur-based auditor told UCA News.
While still with the Anglican Church, Fung would turn to the Bible for answers because, in Protestantism, the Scriptures are the ultimate authority.
“I did find some verses of hope and encouragement, but I still felt lost,” she recalled.
“Spiritual dryness isn’t spoken about much in Protestantism. The Catechism of the Catholic Church was the only place that dwelt on in,” she added.
Some saints, like St John of the Cross, St Mother Teresa, and St. Therese of Lisieux, express how they dealt with spiritual dryness in their writing.
For Fung, it was proof that she wasn’t the only one. “It was such a relief to know that God never abandons anybody and that these bouts of spiritual dryness may not necessarily be because I’m doing something wrong. And it is good to persevere,” she said.
Catholic theology began to make sense to her. The Sacred Tradition made the Bible teachings much more practical and easier to follow.
“That was why I could accept Catholic teaching so easily,” she added.
Early last year, she started attending Mass at the Church of Our Lady of Fatima in Brickfields near her home.
After she began to read and understand more about Catholicism, her interest grew.
“I really like Mass. It’s so beautiful, like heaven on earth,” Fung said.
A few months later, in August, she signed up for the Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults (RCIA).
She will be confirmed this Easter as she need not get baptized because the Catholic Church recognizes her Anglican baptism.
The Anglican Church did not stop her from leaving, and neither did her Taoist-Buddhist parents who did not stand in her way when she became an Anglican in 2003.
The Christian presence has been a part of her life, though Fung hails from Kelantan, an eastern state where almost 96 percent of the people are Muslim-Malays.
Catholics and Protestants combined form about 0.4 percent, according to official statistics for 2020.
“Throughout my life, I’ve attended weddings and other social events in churches in Kelantan. I was interested in Christianity, but I didn’t pursue it because I was living with my parents,” she said.
Fung recalled wanting to be an obedient child during her school days. As she got older, her interest in religion waned. She came to Kuala Lumpur for higher studies and then started working.
“I became like other young people — religion was considered old-fashioned, not cool.”
But city life was stressful and Fung found it hard to cope.
The stress of working in one of the globe’s top four accounting firms began to exhaust her.
“It was very competitive out there — a dog-eat-dog world. But I was so caught up in it,” she recalled.
Finally, she began looking for a church, any church — and she found an Anglican one.
“The sermon was about how God did not care about our achievements. I took it as a sign to keep attending the church.”
She found peace in God, but the need for deeper understanding brought her to the Catholic Church.
Fung is looking forward to the Easter Vigil on Apr 19, at which she will take Catherine as her confirmation name.
“St Catherine of Sienna. I love her complete surrender of her will to God. She has an all-consuming love for God. I love this idea of uniting our suffering with Christ, being closely united with God the whole time.”
Fung is one of 11 catechumens and candidates for the RCIA in the English-speaking section of that parish.
Assunta Januarius, one of the facilitators at the RCIA program, said it was clear that Fung’s desire to know God more personally and intimately was not met at the Anglican Church.
“Her interest in the writings of St Thomas Aquinas has enabled her to find that satisfaction in the Roman Catholic Church, which has brought her into the RCIA program,” she told UCA News.
Januarius, who has been in this ministry for the last two years, is impressed by Fung’s enthusiastic queries and responses, which “show her maturity in understanding, accepting, and committing to the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church.”
Fung is a much happier person now, having found her spiritual life moving “on a steadier path and in a more purposeful direction.”
One of the biggest challenges for a Protestant accepting Catholic Church teachings is the role of Mother Mary.
But for Fung, that was not an issue at all.
“When you understand who Mary is and her role as an intercessor, you will love her,” she said. – UCA News
