First Homily - 1st Lent, Cycle A

Gn 2:7-9; 3:1-7
Ps 51
Rom 5:12-19
Mt 4:1-11

I want to thank everyone for your support and for your prayers and for everything that you have done for me. Almost six years ago, we were sitting in St. Paul’s Church, without a home. I remember that day very clearly, I had just got back from Taiwan, I was actually quite sick that day and very weak, but Fr. Pang asked me to come up to the altar and it was there that I made my announcement to all of you that I was entering the seminary. I knew that this journey would be hard and would need lots of prayer. Thank you to all of you who have prayed for me daily, that have offered me words of encouragement, and those that have supported me financially and materially. I could not have made it this far without your prayers and support, I know that for sure. I stand before you today as a deacon, the fruit of your labor. Thank you!

Many of you have asked me how does it feel, or what does my future hold. This is just too surreal for me and I really do not know how to express my joy and gratitude that I have in my heart! It is times like this where one wants to cry out, “Praise the Lord! Alleluia!” I am having way too much fun for it to be Lent!!!!!

God’s will has been working constantly in my life, especially yesterday and today. During my final weeks and days before my ordination, I have often asked God why he put the day of my ordination right at the beginning of Lent. Why do I have to suffer and do penance while I want to celebrate with my family and friends? His answer is very clear, when we look at today’s Gospel. Jesus is led into the desert by the Spirit. What is important is what happens right before Jesus is led into the desert, he is baptized by John the Baptist. And not only that, the heavens open and God the Father announces for the world, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” Immediately after this incredible declaration from the Father, Jesus is led into the desert. The Gospel of Mark has even stronger words, that Jesus was “driven” into the desert. What a radical change that must be, to have all the love and praise from the one you love and then suddenly for it to be taken away and led into a desert for forty days!

The Church, in her wisdom, put today’s readings together to set the tone for us and for this Lent. The story in Genesis tells us how Adam and Eve sinned before God and brought sin into God’s creation. You know and I know that sin spreads like dominoes falling down. One person’s sin affects everybody around them and even affects creation through pollution and extinction. But St. Paul writes in Romans that through one man’s disobedience sin entered the world, and so it is that through one man’s obedience, the many were made righteous. Jesus Christ succeeded where Adam failed. The Gospel of Jesus’ temptations in the desert gives us four lessons for us in Lent. Each of his temptations, of hunger, of faith, and of power is a lesson for us: “Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes forth from the mouth of God.” “You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test.” “The Lord, your God, shall you worship and him alone shall you serve.” For me, as a deacon, I made some very big promises of obedience, chastity and a life of prayer. Today’s Gospel connects these very closely: hunger and sexual desires are bodily needs; it’s an exercise of self-control. In the same way that man does not live on bread on alone, I must live a celibate life and live by the word of God. I will be faced with many problems in the church: everything from the parishioners’ problems, the church’s problems, and plenty of politics. A life of prayer means that I have faith that God will keep me safe, if I rely on him, if I do not take everything into my own hands and try to test God, I will be ok and he will keep me safe. I promised obedience to the bishop and to the authority and teaching of the Church. This means that again, I am obedient to God through my obedience to the Church. I do not make myself, Deacon Reuben Chen, the great leader and savior of the world…. No, I am at the service of the Lord and do His will, not my will.

I mentioned that were four lessons in this Gospel and I have spelled out Jesus’ three temptations: hunger, faith, and obedience. But I want to take a small aside to make my point on the fourth lesson, which occurs before the temptations. I noticed that Jesus was fasting for forty days and forty nights and then the Gospel says, “…and afterwards he was hungry. The tempter approached and said to him…” Although the other Gospels indicate that the temptations occurred during the forty days, Matthew’s Gospel could almost be read like the temptations happened AFTER the forty days and nights. Can you imagine these temptations occurring then? Here we are at the beginning of Lent, everybody is ready to fast and pray and do everything that Lent requires and then, towards the end of Lent, somebody announces that Lent is being extended for another forty days! I think that would make Jesus’ temptations that much harder to be surprised by something so unexpected and so much more difficult. But isn’t that what happens to us?

Many times we think we are about to reach the end, but then expectations change and there are new challenges. For me, I have been discerning for six years and I have finally been ordained, this is a huge milestone for me. But at the same time, when I look at Jesus’ temptation the way I have just described it, my temptations, my life and the real test is just beginning, I have to persevere!!!

Join me in this Lent. Enter into today’s Gospel prayerfully as a way for you to imitate Jesus. Go into the desert and begin your fasting, your prayer, and your almsgiving. Take away all those things that won’t bring you to God and get to God. I realized that all of the Lents that I have been through (it’s not that many, I’m not that old), I have noticed that the more I give up, the more I pray, the more I try to bring myself closer to God in this time, the happier I am and the closer I am to Him when it is during Easter time. Lenten practices strip away all those things that are unnecessary in life and helps you focus on what is the most important: God.

Yesterday, the heavens were opened as I lay prostrate on the floor of the sanctuary. I felt God’s love shining down on me, all the saints coming from heaven praying, and the incredible outpouring love to us new deacons. And even today, everyone has been saying all these wonderful things to me. I’m really having a great time celebrating. However, I know when all this is over, I will be led in the desert like Jesus. I will have to return to my seminary and my studies. But on the spiritual level, I will have to enter into Lent just like everybody else. I will have to go through forty days of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. So God’s answer for why my ordination is at the beginning of Lent? God is showing me, and perhaps you too, how I can imitate Christ’s life better through his three temptations and the temptation of final perseverance.