First Homily at Ascension Chinese Church - IV Easter, Cycle A

Acts 2:14a, 36-41
Ps23
1 Pt 2:20b-25
Jn 10:1-10

Firstly, I want to thank Fr. Zee for allowing me to preach this evening. It is an honor and privilege to be able to do so, especially because this Sunday is known as “Good Shepherd” Sunday and the “World Day of Prayer for Vocations”. This is my first time to assist Fr. Zee after I was ordained to the diaconate two months ago. Some of you may not know me and in case you missed it, my name is Dcn. Reuben Chen. I was born and raised in Dallas, TX and grew up at the Sacred Heart of Jesus Chinese Parish. My family is from Taiwan and so I am an ABC. You may wonder how an ABC Catholic ended up to where I am today. After all, my parents did raise me right, immigrating to America, learning a new language, working very hard from the very bottom of the social ladder, raising a family with two sons to succeed in society: I made pretty good grades in school, I went to Chinese school on Saturdays, Church on Sundays, honor society, Boy Scouts, and went to UT Austin for college to study electrical engineering. I studied very well enough to work at Intel Corporation for almost one year as an intern. Everything looked like my parents raised me right, why did I choose a future where I would give up having a family, not making any money, and always having to listen to a boss to whom I owe complete obedience? It doesn’t make any sense. If all the hard work of my parents in raising me – their blood, sweat, and tears – was only for me to do what I am doing now, the secular world, the world out there will say that I have thrown it all away – wasted it.

When Pope John Paul II (now Blessed), came to Denver in 1994 for World You Day – a gathering of hundreds of thousands of young people around the world, I went. I think I was waay too young to go, but I went. It was incredible to see the Holy Father! People chanted “JPII, We Love You” and he surprised us back in saying, “JPII loves you too!” When I met the Holy Father (well I didn’t REALLY meet him); he was soooo faaaaar away, but I was there and this changed my life forever. The last verse of the Gospel today is so fitting for today; at least it is for me because it was the theme of WYD that year, and what Jesus is saying to us right now, “I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly.” Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd came into this world, came into our life and into our very hearts so that “we may have life and have it more abundantly.”

This beautiful Gospel passage today is known as the “Good Shepherd Discourse” and Jesus is our Good shepherd. (It should really be called Jesus, the Good Shepherd OF COURSE!) In the previous chapter, Jesus just healed a blind man and the Pharisees question Jesus’ authority. Jesus replies with this discourse.

We are the little sheep, and Jesus is our shepherd. There are other shepherds out there in the world, there are many voices that call us to do this or that. There are other spiritual voices: protestant Christians with all different beliefs, Buddhist, Muslims, Jews, and Hindu ones; but there are also books that you read – bookstores have a large section on “spirituality” that are different than Jesus’ voice. There are secular voices – your office coworkers, the media of radio, television, movies, music. Many different voices, everything that you hear, even if they are saying something directly to you, you are being influenced by it. Jesus is the Good Shepherd, he is our Good Shepherd and we need to hear his voice. Look at how many distractions that you have in your life. You have your family, your job, your children, and your friends. So many distractions – when will you have time, when can you sit quietly and pray and listen to God’s voice. He is always speaking to you, it is us that have trouble listening because we hear too many voices. Those are the thieves and the robbers that try to steal the sheep from God’s sheepfold.

In this teaching, Jesus does not yet call himself the Good Shepherd; it is the next verse in the Gospel. But before he calls himself the Good Shepherd, he calls himself “the Gate”. Jesus also says that he is the “Way, the Truth, and the Life” – we must go through his gate to enter into eternal life. A sheepfold only has one gate, which the sheep enter and leave. This is through Jesus Christ – he is THE WAY. It is through Jesus that we have eternal life and it is through Jesus by abandoning and turning our back on him that we lose our eternal life. As He is not only the Gate, He is the Good Shepherd, He calls us. He is the voice of TRUTH, He tells us how that our lives are worth it, that we are loved by the Father, and that we will continue to live in His love by listening to His voice in our hearts – He speaks the Truth, we only have to but listen. The Letter of Peter also tells us today, “For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow in his footsteps.” He is the Good Shepherd for us “the guardian of our souls”, finding us and searching us out, even when we “have gone astray”. He calls us, if we are truly His sheep, then we will listen to His VOICE, His TRUTH.

Finally he is the LIFE. He is the way because he is the Gate that we pass through, we listen to Him because He has the voice of Truth, and He is the Life. “I came so that you might have life and have it more abundantly.” We follow the Way, we follow the Truth, so that we may gain our eternal reward – eternal LIFE!

I told you a little about my vocation and my life. About my parents and how they worked so hard to raise me. I want to let you know something very personal and very special about Ascension Church: It was exactly six years ago, last week (5/8, Mother’s Day), at Ascension Chinese parish, I felt the call of Jesus Christ, to do something that the world would have considered to be throwing my life away. That was the voice of another shepherd, the voice of the world: “giving up a future wife and children, your freedom, and your family is throwing your life away!!” But I heard another voice, the voice of Jesus in my heart say to me, “Come, Follow me.” I heard the voice of the Good Shepherd and he told me, a sheep of his flock to follow him in a special way. Here I stand before you preaching the wonder and awesomeness of God’s love for each and every one of you. He loves each and everyone of you dearly. He is the Good Shepherd, I know because I have heard His voice, I have heard Him call. I could have made lots of money, started a family and lived how I wanted to live my life. But Jesus, the Good Shepherd came so that I might have life and have it even more abundantly!!!