God chose someone so weak to serve

Deacon Leung receives the Book of the Gospels from Cardinal Stephen. Photo: Joseph Lam

HONG KONG (SE): Joshua Leung Kai-hang of the Holy Spirit Seminary was ordained to the diaconate by Cardinal Stephen Chow, S.J., on September 26 at St. Andrew’s Church, Tseung Kwan O. Clergy, family, friends and parishioners from across the diocese filled the church to celebrate with him.

A Church that goes out

In his homily, Cardinal Stephen asked the candidate to understand his identity clearly. A deacon, he said, assists the bishop and priests in carrying out the mission of Christ.

The cardinal said that serving the Church is important. However, in a synodal Church, service cannot stop at fellow Catholics. “That would be too comfortable,” he said. The Church must go out and proclaim the faith and the Gospel to those outside it, with compassion and self-giving love.

He then described the deacon’s ministries. The first is proclaiming the Word and helping the laity share in the priestly, prophetic and kingly mission of the People of God. The second is marriage preparation, which he said must go beyond planning the wedding. Couples need help to understand what marriage means, to discern whether they truly wish to marry and to think about how they will live together.

The cardinal also spoke of accompanying the dying and reminding them of the hope of eternal life. Funerals, he said, console the living and deepen their understanding of life and death. Since many non-Catholics attend them, they are also a valuable chance to evangelise and share the faith.

Turning to spiritual life, Cardinal Stephen pointed to Christ washing his disciples’ feet at the Last Supper as a model of humble service. He warned that the Church is not immune to the pull of self-interest, power and careerism, which he called “climbing up”. 

He said, “We must pay attention to where our heart is in our service”. Spirituality must not be superficial or abstract, he added. Its source is the Holy Spirit, and a deacon must learn to listen to and discern the Spirit’s call.

He described celibacy as a sacrifice, but also as a sign of love. Freely embraced, it allows a minister to serve more people, and even the earth, “our common home”. 

He acknowledged that seeing peers marry and raise children may stir envy. “These feelings are real, not false,” he said. Still, he urged the deacon to return to his original commitment and find in it a deeper inner freedom. 

He closed by stressing integrity and sincerity, so that others may see Jesus Christ through the minister, and called the candidate “my good brother, Joshua”.

Promises and ordination

Leung made his promises before the congregation, pronouncing his commitment to assist the bishop and priests with humility and love; to show respect and obedience to the bishop and his successors and to hold fast to the mystery of faith with a clear conscience. 

“May God, who has begun the good work in you, bring it to fulfilment,” the cardinal responded.

The Litany of the Saints followed. After the laying on of hands and the Prayer of Ordination, the new deacon was vested with the stole and dalmatic. He then received the Book of the Gospels while the choir sang “Veni Creator Spiritus”.

[Deacon Leung] thanked his parents and brother for passing on the faith. His parents’ faithfulness to each other and to God, he said, remains his example and his motivation to respond to God’s call

‘Someone so weak’

In his thanksgiving speech, Deacon Leung called the ordination “a moment I have waited a long time for”. He first thanked God “for choosing someone so unsuitable and so weak to serve you all”. He said God, who knows him best, had walked with him since birth.

He thanked his parents and brother for passing on the faith. His parents’ faithfulness to each other and to God, he said, remains his example and his motivation to respond to God’s call. He also thanked the small faith community that accompanied him from childhood and his home parish of St. Benedict’s, where serving at the altar brought him closer to God step by step. 

He remembered the late Mr Lau, who started a group of families praying for vocations at the parish, and said he believed Mr Lau was still praying for them.

At his alma mater, Tak Sun School, he said he learned to approach the faith through reason, to deepen it and to work with others. He also thanked those who accompanied him in discernment for helping him see God’s will more clearly.

Recalling his seminary placements, he thanked the social service agencies that taught him to serve people from all walks of life, including the grassroots. There he came to understand “how to love a person”. 

One parish placement taught him “how to be a father, a shepherd of God’s people”. At Our Lady of China, Tai Kok Tsui, he found he could connect with Sunday school children. He also thanked St. Andrew’s for giving him room to learn and for organising the ordination so he could focus on prayer.

No decision brings more happiness than placing yourself in God’s hands

Deacon Leung

He thanked Auxiliary Bishop Joseph Ha Chi-shing, the seminary formation team and his fellow seminarians. “I know I’m not always easy to live with,” he said. “Thank you for bearing with me all these years and helping me grow.”

He asked the congregation not to see the day as a promotion. He referred to the two disciples in the gospel who asked to sit at Jesus’ right and left. Instead, he hoped they had come to celebrate “a young man who has found where he belongs in life”.

He told the young people present, “No decision brings more happiness than placing yourself in God’s hands.” and urged them to keep searching for God’s will and to fall in love with it.

In his final blessing, Cardinal Stephen prayed that the new deacon would live the Gospel he proclaims, be a fervent witness, and imitate Jesus Christ as a servant of the community and a messenger of peace.

The choirs of St. Jude’s, Our Lady of China, St. Andrew’s and the Diocesan Choir provided the music.