Homily for Installation of Fr. Nara Samuel Lee as Pastor of St. Michael Parish
And Conferral of the Sacrament of Confirmation
Third Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year “A”
January 25, 2026
Introduction
Christmas was one month ago today, and yet the Church in her worship continues to have us reflect back on the mystery of the Word made flesh, and will do so for forty days, all the way up to February 2, the Feast Day of the Presentation of Our Lord in the Temple in Jerusalem. Today we hear a passage that refers us back to Christmas: “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; upon those who dwelt in the land of gloom a light has shone. You have brought them abundant joy and great rejoicing, as they rejoice before you as at the harvest, as people make merry when dividing spoils.”
Prophecy and Fulfillment
Does that sound familiar? Hopefully it does to some of you, because it is the first reading for Christmas Midnight Mass. It is from the prophet Isaiah, who prophecies the birth of a child who will become a king to free God’s people from oppression. The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali were in the northern part of the kingdom of Israel, which in the eighth century BC was invaded and conquered by Assyria, Israel’s very powerful neighbor to the east. The Assyrians were brutal occupiers, and to repress any kind of rebellion they deported the people to foreign lands and settled their own people there in their place. This is why it is referred to as “the District of the Gentiles.” Isaiah refers here to the instruments of Assyrian oppression: the yoke which bound together two beasts of burden, and the pole and the rod, instruments of punishment. This king, then, would end the oppression which is all gloom and distress, and cast light where there was once darkness.
God has a way, though, of going beyond our worldly expectations, as He did in this prophecy from Isaiah. We hear about the fulfillment of this prophecy in the Gospel of Matthew, where Jesus himself quotes this very passage from the prophet Isaiah. This child who will free God’s people from oppression will not be the son of a human king who will win for the people their political freedom, but the Son of God who is the King of the Universe and will free God’s people from the true oppression: the reign of sin and death which binds those caught in the grip of the devil. It is very clear from the way that Matthew describes it that the moment of fulfillment has come.
Notice that Jesus waits until John is arrested before he withdraws to Galilee to begin his public ministry. John the Baptist is another figure that brings us back to the whole Christmas cycle, as he figures prominently in Advent and also at certain points during the Christmas season. Remember just two weeks ago, the last day of the Christmas season, the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord: John baptizes Jesus in the Jordan River. He is the precursor, and Matthew is very clear about that. He uses the same word here, “arrested,” which means “handed over,” that he will use in telling the story of Jesus being “handed over” to the authorities to be crucified. And notice the first words out of our Lord’s mouth when he begins his public preaching: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” John likewise proclaimed a message of repentance. So in all of those centuries of preparation the stage is now finally set, ending with the life and ministry of John the Baptist; all is now prepared for the Son of God to step in and fulfill the prophecy. Which means that our Lord’s message of repentance can now deliver on the promise of eternal life: the kingdom of heaven is at hand, at hand for us if we repent.
In the Life of the Believer
Those who do so will conform their lives to Christ, which means that, in some way or another, they will share in his suffering for the sake of eternal life. Sometimes that means literal persecution, just as our Lord was persecuted. Sadly, the world even today is filled with martyrs across the globe. And it is also the glorious legacy of the Church in Korea. The soil of your fatherland has been seeded with the blood of martyrs, which has now borne the fruit of a flourishing Church
There is another kind of persecution in the world as well, though. This kind of persecution is not nearly as brutal but it is equally dangerous. This is the pressure of a culture that puts itself in opposition to the basic truths of the Gospel, and in some way or another punishes those who live in conformity with the Gospel. It also easily lures the believer into a life of complacency leading to indifference, where one’s faith becomes tepid and eventually evaporates completely. Perhaps not as hostile, then, but more insidious, for it leads to a fracturing of the Christian community. And this is always the strategy of the evil one, that is, divide and conquer.
We can see how that was the case from the very beginning if we recall what we just heard from St. Paul in writing to his fellow Christians in the city of Corinth: they were divided up into different factions pitted against each other. Faith is born of repentance and is nourished by the patient bearing of the suffering we endure for the sake of Christ. And this is what builds up unity in the Church. We know how dear this call to unity is to Pope Leo. He knows the dangers of division, and so he constantly calls us to be a united Church.
The Call to Unity
This, in fact, is the point of the bishop’s presence for the installation of a new pastor, and also why he is the ordinary minister of the sacrament of Confirmation. What a joy that we celebrate both of these rites today in this one Mass. The bishop is the focal point of unity for the local Church, which for us are these three counties on the west side of the Bay that make up the Archdiocese of San Francisco (San Francisco, San Mateo and Marin). As the Archbishop I am privileged to visit our parishes and other Catholic communities all throughout these three counties and see so much good that is being done, and often unknown to others.
I certainly include St. Michael’s Korean parish among them! I am very grateful for your community here in our Archdiocese. I see how committed you are to living your Catholic faith and to sharing generously of your time, talent and treasure for building up the Body of Christ and proclaiming the Gospel of salvation to the world. We see this with our own eyes today in our brothers and sisters who will complete their initiation into the Church with the sacrament of Confirmation. This is the fruit of the work of evangelization, which you show to be alive and well here at St. Michael’s.
Your spiritual and cultural values are true treasures that must be preserved and lived out to enrich the life of our whole Archdiocese. You are the descendants of true heroes of the faith. May God bless you to live out faithfully this glorious legacy you have inherited, as a sign and inspiration to all of us to live the truth of the Gospel and so build up unity in the Body of Christ.
Conclusion
Inspired with this confidence, we will now proceed to the Rite of Confirmation, where our brothers and sisters will renounce the devil and all of his tricks and wiles to tear us apart from each other and from our Lord Jesus Christ, and profess their faith in the one true God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. They will then be sealed with the gift of the Holy Spirit in the anointing with the oil of Chrism to be disciples who plant the seeds of the Gospel in the world in which they live. May God grant them, and all of us, the grace to be faithful to this profession of faith and Christian call, for His glory and the proclamation of the saving Good News of Jesus Christ. Amen.
