Lee was ordained a Catholic priest in 1985.
FOR Catholic priest Rev Fr Michael Lee, there are ups and downs in his 30 years as a priest but he never regrets his calling to priesthood.
Now the Vicar General of the Sibu Diocese, Fr Lee celebrates his 30th anniversary of priestly ordination on July 29.
“The past three decades have been fruitful though I do not say I have achieved much,” he said.
“For me, priesthood is a gift from God. That’s to be able to help people understand God in their lives and make a difference in my own life as well.
“The ministry of a priest is to learn to love God more deeply in the lives of others or to help them to understand God in their personal lives.”
Lee celebrating mass at the Healing Of Family Seminar last year.
Lee was born on July 13, 1958, in Sibu, to a lorry driver Lee Ging Ling and housewife Goh Kiing Ding. He is the fifth of 10 siblings.
He went to Hua Hin Primary School and later studied at Ling Chung Ming Private School.
Recalling his young days, he said: “Coming from a big family and not having a lot of money to spend made me not very ambitious.
“It was a challenge even to dream. I didn’t dream to be a professional or a great person – I didn’t have that at all.
“I was just trying to live each day and get over my difficulties and struggles.”
Lee admitted he was never a bright student, saying his struggles to get formal education were actually a pain in his life.
At times, he was sidelined and picked on by people who were better off.
“As a child, I was timid, shy and introvert. I hardly mixed around,” he recalled.
When Lee was 21 years old, an eight-day fishing trip in the South China Sea was enough to make him think he was born to be a sailor.
His father objected: “A lot of things you can do but you are not going to the sea. It’s very dangerous — you can do anything except go to the sea.”
Lee then decided to become a fisher of man and told his dad he wanted to enter seminary to be trained as a priest.
His father tried to dissuade him but in vain. In about a year’s time, junior Lee joined the St Peter’s Seminary in Kuching.
“I didn’t have any other thoughts, I just wanted to give it a try,” he said at the time.
For Lee, in the course of priestly training, academic learning was not a problem but the determination to have total submission to God was.
“Like other seminarians, I too had doubts. I was thinking of the outside world or could I really make it to the end.”
He said the most trying time was when fellow seminarians threw in the towel.
“Thoughts of celibacy haunted me. I was pondering and wondering if it was for me to take the vow of celibacy.”
On October 22, 1985, Lee was ordained a priest at Sacred Heart Cathedral, Sibu. His first posting was to Kanowit where he served for about four years until 1989 when he was asked to go to Bintangor.
In 1990, he went to Rome for further study. The following year, he returned and was posted to Mukah, and later recalled to Sibu.
“I think all these years I had been battling with myself, God and others. In a way, I see myself as a priest, as a man of God — you should be merciful in a sense.
“In a way, you should be a father figure to God’s children and after 30 years, most of the time, I had failed. And through this failure, I could understand the other side of myself so that I could walk down the next 30 years of my life for the better,” he said.
Lee (second left) was an altar server during his schooldays.
Not merciful enough
Lee added that some people tended to serve God by being very harsh — not merciful enough — and eventually hurt other people and themselves.
However, 30 years have provided ample opportunity for him to learn to understand to serve God in His way — instead of his (Lee’s) own way.
Part of his priestly ministry involved saying masses, celebrating the sacraments, comforting the sick and the dying and counselling those in grief and pain.
In a way, he felt his difficult upbringing was a blessing in that it has been a tremendous help to his priestly ministry.
He said his difficult life had humbled and enabled him to have greater understanding of people’s life struggles.
“I think the life experiences of the past have shaped my outlook of life, and therefore, there are lots of things I see in peoples’ lives.
“The way I felt the pain and the difficulties I had to go through helped me in my ministry. It helped me not to look down on people but understand their difficulties and how to minister to them. It’s more of being compassionate,” he explained.
Today, he said he could see the joy of priesthood as being able to enjoy one’s life as a priest in serving and loving others or loving God in others.
Generally, the past 30 years have been an enjoyable period for him.
“Had I not enjoyed being a priest, I could have called it quits long time ago. There are joys and sorrows but all of us are weak people but God can give us strength to journey on,” he added.
His 30th priestly Ordination Jubilee on July 29 will also be an occasion to bid farewell to Mill Hill priest Rev Fr Ferdinand Vergeer, who leaves Sibu this August.
Simultaneously, the renovated Sacred Heart Cathedral will be rededicated.
Lee (fourth right) assists in the celebration of the Eucharist.