Introduction

Dear brothers in episcopacy and in priesthood, dear Sisters, dear seminarians,

Dear guests, dear brothers and sisters in Christ:

Thank you for attending my funeral Mass. May God bless each one of you!

Our forefathers said: "When a bird is about to die, its cry is full of sorrow. When a man is about to die, his words can only be good and truthful." And now, I can hear the footsteps of my sister death, seeing her waving at me. Now that she has not yet asked me to go with hand in hand, I am willing to share from the bottom of my heart with each one of you some last experiences and thoughts on my life.

Life is like a drama

Bedridden, I looked back at my whole life. It is really like watching television series, episode after episode: my family life when I was still young, my parish life, elementary and high school times, studies in philosophy at the major seminary, the different stages of formation after joining the Society of Jesus, the different offices I served after formation, the pastoral evangelization and administrative work after Episcopal ordination in the dioceses of Hualien and Kaohsiung, at the Chinese Regional Bishops' Conference, Federation of Asian Bishops' Conferences, and various duties at several dicasteries of the Holy See, I still clearly remember them, as if all this had happened just yesterday.

I have played many different roles in my life. I have been a subordinate as well as a leader. I have been a humble nobody as well as a celebrity who can make major decisions. In all the roles I performed, there was success as well as failure; joys as well as sorrows; glory as well as humiliation; good times as well as adversities, poverty as well as richness. Everything eventually passed. From a life with rich and diverse experiences, I have the following insight:

(1) As the Bible says, knowledge, honors, glory, wealth, power, rank, everything in this world is "vanity of vanities. All is vanity!" (Eccl. 1:2). It is like smoke that vanishes so quickly. If man abandons God, he will be occupied in pursuing things that are "vanity of vanities". It is really like a madman fluttering the winds and catching the shadow, a waste of effort. At the end, it is only an empty dream! I was naked when I was born in this world. Now lying in a coffin, departing with two empty hands! What I can bring with me, are only the merits and demerits in my life!

(2) When one's career is crowned with success, sometimes it is inevitable to have temptations and think one is important and indispensable. Do we not know that life is like a fallen leaf afloat in the course of history for a short while? Indeed, "a passing boat leaves no trace upon the waters", it soon disappears without a trace. Life is also like a ripple on "the Yangtze River going east." Now I deeply experience how fragile and lowly man is!

(3) The true value of life is not determined by the role one plays, but by how well one plays it, whether or not one has fully satisfied the director, God our Lord, and met the standard for an actor and the requirements of the entire plot.

Greatest treasure in life

Humanity is fragile, life in this world is too short, the pursuit of worldly things is "vanity of vanities", but the desire for eternal life remains. This aspiration makes man different from birds and beasts. Originally, man was made according to the image of God. When he was created, he received the breath of life from God (cf. Gn. 1:26-28; 2:7). After man's fall into sin, this longing for the breath of eternal life, although weakened, will cry from time to time from the depths of the human soul, as St. Augustine said: "O Lord, my soul was created for you; it is restless until it rests in you." God is my most valuable treasure in life, my everything, my beginning and my end.

Although man distorted the image of God in him by disobeying God, the merciful Father did not want man's perdition. He sent his only Son, who took flesh and became man and our brother. He is the bridge between God and man, and offered His Body and Blood as sacrifice for the salvation of mankind. St. John proclaims: "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life." (Jn 3:16)

The Incarnation, God becoming man through Jesus Christ, is the treasure of my life. Through the Sacrament of Baptism, God made me born again and become an adopted son of Him and his brother. Through his Spirit I dare call God 'Abba! Father!' (cf. Gal. 4:6). He instituted the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist intimately uniting me with Him and to his life through his Body and Blood. Through the Sacrament of Confirmation, he gave me the Holy Spirit the Paraclet and become my guide. On the cross Christ allowed man to pierce his side with a spear and opened his Sacred Heart. This has become the source of my inexhaustible fountain of grace and riches.

The only right choice I made in life was to answer the call of Jesus Christ, gave my life for him, followed him, sacrificed my life for him, and shared with him the joys and sorrows in life. For this reason, during my priestly ordination, I chose as my motto: "Bear your share of hardship along with me like a good soldier of Christ Jesus" (2 Tim 2:3) and during my Episcopal ordination I chose: "sum up all things in Christ" (Eph 1:10). I hope that this will be engraved in bold letters on my tombstone: "Born in Christ. Lived in Christ. Died in Christ. Forever belonging to Christ".

Although I also have some fear of death, whenever I think that death will bring me closely united with Jesus Christ, it brings me peace, consolation and joy. Sometimes the sin and shortcomings in my lifetime make me feel anxious but "I know him whom I have believed" (2 Tim 1:12). He is an infinitely merciful God, and "God is Love" (1 Jn 4:7, 16). "God is greater than our hearts" (1 Jn 3:20). For this reason, I can go peacefully to see God face to face, the treasure I have been seeking in my whole life, the source and destiny of eternal life.

Final Exhortation

My life "I have competed well; I have finished the race; I have kept the faith." (2 Tm 4:7). In my life in terms of spiritual battle and race, there were victories, failures and falls. But through God's gift of faith and grace, I got up each time, and strode towards the goal. In this last talk with you, I would like to share the imperfections in my duties and missions. I hope you can do better, to make up for my shortcoming and inadequacy.

1) Now I would like to say a few words to my brother bishops:

Thank you for your fraternity, advice, sharing, cooperation and patience to me in the Bishops' Conference over the years. Please forgive me for all my failings, especially my strong-handed approach. The bishop's primary task is to give proper care to the flock and to the fellow shepherds God has entrusted to him. However, I often felt ashamed towards my brother bishops and faithful because I spent far too much time and energy in administration, fundraising, and in the offices I held at the Holy See, Federation of Bishops' Conferences in Asia, Chinese Regional Bishops' Conference etc. I hope my brother bishops can spend more effort and time to tend to the physical and spiritual well-being of our brother priests, especially in the promotion of vocations and formation of the seminarians.

2) To my brother priests:

Thank you for your care and cooperation. Please forgive me for not taking enough good care of you. I hope you all will be filled with the love of Christ. Let "the love of Christ impel us" (2 Cor. 5:14), to strive to lead the faithful to engage in evangelization and in pastoral work. Do not treat priesthood like any profession, but a mission God has specially entrusted. To carry out this sacred mission, a good pastor must lead, love and take care of his parishioners. Do not treat parishioners like children, but see them as your own brothers, sisters, friends, and partners. Consult and make decisions with the parishioners in small and big matters concerning the parish. Encourage parishioners to spontaneously spread the Good News in their own way, care about and participate in the parish matters and support the needs of the community.

3) To brothers and sisters of religious orders:

Thank you for your support and cooperation in pastoral and missionary work. Please forgive me for my omissions and my poor examples. I am also a religious priest. When there is a conflict or tension between a religious priest and a bishop, although I strive to remain neutral, when the reason is not clear, I would rather show respect to the Hierarchy. In pastoral and evangelization work, religious communities should be working as collaborators. They should be in communion and in collaboration with the local bishop, obeying his mandate. Of course, the bishop should also respect the special charism of each religious order.

4) Lastly, I would like to say a few words to the brothers and sisters in the laity:

Thank you for your concern for me, your communion and collaboration with me, your generous and open-handed support in various aspects of pastoral and evangelization work. Please forgive my failings and my poor example. Although I highly value the principle of evangelization of Apostle St. Paul, who says to the gentiles: "I have become all things to all" (1 Cor 9 22), due to the circumstances and my duties, I was not able to learn the languages of the various ethnic groups. This is my greatest regret and suffering. However, all brothers and sisters in the ethnic groups did not treat me as an outsider, but accepted me, borne with me and supported me.

Now I would like to exhort you, brothers and sisters, to respect the priests in charge of you, strive to be in communion and to work with them. Do not criticize harshly, but give positive and constructive recommendations. In your daily duties, try your best to take initiative using your proper means to evangelize. Throughout my life, the intention of my prayer and the goal to achieve is "that God may open a door to us for the word" (Col 4:3), so that all of you will become messengers of the Good News, be able to lead a few people to accept the Word of God, get baptized and become Catholics.

Conclusion

Merciful Father, I thank you for the numerous blessings you poured on me during my lifetime, and I also thank you particularly for giving me your only begotten Son to be my Savior. Now, I offer the pain and the agony of my death to you alongside with the suffering and death of Christ on the Cross, for the reparation of the sins and the faults throughout my whole life, in communion and unity with the local Church and the Universal Church, for the peaceful cross-strait unification.

I am wretched and lowly, in virtue of the infinite merit of your Holy Son, I am sure that you will accept me. Relying on you with a pure heart like a child, with the Son and the Holy Spirit, I cry aloud: "Abba, Father!" (Gal. 4:6), "into your hands I commit my spirit" (Lk. 23:46).

Dear brothers and sisters: do not grieve for my death, but pray for me. We believe in the Savior Jesus Christ, and also believe that if we die and live with Him, we will rise with Him on the last day. Soon we will meet in heaven!

Finally, I pray to the Blessed Mary ever virgin, St. Michael, guardian angels and all the angels, St. Joseph, Sts. Peter and Paul, all the saints of China and all the heavenly saints to sing with me: "Let my prayer come before you!" "Misericordias Domini in aeternum cantabo!" (Ps 88:2) Amen.

August 5, 2006 at the National Taiwan University Hospital, Ward A14-3