Bishop Michael C. Barber ordains island-born Jesuit Deacon Mathew Yim Oct. 23 in Oakland’s Cathedral of Christ the Light. (Photo courtesy of the Jesuits)
By Patrick Downes
Hawaii Catholic Herald
Matthew Lonoikamakahiki Wah Tim Yim, the son of Judge Patrick and Santa Marie Yim of Holy Trinity Parish in Kuliouou, was ordained a deacon Oct. 23 by Jesuit Bishop Michael C. Barber of Oakland, Calif., in Oakland’s Cathedral of Christ the Light.
Yim, a Jesuit, was one of nine men ordained to the “transitional” diaconate, which unlike the “permanent” diaconate, is a step toward priesthood. He is scheduled to be ordained a priest on June 11, 2022.
He told the Hawaii Catholic Herald before the ordination by email that he was “praying for the wisdom and compassion to mirror outwardly the joy and gratitude I feel interiorly as I strive to authentically live out the evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity and obedience.”
His parents attended the ordination. A cousin living in the Bay Area, a longtime college friend from Washington, D.C., and fellow Jesuits and parish friends also attended.
Yim joined the Jesuits in August 2010 at age 32, making his first vows in Seattle on Aug. 12, 2012, after a two-year novitiate.
Now 43, he is a member of the order’s U.S. West Province, which covers 10 western states.
Born in Honolulu into a long lineage of Catholics on both parents’ sides, Yim was baptized at St. Pius X Church in Manoa by Msgr. Daniel Dever, made his first Communion at Holy Trinity Parish Church in Kuliouou and was confirmed there by Bishop Francis X. DiLorenzo.
He attended Iolani School from kindergarten through grade 12 and graduated from Oberlin College in Ohio with degrees in East Asian Studies and English literature.
After receiving his certification to teach English as a second language, he went to China’s Shanxi Province to teach English in Taigu County. While in China he learned how to speak Mandarin.
Returning to the islands, Yim earned a master’s degree in library science at the University of Hawaii in Manoa. He worked as a librarian at the Bishop Museum for a few years while exploring vocational possibilities. He spent a year of discernment with the late Jesuit Father Russell Roide, then pastor of the Newman Center at the University of Hawaii, before joining the order.
As a Jesuit, he received a master’s degree in philosophy from Fordham University, New York, while volunteering at St. John Chrysostom School in the South Bronx. He then taught philosophy at Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington, for a few years, followed by a year at St. Ignatius Loyola Church in Sacramento, California, leading faith-sharing groups and facilitating small retreats.
He began theology studies in 2019 at the Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University in Berkeley, California, doing fieldwork at the Ignatian Spiritual Life Center at St. Agnes Parish in San Francisco, online and via Zoom because of the pandemic.
This year he will commute to Sacramento to assist as a deacon at St. Ignatius Loyola Parish.
“My prayer this year has focused on gratitude,” he told the Hawaii Catholic Herald. “I am grateful for so very much.”
He thanked the women and men who mentored and befriended him over the years, in particular those who have recently died, including Father Roide, the first Jesuit he met in Hawaii.
“I am grateful for the experiences I’ve had in my life and the way that God has been gentle with me over the years,” he said. “I am grateful to my parents and family.”
“I am also humbled by the immensity of trust and responsibility that I am moving steadily toward,” he said.
“Gratitude, humility, responsibility, joy and sadness — all of it together and all of it at once sometimes. I think that’s also been a part of my prayer as I continue to move forward toward ordination,” Yim said.
“The reasons why I joined the Society of Jesus are not the same ones that have allowed me to stay,” he said. “Rather, it is my deepening relationship with Jesus Christ and the many good examples of Christian lives well-lived (lay and religious) that continue to call forth from me a generous ‘yes’ to God’s invitation to co-labor with so many others.”
Deacon Matthew Yim, third from the left, during his ordination as a transitional deacon. (Courtesy photo)
Yim said, “These last 10 years or so as a Jesuit have made me more reflective of the words of the ‘Suscipe Prayer’ that St. Ignatius Loyola wrote: ‘Take, Lord, and receive all my liberty, my memory, my understanding and my entire will, all I have and call my own.’”
“When I pray this prayer I know that I am asking God for infinitely more than what I can offer. Liberty, memory, understanding, will — all of it pales in comparison to the gifts that God gives in superabundance, God’s love and God’s grace.”
The Jesuits, founded in 1540 by St. Ignatius of Loyola and formally known as the Society of Jesus, is the largest order of priests and brothers in the Catholic Church.
The order has about a dozen priests who were born in Hawaii or who have strong Hawaii ties.
