Getting ‘whammed’: Father Michael Lim’s journey to the Catholic faith

“He’s got to be kidding. Me, a priest? No way!”

That was Michael Lim’s reaction when someone first suggested that God was calling him to the priesthood. 

Years later, Father Michael – as he is now known, parish priest of Canberra’s Our Lady of the Annunciation Parish – reflected on that day and the hands of faith that carried him forth on his remarkable life’s journey.

Born in Singapore of Chinese ancestry, he grew up the baby of a Buddhist family with an older sister and brothers.

He was a curious teen, with a prying eye for the truth, for life, for some of its bigger questions. Books about Confucianism, Taoism, Islam, and Hinduism filled his days.

Buddhism appealed to him the most. In his early twenties, he was determined to become a Buddhist monk. 

But instead of following Buddhism’s path of “enlightenment,” he found himself following a different light down another path…

“….and I got whammed by the whole thing”.  

The “whole thing” started in 1995 when his sister Violet was stricken with rheumatoid arthritis. The complications piled up and death hovered when she developed deep vein thrombosis after surgery. 

This caused the questions to pile up, too: “How could it happen to this…poor sister of mine? Is there really a God? Why did she go through all this suffering?”

Violet was unable to walk and was confined to crutches. A Catholic friend suggested she go to a Catholic church ministered by a visiting priest with a reputation for charismatic healing. 

Her “reluctant, disgruntled” youngest brother was tasked with taking his older sister to the church. “I didn’t want to,” he told the Catholic Voice. “I was busy, I was working”. 

What happened next changed Michael Lim forever. The charismatic priest prayed over Violet and told her to try standing up and give walking a go. Not only did she stand, she took one step, then two, then three…then ran the length of the church from the foyer to the sanctuary!

Michael was not only “gobsmacked” but “God called”. The thought immediately struck him: “This Jesus…he is real, he is alive.” 

But the “whamming” was not quite complete. 

Still in Singapore and taking his own first step to enter the Catholic Church through RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults), Michael was not even baptised when a family friend proffered the calling of the priesthood to him. 

“If God calls you,” she said, “you have to say this prayer: “Lord, hold my hand and walk with me.” 

Michael prayed the prayer and walked the walk…to the seminary, the priesthood…and then to Australia.

A priest now for 13 years, he said his background has helped him empathise with those considering entering the Catholic faith.

“My approach is to be non-judgemental,” he explained. 

Some might be critical of aspects of the church’s teaching but he didn’t believe they were “non-believers”, simply those “reaching out for help”. He’d help them through dialogue and seeking further understanding.

He could help because not only was he a Catholic priest and a former Buddhist, but he was once also a real estate agent, good at selling the message!

“I was selling earthly property,” he said. “Right now, I’m selling heavenly property.”