Saints Andrew Kim Taegon, Priest, Paul Chong Hasang, and their Companions – Readings

Commentary on Wisdom 3:1-9 or Romans 8:31-39; Luke 9:23-26

The Gospel reading from Luke is a passage which follows closely after Peter’s confession about the identity of Jesus.  In response to Jesus’ question “But who do you say that I am?”, Peter answers:

The Messiah of God. (Luke 9:20)

This is followed by Jesus’ first prediction of his coming death and resurrection.  And immediately afterwards we have today’s passage where Jesus lays down the conditions for being one of his followers:

If any wish to come after me, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.

Anyone who wants to be a follower must set aside his own desires, take up his cross every day and follow the Way of Jesus.  Although this at first sight seems to be a demand to set aside one’s own well-being, it is in fact the way in which we will find what is really in our best interests.  The Way of Jesus is the Way of Life and Truth.  Hence, those who let go of their own spontaneous desires will—maybe to their surprise—find a life much more worthwhile than the one they think they are abandoning.

Have we any evidence for this?  We have, of course, in the lives of hundreds of saints, including those who even let go of their lives for the sake of Jesus’ Way and the well-being of brothers and sisters:

For what does it profit them if they gain the whole world but lose or forfeit themselves?

The most precious things in life are not money, or status or fame or property.   A priest who worked in one of the most affluent suburbs of Los Angeles said it was the unhappiest place he was ever in, while another priest was amazed by the community spirit of helping and sharing in a rundown public housing estate.

Jesus also warns us about being ashamed of acknowledging our Christian calling.  It is not enough to be a Catholic; it is important to be seen as one.  We are to be the “salt of the earth”; we are to be a lamp that is not hidden away, but gives light.  The martyrs we are celebrating today knew where true values lay and they did not conceal their faith in order to save their lives.

There is a choice of two First Readings. The first of these is taken from the Book of Wisdom and is sometimes used in Requiem Masses. It speaks about death and the suffering of the good. No matter how great these sufferings are, they cannot be compared with the peace that comes after death:

In the eyes of the foolish they seemed to have died, and their departure was thought to be a disaster and their going from us to be their destruction, but they are at peace.

In the sight of the living, they may have been seen to undergo great suffering, but their hopes were in a future life that could not be taken from them. The burden of their sufferings cannot compare to the blessings that await them.

Like gold being purified by fire, they were tested, but as people who had offered their whole lives to their Lord, they win great blessings and He takes them to himself. Because of their integrity and the courage of their lives:

They will govern nations and rule over peoples, and the Lord will reign over them forever. Those who trust in him will understand truth, and the faithful will abide with him in love, because grace and mercy are upon his holy ones, and he watches over his elect.

This was the spirit which gave such courage to these Korean martyrs who went with such readiness to their death, not hesitating for a moment to remain faithful to the Way of Christ.

The alternate First Reading is from Paul’s Letter to the Romans.  It is a passionate statement in which Paul tells his readers that absolutely everything works together for the good of those who love God.  If God is on our side, what have we to fear from those who are against us?  And suffering in our lives is no indication that God is not with us.

On the contrary, we have the example of Jesus himself, because God, who:

…did not withhold his own Son but gave him up for all of us, how will he not with him also give us everything else?
(Rom 8:32)

We have no need to fear anyone who accuses or condemns us because God is always on our side.

Is there anything that can separate us from the love that God extends to us?  It is an infinite and unconditional love.  So no amount of anguish, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger or death can come between us and that love.  Many find it difficult to equate suffering with a loving God.  But not the Apostle Paul.  He concludes with this magnificent passage:

For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

It was this conviction that helped these martyrs face their death with courage and calmness.  They are words which we too should keep in mind in all the trials and tribulations we may have to face. We pray:

Help me, Lord, to see your loving hand in every person and in every experience of this day.

As a confirmation of Paul’s exhortation we conclude this reflection with words from the last letter of Andrew Kim Taegŏn to his parishioners as he awaited martyrdom with a group of 20 people:

My dear brothers and sisters, know this: Our Lord Jesus Christ, upon descending into the world took innumerable pains upon and constituted the holy Church through his own suffering and increases it through the suffering  passion of the faithful…

Now, however, some 50 or 60 years since holy Church entered into our Korea, the faithful suffer persecutions again. Even today persecution rages, so that many of our friends of the same faith, among whom am I myself, have been thrown into prison. just as you also remain in the midst of persecution. Since we have formed one body, how can we not be saddened in our innermost hearts? How can we not experience the pain of separation in our human faculties?

However, as Scripture says, God cares for the least hair of our heads, and indeed he cares with his omniscience; therefore, how can persecution be considered as anything other than the command of God, or his prize, or precisely his punishment?…

We are twenty here, and thanks be to God all are still well. If anyone is killed, I beg you not to forget his family. I have many more things to say, but how can I express them with pen and paper? I make an end to this letter. Since we are now close to the struggle, I pray you to walk in faith, so that when you have finally entered into Heaven, we may greet one another. I leave you my kiss of love.

Read more

Thursday of Week 30 of Ordinary Time – First Reading

Commentary on Romans 8:31-39

In recent readings, having moved from the powerful forces, which keep preventing us from doing the good, we went to the firm hope of a glorious future. Paul now moves another step in reminding us of the inalienable love that God has for each one of us.

It is put dramatically right in the first paragraph:

If God is for us, who is against us?

It is clearly a rhetorical question. The form of the condition makes it clear that there is no doubt about the answer. It is a question that requires no answer for it is clear that God is always for us—one hundred percent all the time. Of course, whether we are always for him is another matter altogether. Even then he reaches out to us in love. God is love; he cannot not love.

And, if we do have any doubts, then we just have to look at Jesus:

He who did not withhold his own Son but gave him up for all of us, how will he not with him also give us everything else?

If God could sacrifice the One closest to him, the One who shares his very nature, can there be any doubt that he will give us every other good thing? The cross is the guarantee of our preciousness in God’s eyes. And God will not want to see the work begun on the cross frustrated. It is important to remember all this, especially in times of trouble.

Paul continues:

Who will bring any charge against God’s elect?

The prophet Isaiah writes:

The Lord God helps me;
therefore I have not been disgraced;
therefore I have set my face like flint,
and I know that I shall not be put to shame;
he who vindicates me is near.
Who will contend with me?….Let them confront me.
(Isaiah 50:7-8)

How could anyone accuse us, when we have on our side Christ Jesus who died as a pledge of his love for us and, more than that, was raised from the dead and now sits at the Father’s right hand pleading on our behalf?

And then there comes another rhetorical question:

Who will separate us from the love of Christ?

And he is speaking of Christ’s love for us, not our love for him. No level of hardships or distress, persecutions, lack of food and clothing, or threats of violence can negate the reality of that love. We need to remember that at this time the Christians, not least in Rome, were being faced with violent opposition and persecution. It will soon be the age of martyrs, including Peter and Paul themselves. Apart from that, Paul could speak of the long list of hardships he himself experienced in this missionary work, some of which he tells us about in his Second Letter to the Christians at Corinth (see 2 Cor 11:16-33).

Paul wants to show his readers that suffering does not separate believers from Christ, nor is it a sign of his losing interest in them, but rather it can actually carry them along toward their ultimate goal. In the eyes of their persecutors it seems like their defeat. In the eyes of pagans it must have looked like failure. But it is the martyr who lives on in people’s memories.

And Paul quotes from the Psalms:

For your sake we are being killed all day long;
we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered. (Ps 44:11)

Suffering is nothing new to God’s people and, as long as we are faithful to the call of the gospel and are committed to sharing the message with others, there will be more to come. And it is precisely the love of Christ shown on the cross that enables us to come triumphantly through all kinds of hardships.

Then affirms Paul:

…in all these things we are more than victorious through him who loved us.

Just as Jesus conquered by his own death in shame and degradation, we also can do the same. In fact, as Hebrews says:

Although he was a Son, he learned obedience through what he suffered, and having been made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him… (Heb 5:8-9)

It was the conquest of love. For us it must be the same.

He concludes with a rallying cry for all those who may be suffering for their faith and indeed for every one of us:

For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The ‘powers’, ‘heights’ and ‘depths’ are probably the mysterious cosmic forces which to the mind of antiquity were in general hostile to mankind. None of these powers nor any other created thing whatever can come between us and God’s loving reach. There is, in other words, absolutely no force, however powerful and no happening, however terrible, which can come between us and the overwhelming love of Jesus for us.

It is a re-saying of something Paul mentioned yesterday that absolutely everything that we experience is imprinted with the loving hand of God.:

…all things work together for good for those who love God… (Rom 8:28)

And the reason is because our love of God has its source in the love of God for us—from which all love originates.

Certainly, there are times when it is difficult for us to see that. It must have been difficult for many of the martyrs of the early Church in the midst of their sufferings, and yet it is now with praise and thanksgiving that we today celebrate their glorious memory.

If we can see the hand of God in what they did and were ready to suffer, it may help us to see his loving hand in our lives too.

Read more