“TO WHAT SHALL I COMPARE THE PEOPLE OF THIS GENERATION? WHAT ARE THEY LIKE?” LK 7:31-35
Humbly submit your will to God (Thy Will be done) and consecrate yourself to the Sacred Heart of Jesus through Mary.
Jesus said to the crowds:
“To what shall I compare the people of this generation?
What are they like?
They are like children who sit in the marketplace and call to one another,
‘We played the flute for you, but you did not dance.
We sang a dirge, but you did not weep.’
For John the Baptist came neither eating food nor drinking wine, and you said, ‘He is possessed by a demon.’
The Son of Man came eating and drinking and you said,
‘Look, he is a glutton and a drunkard,
a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’
But wisdom is vindicated by all her children.” LK 7:31-35
Today, Jesus speaks to us in a parable directed to the Jews who have chosen not to commit to, Jesus or John the Baptist. These holy men God sent to reveal His salvation to the world. First, John the Baptist, who is a fire and brimstone preacher and gives up all worldly pleasures. The Jews dismiss him as “possessed by a demon”. Then, the “Lamb of God’, Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, God’s only Son”, comes to the Jews as one who is compassionate and sits with sinners (tax collectors and prostitutes).
John the Baptist ushers Christ into the world and they represent Wisdom. The highest gift of the Holy Spirit is wisdom and it makes the soul responsive to God and contemplative to divine things. How often are we like the Jews that will not accept Jesus into our hearts. He is ready to be welcomed in each person we meet, in the Eucharist at Mass, at adoration, in prayer, in every Catholic Church, in our suffering and our blessings, He is always there waiting. We either accept Him or reject Him. Repent, change your life, and accept Jesus. As John the Baptist said, “I must decrease so He can increase”.
Feast on September 20th
Saints Andrew Kim Taegon, Paul Chong Hasang, and Companions’ Story-This first native Korean priest was the son of Korean converts. His father, Ignatius Kim, was martyred during the persecution of 1839 and was beatified in 1925. After Baptism at the age of 15, Andrew traveled 1,300 miles to the seminary in Macao, China. After six years, he managed to return to his country through Manchuria. That same year he crossed the Yellow Sea to Shanghai and was ordained a priest. Back home again, he was assigned to arrange for more missionaries to enter by a water route that would elude the border patrol. He was arrested, tortured, and finally beheaded at the Han River near Seoul, the capital. Paul Chong Hasang was a lay apostle and married man, aged 45.
Christianity came to Korea during the Japanese invasion in 1592 when some Koreans were baptized, probably by Christian Japanese soldiers. Evangelization was difficult because Korea refused all contact with the outside world except for taking taxes to Beijing annually. On one of these occasions, around 1777, Christian literature obtained from Jesuits in China led educated Korean Christians to study. A home Church began. When a Chinese priest managed to enter secretly a dozen years later, he found 4,000 Catholics, none of whom had ever seen a priest. Seven years later there were 10,000 Catholics. Religious freedom came in 1883.
When Pope John Paul II visited Korea in 1984, he canonized, besides Andrew and Paul, 98 Koreans and three French missionaries who had been martyred between 1839 and 1867. Among them were bishops and priests, but for the most part they were lay persons: 47 women, 45 men.
Among the martyrs in 1839 was Columba Kim, an unmarried woman of 26. She was put in prison, pierced with hot tools and seared with burning coals. She and her sister Agnes were disrobed and kept for two days in a cell with condemned criminals, but were not molested. After Columba complained about the indignity, no more women were subjected to it. The two were beheaded. A boy of 13, Peter Ryou, had his flesh so badly torn that he could pull off pieces and throw them at the judges. He was killed by strangulation. Protase Chong, a 41-year-old noble, apostatized under torture and was freed. Later he came back, confessed his faith and was tortured to death.
Reflection: We marvel at the fact that the Korean Church was strictly a lay Church for a dozen years after its birth. How did the people survive without the Eucharist? It is no belittling of this and other sacraments to realize that there must be a living faith before there can be a truly beneficial celebration of the Eucharist. The sacraments are signs of God’s initiative and response to faith already present. The sacraments increase grace and faith, but only if there is something ready to be increased.
Franciscan Media-https://www.franciscanmedia.org/saints-andrew-kim-taegon-paul-chong-hasang-and-companions/
**There are 4 million Catholics in Korea today. North Korea has been the number one persecutor of Christians for the last 15 years. Korea has the 4th most martyrs among Catholics.
Today’s challenge: Peter Kreeft says that the hardest death we fear the most is not physical death but death to our will, to give one’s life up for another. “Be not afraid”, be bold, empty yourself and allow Jesus to fill you up!
Be a servant, become a saint!
#Christian YOLO
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