Tag Archives: Catholic Church

Sep 20 2012

Calling for a chat with St Andrew Kim Tae-gon

 

Junjun Faithbook: Good day St Andrew. There must be great rejoicing in heaven today for the remembrance of your martyrdom together with many others that marked the beginnings of Christianity in Korea. Please tell us more about your life.

St Andrew Kim: My complete name in Korean is Andrea Kim Taegon…which later on became commonly known as Andrew Kim, for the English speaking world I supposed.

Junjun Faithbook: Thank you for that brief introduction. Could you tell us more about the time of your birth for this I believed is also significant in understanding more of your life?

St Andrew Kim: Sure! I was born on the 21st of August 1821 in Nol-Mae (Solmoe), Chu’ung Chong Province in South Central Korea. This time was also characterised by persecutions of the Christians and suppression of the Catholic faith.

Junjun Faithbook: I believed in that because I read somewhere that during the time of your birth, and even before that, Christianity wasn’t really that popular. Did your parents have you baptized as Christian then?

St Andrew Kim:  Not until I was 15 years old. My parents were also converts. And I noticed then, as many converts are, that they were quite enthusiastic and firm in their newly-found faith.

Junjun Faithbook: What was the dominant and practiced religion at the state then?

St Andrew Kim: Confucianism. This meant prohibition of the practice of Christian faith and persecutions for those who were caught witnessing the faith.  

Junjun Faithbook: And how did your parents live their Christian faith out in that hostile environment?

St Andrew Kim: They tried, eventhough it cost them their lives. I was told that my great-grandfather was martyred in 1814, few years before I was born. Then two years later, my grand-uncle  Kim Han-hyun was also martyred. Then in 1839, my own father, Kim- Je-jun (Ignatius Kim) had to face the same fate for practicing Christianity.

Junjun Faithbook: It seemed like most of your male relatives were martyred then. How did your mother cope up with the loss of your dad?

St Andrew Kim: I grew up very poor. I remember my mum had to go begging to live.

Junjun Faithbook: And what about you?

St Andrew Kim:  See, I was baptised when I was 15 years old. But I also believed God called me for something greater, to become a priest. So I travelled over 1200 miles to study at a seminary in Macau, China. It was a Portuguese Colony then.

Junjun Faithbook: And when exactly was this?

St Andrew Kim: In 1836. Then after nine years of seminary studies, I was ordained a priest in 1845.

Junjun Faithbook: At that time, was there already a native or a local priest in Korea?

St Andrew Kim: Not that I know of. (Note: He was the first-Korean born Catholic priest). In fact I was ordained by a French bishop named Jean Joseph Ferreol.

Junjun Faithbook: So what happened after you’re ordained?

St Andrew Kim: I returned to Korea to preach and evangelize.

Junjun Faithbook: But I believe the persecutions of the Christians was still intense then?

St Andrew Kim: Certainly. I had to make a strategy. There was also a group of French missionaries wanting to proclaim the gospel in Korea so I helped them through the way I can.

Junjun Faithbook: And in what way exactly?

St Andrew Kim: My previous trips between China and Korea through some small unworthy vessels and even on foot at times had helped me to map and explore the terrains that would later on became the route for the French missionaries to infiltrate Korea.

Junjun Faithbook: And was this successful? I mean how helpful was that for you and for your ministry as a priest?

St Andrew Kim: God knows. I was just ordained then. But I tried to do the best I can. Unfortunately, in June 1846, I fell into the hands of the border patrol while trying to arrange for the passage of more missionaries to enter Korea by boat along the southeast coast.

Junjun Faithbook: And what happened after that?

St Andrew Kim: They put me in jail. At this same time, persecutions of Christians continued. Christianity was suppressed. Many Christians were executed. But still many had managed to practice their faith covertly.

Junjun Faithbook: And I believed that even you were in jail, you didn’t give up the faith. In fact you still managed to encourage and inspire other Christians outside to continue and stand up for their faith in Christ.

St Andrew Kim: I can’t deny my faith. I can’t denounce my Christianity. And I wanted to tell my fellow Christians that there is hope even in that troubled time for us.

Junjun Faithbook: Would you mind sharing with us the words of encouragement you have given to your fellow Christians in Korea then?

St Andrew Kim: This is my parting words to them:

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 passion and increases it through the passion of its faithful….Now, however, some fifty or sixty 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 who 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.

Junjun Faithbook: Wow! These are indeed beautiful, inspiring and hope-filled words of farewell.

St Andrew Kim: All because of the gift of faith and hope that God has given us in Christ.

Junjun Faithbook: Thank you St Andrew for your wonderful witness. Please also express our thanks for your companions who suffered the same martyrdom as you were, such as St Paul Chong Hasang and many others. Thank you for standing up for the Christian faith. Your life and example really give us hope and strengthens our faith that even death could not really stop us from being one in Christ and with one another.

Post script:

On September 26, at the age of 25, St Andrew Kim Tae-gon was tortured and beheaded near Seoul on the Han River. Together with his father Ignatius Kim he was beatified on 15th of July 1925. In 1949 the Holy See declared him as the principal patron of the Roman Catholic Clergy in Korea. On the 6th of May 1984, along with 102 other martyrs which includes Paul Chong Hasang, a lay catechist, he was canonized by Pope John Paul II.

St Andrew Kim Tae-gon and companions, pray for us.

(Source: Wikipedia)

 

Sep 9 2012

When Jesus touches, he makes it very personal

 

Homily for the 23rd Sunday in Ordinary time year B 2012

  1. Yesterday I had the chance to be part of the great and historic event in the Archdiocese of Melbourne. Archbishop Denis Hart ordained eight new priests for the Church. Yet  what made it historic was the ordination into the Catholic priesthood for the first time in Melbourne the four ex-Anglican priests who have chosen and have decided to be in full communion with the Catholic Church under the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross. It was indeed a remarkable event. The ceremony went over two hours yet that didn’t bother me so much. In fact that made me more grateful to God for the gift of vocation to the priesthood. I was just overwhelmed by the fact that each of these eight men have been called by Jesus personally from whatever they were doing before (I know one of the men was a teacher for many years, and one was a lawyer for sometimes), touched by him in a more personal way, taken away from the crowd and made them sharers of his ministerial priesthood.

  2. This is the beauty of our God. He always looks at us individually from among the crowd. Not only that, He would also take us away from the crowd. Then he would touch our lives personally. Then he would make us whole. Because in the eyes of God, nobody is no one because everyone is someone special for him.

  3. Our little man in our gospel today is a concrete witness to this. According to St Mark, he is deaf and has a speech impediment. We can imagine how his ‘defects’ caused him to be feeling isolated, misunderstood, misinterpreted, misheard, or even marginalized. There might be times in his life that he would want to express his view on things but he couldn’t. There might be times in his life when he wanted to present his own understanding on things but he just couldn’t make it. And when he met Jesus, his life is never the same.

  4. Jesus called this man personally through sign language I suppose,  to follow him away from the crowd. Then at the corner, he looked up to heaven and sighed indicating that what he was about to do to this man is not only his own doing but it is in union with his Father whose compassion is such for our humanity. Jesus then touched him personally (puts his fingers into his ears and touches his tongue with spittle (v.33). Then he made him whole again and  out of his brokenness after he uttered the word ‘Ephphatha’ or ‘be opened.’ Then his life has changed. In a way, he has experienced the fullness of life as a human being.

  5. We are here today because we have been called by Jesus from among the crowd by virtue of our baptism. We are here because Jesus Christ has touched our lives personally. We are here because we experienced his healing touch in more ways than one. We are here to celebrate this Eucharist to give praise and thanks to God for the gift of himself to us- a gift that gives health to our souls. Yet, Jesus is also telling us now to ‘be opened’ to really experience the beauty of his calling.

  6. So how ‘open’ are we to Him? St James in our Second Reading today tells us of one way to express our openness before God- that is to avoid combining our faith in Jesus Christ by making distinctions between people. This is a practical one. Because, there  is always a temptation for us to be discriminating, whether we are conscious of it or not. A good test for this is our ‘attitude’ or ‘how do we think’ about the ‘asylum seekers’ who are risking everything including their own lives just to get to Australia. Another test is how do we play our part in our society. Do we just remain to be critical and discriminating to the people in the government and not doing the bit that we can do to them? Have we ever prayed for them that they may lead this country according to the virtues of Christ and the will of God? Another test, third one, how are we sharing our resources to the rest of our sisters and brothers around the world? I know and I can speak of my own experience that there are many things I  don’t even want now that are really ‘needed’ by the many people in the third world countries. The problem with us is not that we can’t, we just don’t do it.

  7. Jesus is calling us from among the crowd of many. He has touched us personally and continuously despite who we are and whatever we do. He wishes that we may be made whole again out of our brokenness, yet we have to  listen to him all the time ‘to be opened’ to his words, to be opened to ‘his needs’ expressed in the needs of all of humanity, and to open our doors for strangers. So let’s thank him for this and at the same time let’s make the word of God that we hear from the prophet Isaiah in our First Reading today our support as we go on with our Christian journey: ‘Courage! Do not be afraid.’

 

Jul 7 2011

A Chat with St Maria Goretti

A Chat with St Maria Goretti

Yesterday, we celebrate the memory of St Maria Goretti, a remarkable girl whose simple faith enabled her to gain the crown of being a virgin and a martyr. We are privileged to have her for a brief chat about her life and her faith.

JF: Thank you St Maria for this honour of chatting with you on this particular day for you and for the Church. Would you please tell us a bit about your life?

St Maria: Well, I was born in 1890 at Corinaldo, a small village, some thirty-miles from Ancona.  I was one of the five children of my parents Luigi Goretti and Assunta Carlini. My father raised us up by being a farm-labourer.

JF: And did you stay in that same village all your life?

St Maria: No, in 1896, the family moved to Colle Gianturo, near Galiano. But we didn’t stay there for long. We had to move to another place called Ferriere di Conca, close to Nettuno in the Roman Campagna.

JF: I assumed your father might have found work there, so you move?

St Maria: Not exactly, because once we got to our new place of residence, my  father was stricken with malaria and shortly later, he died.

JF: Oh I’m sorry to hear that.

St Maria: It was indeed a sorry situation for all of us. As a widow, my mum  had to take up his work to the best of her ability.

JF: I can sense that. I can surmise it must have been a very hard struggle for her.

St Maria: Certainly. Every small  coin and bit of food had to be looked at twice.

JF: Did you and the rest of your siblings help her to cope up in some ways?

St Maria: We did. In fact I kept on encouraging her to go on, cheering her up to keep up the faith and live.

JF: I  assumed by doing just that, your family had coped up quite well of  the loss of your father.

St Maria: To some extent yes. But for me, I had to overcome severe trials of faith in my time.

JF: For example, like what?

St Maria: One hot afternoon in July 1902, I was sitting at the top of the stairs in the cottage, mending a shirt, when a cart stopped outside and Alexander, our 18-year old neighbour came running up the stairs.

JF: What was he  up to?

St Maria: He seduced me to go to bed with him. But I refused to abide with his evil plan. Knowing that he couldn’t get me, he seized me, pulled me in the bedroom and shut the door behind him.

JF: Were you the only one in the house then? Did you try calling for help?

St Maria: I struggled and tried to call for help. But he strangled me, so my call for help could not really be heard well. But I indicated to him, as I gasped from his strangulation, that I would rather be killed than submit to his evil whims.

JF: Which he brutally did?

St Maria: Yes, he pulled my dress and started to strike me with his long dagger. I sank to the floor, as I continued pleading him to kill me rather than abusing me. I could still recall him plunging his dagger into my back and ran away.

JF: Had there been a witness for this terrible assault to you?

St Maria: That I could not be certain of. But I thought some people might have seen the crime. I could not remember there was an ambulance fetching me, but there must have been, since I woke up in the hospital.

JF: And did you think at that time that you would never really recover from what happened to you?

St Maria: I knew that I would never survive. What held me back was  that I was terribly worried of my mother’s welfare as she continued to raise my other siblings.

JF: But you did something remarkable there in the hospital there as well.

St Maria: Well,  I received with such joy and welcome the holy viaticum.

JF: And you also expressed your forgiveness to your murderer.

St Maria Goretti disclosed that she was really afraid of Alexander who had made some advancement to her prior to the incident. But she didn’t tell this to anyone, lest she could cause trouble with his family. Twenty-four hours after the assault, Maria Goretti died surrounded by her mother, the parish priest of Nettuno, a Spanish noblewoman and two nuns.

Her murderer Alexander was sentenced to 30 years  behind bars, and showed no regrets at all. But one night he dreamed that Maria Goretti appeared  gathering flowers and offering them to him. That changed him personally. He was released from prison after serving 27 years there. The first thing he did then was to go and seek Maria’s mother and asked for her forgiveness.

Pope Pius XII beatified here on April 27,1947.  The beatification ceremony was such a remarkable event since the Pope appeared on the balcony of St Peter’s later, accompanied by the then 82-year old Assunta Goretti [Maria’s mum], her two sisters and her brother. Three years after she was beatified, she was canonized as St of the Catholic Church by the same Pope, before the biggest crowd ever assembled for a canonization.

St Maria Goretti, Pray for us.