Tag Archives: Christianity

May 18 2013

The Holy Spirit: The life of the Church

Homily for Pentecost Sunday year C 2013

PentecostWhen I was in the seminary in Melbourne, I was once appointed as the Chapel Convenor, which means I had to look after the day to day celebrations of the Liturgy, making Rosters for liturgical celebrations and setting up for big religious events. Part of it was to prepare for the Stations of the Cross every Friday evening in lent. Sorry to disappoint you but Friday evening was a bit of a thing for us- seminarians- then. Friday evening was always a time to look forward to not only because it means we have a break from studies among other things, but also because Saturday is day off. And usually we then would start our day off after dinner on Friday by going on a movie marathon until dawn, etc. One Friday in Lent, I said to myself: “I need to do something different that would make me focus more on the Stations of the Cross than thinking on what movie I might be watching for the whole night.” So I invited seminarians of different nationalities and language to lead in each one of the stations, in their own language. It was done in English of course, in Italian, Vietnamese, Filipino, Croatian, Maltese, even in Kiwi, would you believe. That went well. That really kept me focused on the Stations of the Cross. That was one of my favourite things I did in the seminary. That was a Pentecost experience for me when we were reflecting on one devotion of our Christian faith through different languages reflecting different cultural backgrounds too. I might not have understood what they were saying but I know we were united in our reflection on the Stations of the Cross. That was really an experience to attest that the Holy Spirit is really at work.

Friends, my dear brothers and sisters, I’m sharing my experience of Pentecost this is what we celebrate today as a Church. We are celebrating this day as the birthday of the Church, the moment when the Church is being enflamed by the Holy Spirit and empowered to proclaim the Gospel to all the world, to all peoples, regardless of skin, nationalities and social status. Because of the gift of the Holy Spirit, we are one in Christ. We are one in faith, and here we are expressing that oneness in faith through this Eucharistic celebration. We may not have the same opinion. We may not have many things in common. In short, we may be different from one another, as we are all unique like everyone else so they say, yet we are one in Christ by virtue of our baptism. Thank you all for making a statement (by coming here) to the world that God is real, that the Holy Spirit is at work, and that Jesus is still alive among us and in each one of us.

And this is my prayer for you: That the event of Pentecost would happen again in all of us right here today. I pray that we would have the courage to go out and proclaim the ‘marvels of God’ to all people, starting from our families, friends and neighbours. One way I do this is through Facebook and Twitter.

I urged you too, to pray with me, together with the Psalmist: “Lord send out your Spirit and renew the face the earth.” Let us pray for the gift of the Holy Spirit to give us life, to sustain our faith and to give meaning to our hope.

We need the Spirit of God in our lives. We need the Holy Spirit because as one priest said the other night: ‘The Holy Spirit is the life of the Church.’ If the Holy Spirit is out of the picture, there is no point in everything we do as a Church now.

We need the Holy Spirit for many reasons. One reason is that like the disciples’ experience, it is the Holy Spirit that takes our fear away and gives us courage to proclaim the good news of Jesus despite threats of death, persecutions or even indifference. Our First Reading today is just a beautiful piece of evidence for this work of the Holy Spirit. The disciples were hiding in the upper room. The doors were locked. They were afraid of the authorities now that Jesus has left them on their own. He has ascended into heaven. But as God would have it, he fulfils his promise. He sent them the Holy Spirit as Jesus has promised them. Because of that, they went out of their comfort zones and went to the streets, preaching about God, telling others of Jesus Christ. This same Spirit is still at work even in our time and will always be. Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador would be one witness for this. He was so vocal against the injustices and corruption in his time on the 80’s, that he was threatened many times of death. One time he was asked: ‘Archbishop, with all these death threats around you, are you not scared?’ The good Archbishop answered: ‘I am. But even if my knees are shaking, I know I am standing on the right and firm ground.’ That was a Spirit at work in him.

Another reason we need the Holy Spirit today is because of the Mission that Jesus left for us to do. As Christians we are called to be the enduring and the living presence of the Risen Lord in the world. And this is possible if the Spirit of Christ is really in us.  It is a big call because of the many options people now have to face and to take, including God for that matter. Our time is characterized by commercialism and materialism- wherein the name of the game is: ‘If it doesn’t benefit me, or if it doesn’t suit me, or if I wouldn’t get anything out of it, why bother?’ As Christians we are to counter-act this prevailing attitude by allowing the Holy Spirit to work in us and through us. How we might do this? We don’t have to Google for answers. Let us just look around us. God has offered us many ways, many channels of his graces, for us to know and understand  that he is there, that his Spirit is at work. One example of this is what Pope Francis has been doing so far as the Pope. He is, as I have heard from many people “a breath of a fresh air for the Church.” His gestures are revealing to us some of the ways of the Spirit reminding us that real service is not knowing all, or being a jack of all  trades to everyone, but by fidelity to the message of the gospel and by loving selflessly and unconditionally. In a way the Pope is really carrying out what Jesus said in our gospel today: ‘If anyone loves me, he will keep my commandments.’ He is inflamed by the Spirit.

St Paul would also offer us another way to be the enduring presence of Christ in the world today, and that is: Our interests and ambitions must be deeper than just fulfilling our worldly ambitions and yearnings. It must be different from what the world’s expectations (glory, fame, honour, wealth, influence, etc). It must be a longing for heaven, a longing for eternal happiness, a longing for God. And this can be possible only if we allow the Holy Spirit to work in us, and to allow the Spirit of Jesus to be our motive, our goal and our reason to believe, to live and love.

So let us pray: Come Holy Spirit and renew the face of the earth.

 

 

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 16 2012

Personal Encounter with Jesus: ground for discipleship

Homily for 24th Sunday 2012

  1. Today’s gospel gives us the ground of our Christian faith- the profession of faith in Jesus as the Christ, the messiah, the anointed one of God,  that Peter has confessed in Jesus. Peter has come to believe in Jesus as the Christ, not just one of the prophets, or  Elijah, or John the Baptist, as the others would say of him. Peter has come to recognize Jesus as the one sent by God to be saviour of all. But this realization didn’t come to Peter out of the blue. Peter and the other disciples of Jesus came to see and believe in him because of something more fundamental that had happened in them. They not only met Jesus, but they have encountered him. This encounter happened not because they were driven to Jesus but because they were drawn by him individually and personally.

  2. This is the beauty of our God when he calls us to follow him. He addresses us personally: ‘And You! Who do you say I am?’ And he also freely calls us, thus we are also to respond in freedom. When Jesus calls and we respond in freedom, this is encounter, and this encounter calls for a personal relationship. Because it is only in and through personal relationship with the Lord Jesus that we can profess freely, confidently and even proudly that Jesus is our Lord and Saviour.

  3. This encounter therefore calls us for two things as we can deduce from our gospel today. First to celebrate this encounter by committing ourselves to follow Jesus everyday. Following him means ‘to renounce ourselves, take up our cross and follow him.’ Following him means devotion to the truth- that is to stand up for the truth that there is God, and that he is sending us the Messiah, and that we who are here today are witnesses to this wonderful truth of our faith. Following him means to be single-minded as Jesus was, towards the fulfilment of his mission from the Father- that is to go to Jerusalem, to be captured by the authorities and even to die on the cross. This single-mindedness towards our mission in life as Christians is always a challenging one, because this can mean we can disappoint others, even our own friends. Jesus himself was a victim of this. When he said to his closest friends what is going to happen to him, Peter was disappointed and thus he was trying to block his way to Jerusalem. Peter’s reaction however is typical of any human relationship. We don’t want something bad happens to our friends, we don’t want to lose our friends. But we have to know and understand God calls each one of us personally and in a more unique way. This then leads us to the second way to celebrate this personal encounter with Jesus and that is to be Christlike in the world today.

  4. To be Christlike in the world today means to be reflection of Christ to others, to be bearers of the light that Christ has shared with us in our baptism, to  be the salt of the earth and the light of the world. To be Christlike today is to harmonise our faith with good works as St James urges us in our Second Reading today. To be Christlike is to be humble and meek as the suffering servant that the Prophet Isaiah tells us today in our Second Reading. St Teresa of Avila captured it quite well how to be Christlike in her poem that she wrote: Christ Has No Body. This mystic said: Christ has no body but yours, No hands, no feet on earth but yours, Yours are the eyes with which he looks Compassion on this world, Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good, Yours are the hands, with which he blesses all the world. Yours are the hands, yours are the feet, Yours are the eyes, you are his body. Christ has no body now but yours, No hands, no feet on earth but yours, Yours are the eyes with which he looks compassion on this world. Christ has no body now on earth but yours.

  5. It is a big call. But we are drawn to follow Jesus not driven. So we are free. He may not make the mountains in our path smaller but he can always make the climb easier. He may not take our load away, but he can always make our burden light. He may be showing us the ultimate way of discipleship which is to embrace the cross and even die, but he also shows us that there is glory, resurrection, and eternal happiness behind it all.

  6. So as we continue our Eucharistic celebration today, let thank Jesus for this wonderful encounter with him. Let us also pray that we may be strengthened, encouraged and be braved enough to be his living witnesses in the world today through our faith in him and our actions that are motivated by the values of the gospel that he taught us. Amen.