September 20, 2014
Spreading the Seed
Memorial of Sts. Andrew Kim Taegon, Paul Chong Hasang and Companions
Luke 8:4-15 View Readings
Deacon David Lewis
Saint Charles Catholic Church, Imperial Beach / San Diego, CA
As many of you know, I grew up in upstate NY and spent a lot
of time fishing with my dad and the rest of my family on the Saint Lawrence
River. The river runs through an area known as Thousand Islands where it winds
its way from Lake Ontario to the Atlantic Ocean through Islands of hard
granite, many with cliff sides of nothing but stone hard rock. What would
always amaze me is how in the middle bare rocky cliff would be a lone tree growing
out … no soil, just the roots embedded into the rocky cliffside like the
fingers of a seasoned mountain climber. I wonder about out of all the saplings
that started out on that rocky cliff, some fell down into the water, as the
wind blew, some dried out during dry periods. Some, I am sure, succumbed to the
harsh winters. The likelihood of surviving such an inhospitable environment
must have been insurmountable.
Today’s readings, they talk about spreading the seed of God’s
word. Nothing serves as a better example of spreading the word of God’s love than
the story of the Saints, some of which are Martyrs, that gave their life for
their faith, especially those whose memorial we celebrate today, Sts. Andrew
Kim Taegon, Paul Chong Hasang and Companions.
Let me read a bit of their story from Americancatholic.org:
This first native Korean priest was the son of Korean
converts. His father, Ignatius Kim, was martyred himself during the persecution
of 1839 and was beatified in 1925. After Baptism at the age of 15, Andrew the
son 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 the other Saint we
memorialize today was a lay apostle and married man, aged 45, who lost many
family members to Martyrdom, and gave his own life traveling to China in an
attempt to bring priests into Korea.
Christianity came slowly to Korea beginning 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
bringing 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. During their canonization
the Pope said "The Korean Church is unique because it was founded entirely
by lay people. This fledgling Church, so young and yet so strong in faith,
withstood wave after wave of fierce persecution. Thus, in less than a century,
it could boast of 10,000 martyrs. The death of these martyrs became the leaven
of the Church and led to today's splendid flowering of the Church in Korea.
Even today their undying spirit sustains the Christians in the Church of
silence in the north of this tragically divided land"
We can see from this one example out of many how the
spreading of the seed can take hold in what may otherwise seem like unfertile
ground. That even when seed lands on the hopelessly rocky Cliffside it can, if
it is God’s will take root, and sustain, blossom successfully and bear fruit.
That we are not to judge where we spread the seed of the Gospel, but to spread
it generously, and let God determine if it succeeds to bear fruit. Go forth and
share God’s love, with everyone you meet, be God’s love to everyone you meet,
and as today’s Gospel ends: embrace the Word with a good heart, and bear fruit
through perseverance.”
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