23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

Praise be to Jesus Christ

Did you have a peaceful week?

Today is the first Sunday in September.  May our Lord protect us and lead us toward the path of true faith.  

We celebrate September as the Holy Month of Martyrs.  We should remember and learn from them.  

Since the introduction of Catholicism in Korea, there have been more than 10,000 martyrs in Korea and 103 have been canonized as saints while 124 received the title of “Blessed.”  Martyrs have proven their faith with their blood but have lived true faith while they were alive.  

The book “Sense of Faith in Church Life” in Vatican describes true faith as follows:

Faith requires repentance

Faith grows and represented through prayer and worship

Faith requires responsibility especially charity and volunteerism

Repentance directs us toward God.  The Korean Catholicism starts in 1784 with the baptism of Sung Hoon Lee (Peter).  The scholars studied Catholic texts extensively and began to understand God’s true message.  Through repentance they received God in their hearts and pledged to follow the mandates.  

First mandate was prayer and worship.  They did not have priests or homily but learned the teachings through references and the Bible.  According to the teachings, they prayed everyday and designated one day a week as a holy day.  Their faith grew through the prayers and worship.  

Second mandate was charity.  As their faith grew, they practiced loving their neighbors, helped the poor, perform good deeds in their lives.  They professed their faith even with the lowest class, the indentured servants.  They treated the servants who were treated less than a person as an equal faithful and helped them.  

Thus the martyrs through repentance received God in their hearts, through prayers and worship grew their faith, and through charity lived in true faith.  

Today’s readings speak to how the poor are chosen first through charity.  God had chosen the poor who became faith rich and heirs to the kingdom.  (Second Reading)   Isaiah proclaimed that the blind, deaf, lame, mute will be saved. (First Reading) Jesus healed the deaf and mute. (Gospel)

As we spend the next week, I hope you would receive God in your heart and through prayer, worship, and charity live your faith so that you may spend blessed time.  

Let us meditate for a moment.