Vigils Reading – St Andrew Kim & Companions

THE CROWN OF FAITH

From the final exhortation of St Andrew Kim Taegon, priest and martyr^[1]

In this world of perils and hardship if we did not recognize the Lord as our Creator, there would be no benefit either in being born or in our continued existence.  We have come into this world by God’s grace; by that same grace we have received baptism, entrance into the Church, and the honor of being called Christians.  Yet what good will this do us if we are Christians in name alone and not in fact?  We would have come into the world for nothing, we would have entered the Church for nothing, and we would have betrayed even God and his grace.  It would be better never to have been born than to receive the grace of God and then to sin against him…

When he was in the world, the Lord Jesus bore countless sorrows and by his own passion and death founded his Church; now he gives it increase through the sufferings of his faithful.  No matter how fiercely the powers of this world oppress and oppose the Church, they will never bring it down.  Even since his ascension and from the time of the apostles to the present, the Lord Jesus has made his Church grow even in the midst of tribulation.

For the last fifty or sixty years, ever since the coming of the Church to our own land of Korea, the Faithful have suffered persecution over and over again.  Persecution still rages and as a result many who are friends in the household of the faith, myself among them, have been thrown into prison and like you are experiencing severe distress.  Because we have become the one Body, should not our hearts be grieved for the members who are suffering?  Because of the human ties that bind us, should we not feel deeply the pain of our separation?  But, as the Scriptures say, God numbers the very hairs of our head and in his all-embracing providence he has care over us all.  Persecution, therefore, can only be regarded as the command of the Lord or as a prize he gives or as a punishment he permits.

Hold fast, then, to the will of God and with all your heart fight the good fight under the leadership of Jesus; conquer again the diabolical power of this world that Christ has already vanquished.  I beg you not to fail in your love for one another, but to support one another and to stand fast until the Lord mercifully delivers us from our trials.  There are twenty of us in this place and by God’s grace we are so far all well.  If any of us is executed, I ask you not to forget our families.  I have many things to say, yet how can pen and paper capture what I feel?  I end this letter.  As we are all near the final ordeal, I urge you to remain steadfast in faith, so that at last we will reach heaven and there rejoice together.

^[1] Pro Corea Documenta, ed. Mission Catholique Seoul (Seoul-Paris, 1938) v. 1, pp. 74-75; trans. in NCCB Newsletter, v. 21, August/September 1985.