“We have received baptism, entrance into the church, and the honor of being called Christians. Yet what good is that if we are Christian in name only?” Those words of St Paul Chong Ha-sang ask a good question. He was one of more than 100 Korean martyrs canonized by Pope St. John Paul II in 1984. We celebrate their martyrdom today.
The path of Christianity in Korea is fascinating. While Jesuits went as missionaries to China and Japan in the 1500s and 1600s, Korean leadership kept all foreigners and foreign ideas out of Korea during those centuries. Nonetheless, by the late 1700s Christian literature had found its way into Korea. Laity, in their homes, secretly began to study it. When a Chinese priest made his way into Korea around 1790, he found about 4000 Christians—none of whom had ever seen a priest. Religious freedom and the open expression of Christianity came to Korea in 1883.
Between those first smuggled-in Christian ideas and religious freedom were times of extreme religious persecution and martyrdom. 1839 was a year of intense persecution. That was when St. Paul Chong Ha-sang, St. Andrew Kim Tae-gong, and many of the other Korean martyrs were tortured and killed.
In St. Paul’s Day
It was the hope of the resurrection that motivated the Korean martyrs. It was the hope of the resurrection that also motivated the people of Corinth in St. Paul’s day. Bible scholars tell us that that Chapter 15 is the most important chapter in I Corinthians. It is the earliest description of Christian belief in the resurrection that we have. Because of St. Matthew’s feast day tomorrow, we skip important parts of Chapter 15 in the daily readings sequence. I encourage you to read Chapter 15 straight through. It is gloriously beautiful. You may find the entire chapter here.
Today we hear,
Now I am reminding you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you indeed received and in which you also stand. Through it you are also being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you, unless you believed in vain.* For I handed on to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures; that he was buried; that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures;
In parts of Chapter 15 included in neither today’s readings nor Saturday’s, Paul confronts directly the Corinthians doubts about the resurrection. He says,
For if the dead are not raised, neither has Christ been raised, and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is vain; you are still in your sins. Then those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are the most pitiable people of all.
How Important is the Resurrection to Us?
It is hard for me to put myself in the shoes of the Korean martyrs or of the Christians of the first century. I can’t quite imagine having NO cultural concept of the resurrection.
Yet our culture, in many ways, lacks a Christian concept of the resurrection. I frequently hear people who have no belief in God or no active practice of faith say things like, “He’s not suffering now. He’s gone to a better place;” or “Mom must be really happy now to be back with Dad in heaven now.”
Those comments make great sense if we truly believe our Christian faith. They make Karl Marx’s comment that “religion is the opiate of the people” true if we divorce hope for heaven from practice of faith now.
Faith In Deed from Last Sunday
On Sunday we heard St. James famous admonition: “Faith without works is dead.” It was paired with Jesus answer to Peter’s credo: “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For where wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and that of the gospel will save it.”
There is a work of faith which is to deny self and repent from sins. There is a work of faith which is courage to express faith–no matter what the cost.
There is St. James “faith without works is dead” and Hebrews “Therefore, let us leave behind the basic teaching about Christ and advance to maturity, without laying the foundation all over again: repentance from dead works and faith in God, instruction about baptisms and laying on of hands, resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment” (Hebrews 6:1-2)
There are the dead works of sin and transformational works of faith.
The Gospel
Reading today’s Gospel in light of these other readings creates a beautiful and hopeful picture. A woman whose sins are known in the community and who must have encountered Jesus and his teaching in some way, this woman publicly demonstrates she is changed. She demonstrates it by crashing a party, sitting underneath the table, and silently anointing Jesus’ feet, washing them with her tears.
This woman has been forgiven. She is no longer a public sinner. She has changed. Jesus says, “her many sins have been forgiven; hence, she has shown great love.”
And Jesus says to her also, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”
For Us
Korean martyrs, Paul’s admonitions to the Corinthians, a woman not ashamed to publicly demonstrate her gratitude to Jesus…what message do they have for you and me today?
The message for me is this: It is the FAITH that is important. And that faith, if alive and real, must be IN DEED.
When I think about “faith without works is dead,” I usually think of the works of mercy.
But today’s readings make me aware of a second perspective: real faith lives life from the perspective of one who has been saved from “dead works” and now chooses to let God’s grace guide and direct us—like the woman who sat at Jesus feet and like St. Paul.
People of the Resurrection
St. Paul encourages the Corinthians to remember who he is and who they are: sinful people whom God Himself suffered and experienced death in order to save; sinful people who will live forever with God because Jesus not only died, he arose from the dead and ascended into heaven; sinful people for whom “his grace has not been ineffective.”
Yet also sinful people who are “being saved, IF you hold fast to the word I preached to you, unless you believed in vain.”
These were the words of Andrew Kim Tae-Gong, another of the Korean martyrs, on the day of his death. They give me pause:
This is my last hour of life, listen to me attentively: if I have held communication with foreigners, it has been for my religion and for my God. It is for Him that I die. My immortal life is on the point of beginning. Become Christians if you wish to be happy after death, because God has eternal chastisements in store for those who have refused to know Him.
Prayer:
Lord, today let me have faith in deed–faith lived, faith claimed, faith that works. Let my faith work for me, to keep me focused on the difference the resurrection makes. Let my faith work for others, that my witness will lead them to seek You. Let it work for You to put one more brick in your Kingdom. Amen.
