Today is the Feast of St. Andrew Kim Taegon, Chong Ha Sang Paul and Companions. The companions mostly are laymen and women, some old some young, some are children some were bishops some were priests, altogether there were 103. Pope John Paul II canonized them in Seoul in 1984.
In the breviary for today the second reading is taken from a letter of St. Andrew Kim in which he mentions some lessons we learn from seeds. The lessons are many let us reflect on a few of them:
The Blood of the Martyrs is the seed of the Church
1) Seeds point to the future. We wait in patience and work towards the harvest which will come.
2) The seed has to die before it breaks the ground and shows us life.
3) What we sow we will reap. If we plant potatoes we get potatoes if tomatoes we get tomatoes.
4) We plant one seed but the seed at harvest time becomes many. In our Lords words, "producing fruit a hundred times as much."
5) The produce benefits not only the farmer who planted the seed but his family and others.
6) We can not make the seed grow all we can do is remove the obstacles for growth. If it does not have enough water , we water, if the nutrients are missing we spread fertilizer, if the bugs are there we get rid of them, if the weeds are a problem we remove them.
7) The seed matures according to the nature of the earth it has found. Jesus in his parable in all three synoptic Gospels makes this one of his well know teachings.
8) The seed will develop depending on the concern the farmer has during the period of growth.
9) There is a time for the seed to be sown.
10) We will have to plant good seed if we want a good harvest.
This year is the 25th anniversary of canonization, a good time to reflect on what these martyrs have taught us.
