Good Friday

Today we remember the death of our Lord and meditate on the reasons for his death, and what it means to us. In the English speaking world, we call it Good Friday. And we know why it is a good Friday.

On this Good Friday let us consider how our Lord was seen by most of those who saw him crucified. He was a death-row convict who was getting what they thought he deserved. There have been many before and after who have been put to death for reasons that would seem to justify such a punishment.But is such a punishment, called capital punishment for criminal acts deemed worthy of death, ever justified--morally or even for promoting an orderly society?


An editorial in the Korean Times has again made a plea to stop this killing done under the guise of righteousness. The editorial made clear that its position is not based on a religious belief but on a conviction that capital punishment hurts our society.The Constitutional Court in Korea thinks differently, and in a recent ruling clearly states the government's position:

"Capital punishment does not contradict the constitutional guarantee of the right to life or infringe the constitutional guarantee of human dignity....Capital punishment is a penalty with the public goal of realizing justice through just retribution against atrocious crimes and protecting society by preventing crimes," the court said. "As a kind of necessary evil, it is still functioning properly." The ruling was 5-for and 4-against, which was a change from the 7-for and 2-against in 1996. The Catholic Church in Korea is trying to change public opinion on this issue, and there has been change but not enough, as this recent ruling indicates. Korea has not executed anybody for over 10 years and was considered a country that has, in effect, abolished the death penalty--joining 26 other countries that have not used their legally sanctioned punishment for many years; 87 countries have made it illegal.

Though it is universally accepted that one may kill to protect ones life if directly threatened by another, there has been, many feel, an overall weakening of respect for life throughout societies everywhere. This is readily seen by the prevalence of abortion, and the lack of respect for a person's values and property--they are not unrelated to the cultural climates we live in.

Changing the cultural climate for all of us was part of the mission Jesus was here to perform. Our Lord's death, as the centerpiece of his mission, means a great deal to us Christians for it was a death that leads to eternal life for all. Jesus was a prisoner of conscience but put to death for reasons his society considered valid--as societies continue to do today to justify the taking of life. Let us pray and work that some day we will come to an understanding of how precious life is, even for those that seem not to deserve it.

The First Mass, Prototype for All Masses

Holy Thursday is a day a priest remembers every time he celebrates Mass. Today all the priests in the diocese attended the Cathedral Mass for the blessing of the oils and the renewal of our promises we made at ordination. The meaning of the day was meaningfully expressed in a meditation by an elderly Korean priest.

He began the meditation by mentioning that the Jews would divide their communal meals into three parts: passing the first wine cup, the meal itself, and the wine cup that follows. The host would hold the bread and pray: "Our God, king of the world, the one who gave us this bread, we praise you."

At the Last Supper Jesus followed the ordinary procedures of a Jewish meal. During the main meal, he took the bread, blessed and broke it and gave it to them, "Take this," he said, "this is my body." At the end of the meal, taking the cup of wine, gave thanks and passed it to them, and said, " This is the blood that will be shed for many." These are the words Jesus used foreseeing his imminent death. A death he wanted to be an everlasting bond with all of us.

After the death of Jesus, the early Church held this Holy Meal once a week. In the passing of the years much has changed concerning how the Holy Meal was presented and discussed. Though the essential meaning has not changed, the name of the Meal went through several changes.

It was, at first, called the Lord's supper (I Cor. 11:20), then "Breaking of Bread" (Acts 2:42), in the second century, Eucharist (thanksgiving); in the fifth century, it became the Mass. The day on which Mass was celebrated has also changed. In the first century, it was held on Saturday night, before its final change to Sunday. The place of Mass was also changed after the Edict of Toleration in 313 from private homes and catacombs to Churches that were built after the edict. The language has also changed from Latin, before the Second Vatican Council (1962-65), to the language of each country.

But through all the changes, the essential meaning of the Mass remained the same, its core meaning highlighted in Korean culture by two Chinese phrases (父子有親), and (殺身成仁 ). The first refers to the relationship parents have with a child and the respect and obedience the child has for the parents. The second: to sacrifice one's life to keep one's virtue intact. These ideas, accepted as part of a culture going back many hundreds of years, are readily accepted and easily understood by all Koreans; for Catholics they can be applied to the Mass for a better understanding of what is being celebrated.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I know this email is out of the blue, but I just posted an article on my blog entitled “Top 15 Misconceptions About Catholics” http://onlinechristiancolleges.net/top-15-misconceptions-about-catholics/ . Anyway I figured I’d bring it to your attention in case you thought it interesting enough to drop a quick mention on your site about it as I’m trying to increase readership of my blog.

An Example of Love Wthout Pretence.

In the liturgy of Holy Week we had the chance to understand the motivation of a number of characters that appear in the Gospel stories. Some were not examples to imitate. Others like Mary of Bethany did something extraordinary; she was reprimanded by Judas but accepted by our Lord.

What is, and is not, worthy of being imitated? An article in a Catholic newspaper recently addressed this question by describing a small child who wanted more than anything else in the world to be pretty. Whatever someone said was pretty she would imitate. If someone had a pretty hair permanent she would spend the whole day putting her hair up with pencils. If someone said that a short dress was pretty she would cut her dress. A person with makeup that was considered pretty would get her to spend all day using her mother's make up on her face.

Once when she heard that a mother was the most beautiful thing in the world, she ran to her mother and told her that she wanted to be a mother. The mother, smiling, asked her why she wanted to be a mother so early? The child said that a mother was the most beautiful thing in the world, so she wanted to be a mother. The mother, knowing of her daughter's recent habits, answered that she does not have a hair permanent, does not use makeup, and does not wear a short dress. The child answered: "How can you be the most beautiful in the world?" The mother, taking her child in her arms, told her that it was because she loved her so much.

This was the writer's way of introducing his belief that too many of us are like this child, doing what we know others will like and what others like to see. When a child acts in this way we can understand. When grownups do the same, his response was clear, we need to be concerned.

It is a fact that many of us only behave in ways we think others will approve. As a result, we become locked into an unhealthy concern with our exterior selves, the pretence becoming at times so real to us that we mistake the show for the self we really are. When others do not see me as I see myself, how do I react? Do I become anxious and upset? What is beautiful is to be the self we were meant to be, to express this in the way we act and speak, and to love ourselves for being who we are. It is with this attitude that we will be open to loving others, and seeing others as valued as we see ourselves. It is the naked Jesus hanging on the Cross that shows us the way to be.

In Monday's Gospel it was Mary who was the one without pretence, and conscious only of Jesus. It was Judas with the pretence. In our own lives it is not always easy to be truly ourselves, and willing to accept the problems that this may bring into our lives.

Life of Saint Luke Hwang Sok-tu

Robert M. Lilly, a Maryknoll Priest who worked in Korea for many years, discovered the body of St. Hwang Luke in one of the mission stations of the parish in which he was working. "I was fortunate to find the ancestral burial ground of the Hwang family in a mission station of my parish," he said. " My desire to find out more about his role in the growth of the Catholic Church in Korea evolved from that discovery."


In this Holy Week edition of Magnificat magazine Vol. 12, No.1 the life of the saint is briefly recounted. Knowledge of the Saint getting out to the rest of the world makes Fr. Lilly very happy.


"At the age of twenty, Luke Hwang Sok-tu, of Yongp'ung, Korea, a pagan nobleman's son, set out for Seoul to participate in his country's national scholastic examination. Stopping at an inn along the way, Luke met a Catholic whose words about his faith deeply impressed him. Luke quickly acquired several Catholic books. After becoming a Catholic himself, he persuaded his wife to enter the Church as well. Luke's father was infuriated by his son's conversion. Finding that his words seemed only to provoke him father to blaspheme, Luke took a vow of silence, promising to God that he would not speak again until his father was converted to the Catholic faith. After observing this silence for over two years, he was rewarded with the conversion of his father. In later years, Luke served the missionary priests as a language tutor and catechist and assisted Bishop (Saint) Antoine Daveluy in compiling and editing books for Korean Catholics. On Good Friday, March 30, 1866, Luke was beheaded together with Bishop Daveluy and four others during a major persecution of the country's Catholics."

A Difficult But In Retrospect a Wonderful Experience

A priest from Inchon wrote up his experience on a pilgrimage to the shrine of St. James of Compostella in Spain. A tradition that goes back to the 10th century, the walking trip usually starts from one of the several towns in France and lasts for a month or more, covering a distance of  about 800 kilometers.

The priest was moved to make the trip by reading a book on the subject and, liking mountain climbing and walking, decided on doing the pilgrimage before getting any older.

He chose to begin his walk within Spain; it was 400 kilometers long and took him 18 days to complete. When he arrived at the starting place of the pilgrimage, he was nervous and uncomfortable, not being able to communicate in either English or Spanish. Before leaving Korea, he was warned about  pickpockets who liked to work among the Koreans. This fear added to his uncomfortableness.

In Korea his every need was filled but here he was all by himself with a whole new experience to contend with. In the places that were set aside for sleeping, there were men and woman together, which was something that he didn't have to deal with in the past, so he went to an inn, where he stayed for the first ten days. However,this made him feel even lonelier. He finally decided,for the last part of the trip, to join the others in the common sleeping quarters and found this much more to his liking. He could hear about the trip and what was ahead. He met many from Europe, the Germans being the largest group; in some years, he learned,there would be as many as 20 to 30 thousand Germans making the pilgrimage.

Toward the end of his stay, he could   drop his concerns for his bodily comfort and safety and found the peace of mind he was looking for. Though there were not many moments of joy during the trip, in retrospect he was able to view the pilgrimage as a wonderful experience and even was thinking of doing it again; next time, he promised himself,he would be better prepared.

St. Paul helped him to see what had been demanded of him. "I do not say this," said Paul, "because I am in want,for whatever the situation I find myself in, I have learned to be self-sufficient. I am experienced in being brought low, yet  I know what it is to have an abundance. I have learned how to cope with every circumstance--how to eat well or go hungry, to be well provided for or do without"(Phil. 4:11-12).

Understanding Horrors of War Together

Bishop Lee, the retired Bishop of Taegu, started a youth group in 2004 which he named with the four Chinese characters (如己愛人) that mean "Love Others Like You Love Yourself." Knowing that the youth are the future, the bishop had decided to work with them for peace in the world, following the example of Prof. Paul Takashi Nagai of Japan (1908-1951) who was a strong advocate of loving others as ourselves, a belief he put into practice during the aftermath of the atomic explosions.

When the atomic bomb exploded in Nagasaki, Dr. Nagai was at the medical college where he worked as a radiologist. He saw the destruction and the deaths of his students and his wife. Working among the rubble, Dr. Nagai began a relief effort, putting to use his knowledge of radiation sickness to help the injured, but his efforts to provide healing were not restricted to medical care. He built a hut on the site where his house had stood and spent the rest of his life there praying, writing, meeting with visitors and working for peace. Many in Japan consider him a saint.

The bishop is sponsoring a contest that will select the best book reviews of one of two books by Dr. Nagai. Those who are selected will get a 4-day trip to Nagasaki to visit with other Japanese youths and spend time visiting the museum and being on piligrimage. One of the books selected was the "Bells of Nagasaki," which is the most popular of his books and gives a vivid picture of the destruction of the city and the relief efforts immediately after the explosion.

The bishop hopes that this will help conscientize the young people to the horrors of war, and enable many to actively take part in on-going efforts to make Dr. Nagai's example of love for others a reality for all.

A by-product of this joint exchange between the youth of Korea and Japan should be a greater understanding of each other, overcoming some of the results of a long history of animosity between the two countries.

Apostasy or Martyrdom, a Difficult Choice?

The Japanese Catholics suffered much for their faith over a century before the persecution of the Catholics in Korea. Although martyrdom is an act most of us will never have to face, what would we do in such circumstances? Is there something in life that is more important than life?

Let us suppose you were told that all you had to do was to step on an icon of Jesus, not even well made, and you were told by your captives that it had nothing to do with your convictions, that it was merely a formality, that you would be doing it just to save your fellow Christians from their cruel torture and suffering. What would you do? Wouldn't Jesus be pleased that you would be doing something out of love to save your fellow Christians from horrible torture and death? Jesus lived and died precisely to show us how much he loved us. Wouldn't he look upon such an act as meritorious, even if those who heard about it would be scandalized?

This is the plot of "Silence," a historical novel written by the Japanese writer Shusaku Endo. It deals with the persecution of the Catholic Church in Japan in the 17th century and a Jesuit priest who was sent to find out what happened to the superior of the Jesuits who had stopped sending letters back home concerning his mission. There had been news that he apostatized when captured and tortured.

A monodrama, adapted from the novel, is being performed in parishes here in Korea during Lent, presenting a heady mix of faith and doubt, of love and despair, which will give us much to think about before the beginning of Holy Week.

There is only one actor who takes the part of the priest who went to Japan to get word about the Jesuit superior and finds himself confronted with the same choice of apostasy or martyrdom as the superior, who chose apostasy. But the choice is not a simple one for the priest to make. In the silence that follows his every prayer for guidance--for himself and for the Christians who are being put to death each day because of his refusal to apostatize- he finally hears the God who chose to share human suffering by his passion and death on the cross. "It is to be trampled on by you that I am here." "Trample!"

The play presents you with many questions and the Koreans who see it will have much to think about from their own history with apostasy and martyrdom. The conclusion that Shusaku Endo
presents to us would be considered heretical by many and meritorious by others. There are many that are faced with similar dilemmas in life. It is impossible to see reality as God would; most of the time we see a partial picture and the one that strikes us strongly in the here and now of history.