THE ASIAN MANDATE

Memorial of Sts. Andrew Kim Taegon, Priest, Paul Chong Hasang, and Companion, Martyrs

Lk 9:23-26

What comes to our minds when we hear the word “Korea”?

Perhaps, the first thing we ask is “Is it North or South Korea?” Everybody knows that there are two Koreas. Division may be the first thing that comes to our minds when we hear the name of this Asian country. When we have determined which of the two Koreas is being referred to we associate it with the form of government, for one is under communist rule while the other enjoys democratic governance. Then we may also say which between the two has nuclear armaments and which has none.

The second thing that comes to our minds is Kimchi. Kimchi is Korea’s staple food. Whether you come from North Korea or from the South, you never set the table without a kimchi served. I will spend a week in Naju, South Korea next month and I am preparing my self for a daily kimchi meal.

For Filipinos, there are three other things they remember about Korea.

First, the Japanese occupation. The elderly recall that Korean combatants collaborated with the Japanese soldiers in attacking the Philippines. My departed father told us stories about his childhood during the Japanese occupation. He said that the Korean soldiers were more violent and brutal than the Japanese combatants in treating Filipinos during the Second World War. Many Filipinos who experience the horror of the Japanese occupation in the Philippines attest to this claim.

Second, Sandara Parks. Sandara was the second placer in the first “Star Circle Quest” of ABS-CBN Channel 2, a local version of the “American Idol”. Sandara is a Korean. She easily found a soft spot in the hearts of many young Filipinos. Who would not when you see a foreigner making her trademark hand-wave, saying, “Mahal ko kayo” (“I love you”)? She was not the Star Circle Grand Questor, but Sandara certainly was an instant star in the Philippines which also made her famous in her own Korea.

Third, the telenovelas. Telenovelas are famous soap operas in Philippine television. First there were the Mexican telenovelas (with “Marimar” leading in the surveys), then the Chinese (“Meteor Garden” was already reran several times and still is rerunning), then the Korean. The Philippine television is flooded with Korean telenovelas. I confess I used to keep abreast with the developments of one of the Korean telenovelas just to know what the masses were talking about. It can, however, be addictive to watch Noreen, Kevin, Sir Dominic, and the cast of the “Attic Cat”.

But Korea should also remind us of our Christian Faith. Our liturgy today leads us to remember our Asian brethren from Korea who offered their lives for Jesus. Korea is not only about the division between North and South, kimchi, World War II, Sandara Parks and telenovelas. Korea also has martyrs. They are many!

Korea was evangelized not by missionary priests and religious. The Christian Faith was brought to Korea during the 17th century by laypersons, crossing the sea from mainland China. For many years, Christian communities continued to multiply in Korea without the benefit of priests and religious. Strong and vibrant Christian communities flourished under lay leadership.

It was only in 1836 when members of the Paris Foreign Mission Society secretly arrived in Korea. Persecution was never absent in the history of the Church in Korea. Making a headcount of Korean martyrs in the persecutions of 1839, 1846, 1866, and 1867, the total is one hundred and three. Among these martyrs were Andrew Kim Taegon, the first Korean priest, and Paul Chong Hasang, a layman. While there were Korean bishops and priests among the martyrs, laypersons outnumbered them. Korean soil was drenched with the blood of martyrs who were mostly laymen and laywomen, married and unmarried, children, young people, and the elderly. They all suffered greatly for the Faith and consecrated the beginnings of the Church in Korea with their blood.

My professor in Missiology, the Rev. Fr. James Kroeger, M.M., said that today every diocese in Korea has a shrine for its native martyrs. Fresh from a meeting of the Federation of Asian Bishops Conferences held in Korea, Fr. Kroeger reported in our class that in those shrines are to be found the various instruments used to torture and kill the Korean martyrs. Those instruments of death are living testimonies of the heroic and holy witnessing to the Faith of our brethren from Korea. One important reason why I accepted the invitation to be chaplain to a group of pilgrims going to Korea next month is to venerate the Korean martyrs in the shrines of the dioceses we are going to. I am convinced I should thank them and ask their intercession.

The Korean martyrs are not only our brethren in the Faith. They are also our Asian brethren. We share ethnicity with them just as we are in communion with them by virtue of a common baptism. They are our pride even as they are sources of our inspiration in bearing witness to Christ even unto death. While to die for the Faith is a gift to some, to live it is a call for all. The Korean martyrs will certainly not fail us if we ask them to pray for us, their brethren in the Faith who come from the same race as theirs, as we give witness to Jesus.

By the way, in case we have forgotten, let us remember that Jesus is Asian too.

Retrieve the Asian face of Christ. Show the world the Asian face of Jesus. Not a mere invitation, this is a mandate for the Church in Asia. For Filipinos, coming from the only Christian nation in the Far East, this a double mandate.