Today the Church honors St. Andrew Kim. He was born in Seoul, Korea. The conversion route brought him to the Catholic way of life in difficult times. Kim was the son of a martyred father. Ordained a priest, he was the first native born Korean to stand at the altar. He, too, was martyred by torturing and beheading in 1846. He is a reminder to the Korean and the universal Catholic Church that between 1839 and 1867 there were 103 lives added to the heavenly community of martyrs.
The first liturgical reading for today well serve the memory of Andrew Kim and those who died with him.
In the first eight verses of the 3rd chapter of the Book of Proverbs you find a genuine expression of a martyr's life. As well, these words of wisdom are most apropos for our Church and nation at this moment in their histories.
In days of economic disasters quickly does the "hoarding mentality" take root in life as a signal of the desire to maintain a prior style of existence. How challenging it is to refuse requested help when indeed there is treasure in one's life. How real is dislike and even hatred between fellow Americans and sometimes Catholics because of political or religious ideologies that are different. How real is the distrust in the hearts of many toward those whose prayerful voices speak "Allah be praised"! How tempting are the ways of an immoral, unethical and, yes, even illegal activities when great abundance has been painfully reduced, when our silos are far from previous fullness.
We need to examine our lives carefully and honestly when the going gets tough because we can so easily fall into damnable weaknesses. We need to carefully listen to the words of the reading today: "To the Lord the perverse on is an abomination; ... The curse of the Lord is on the house of the wicked; ... When dealing with the arrogant, he is stern.... "With the upright is his friendship; the dwelling of the just he blesses; to the humble he shows kindness."
