Today we celebrate two wonderful anniversaries: the feast of St. Andrew Kim Dae Gun and United States Independence Day. These afford us the opportunity to think about and give thanks to God for our faith and for our freedom. We also need to ask ourselves, what is freedom for and how do we use it or abuse it? Likewise we must consider our faith and whether our actions prove to the world if our faith is right or wrong.
Personally, I think our society is cursed with freedom. Not only do we have too much of it but we don’t know what to do with it. Worse, we forget what life was like before we gained our freedom. We gather peacefully in this Church this morning because of the bravery of countless men and women who gave their lives so we could worship as Catholics, Protestants, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus or—and this is the true beauty of freedom—not worship at all. Or not believe in God. It’s our choice and our freedom.
The problem is most of us never had to risk our comfort, let alone our lives, in order to practice our religion. For us the U.S. Constitution guarantees the freedom of religion, but St. Andrew Kim Dae Gun and the blessed martyrs did not have the luxury to sit around and wait for their government to give them the freedom to practice their faith. If you knew for certain being baptized would result in your death, would you do it? If you understood becoming a Catholic priest would cause you and your family to be tortured and killed, would anyone here still want to become a priest?
St. Andrew Kim saw in the Catholic faith a better future, not just for himself but also for Korea. And I see in the Catholic Church in Korea hope for the Catholic Church in the world.
You are so blessed. The blood of the Korean martyrs runs through your veins and you breathe the air of freedom in the United States. The question I ask you is this: are you using your freedom to witness to your faith in this country? And why is this important?
It seems to me in the competition between Christians and Muslims to win the hearts and minds of our own people and to influence secular society, Islam is winning. That is, Muslims are more respectful of their religion than we are of ours. As you know I recently spent a week in Turkey. Turkey is a modern, Muslim country. They are not ashamed to practice their faith in public. What’s more, they are way more respectful of the Prophet Muhammed than we are of Jesus Christ.
Muslims seldom refer to the Prophet by name and when they do, whether in word or in print, they add “Peace be upon him.”
Now Muhammed was a prophet but only a prophet and only a man. We Christians confess Jesus Christ as the Son of God and Savior of the world, yet how much respect do we give the holy name of Jesus? In our society, sad to say, “Jesus Christ” is said more often as a curse than as a blessing. Even among Catholics. Instead of us making society holy, we allow society to make our religion vulgar and use the name of Jesus as a swear word.
But we can change our society; we can change our country; we can change our church if —and only if—we are willing to change ourselves.
Let us thank our Muslim brothers and sisters for the example they have given us. Let us resolve never to use the Name of the Lord in anything but prayer or in a respectful manner. St. Kim Dae Gun gave his life for the Name of Jesus; are we willing to risk the ridicule, scorn and laughter of our friends if we speak up when Jesus’ name is thrown around like so much dirt?
What’s the use of believing we have the true religion if we treat it with contempt? What’s the use of being free if we live as slaves to popularity and pride? Our religion is only as true as we live it.
St. Kim Dae Gun gave us an example, not to be praised but to be followed. We honor him and all the martyrs of Korea not so much by singing their praises but by risking our pride and popularity to imitate them by putting our faith into practice.
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