FAITH IN THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST

Saints Andrew Kim Taegon, Priest, and Companions, Martyrs

1 Cor 15:12-20; Ps 17:1,6-8,15; Lk 8:1-3

Submission to Death based on hope in Resurrection

There are many Christians who overtly answer Christians but who do not believe the whole Christian doctrine. As we reflected yesterday, our faith must be founded on the truth of the Gospel to be effective and bear the required fruits. St. Paul continues his emphasis on the core contents of the Christian Gospel. From Paul's testimony of Christ’s resurrection from the dead, which was witnessed by all the apostles and himself as the last and least expected apostle, he moved on to those who rejected the resurrection of the saints. In his response to those peddling this incomplete Gospel, he connects the root, the stem, and the branches as making up the same mystical vine that is Jesus Christ. If God raised the vine from the dead, he would raise the branches. In Paul’s argument, it is the same to deny the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the resurrection of the saints. The denial of one lead to the denial of the other. It is the same attack, whether directed at the head or the members; it is still the question of resurrection from the dead. Jesus Christ and the Christians constitute one single mystical whole. If Christ is not raised from the dead, then his members will not be raised. But if Christ is risen from the dead, then the Christian faith assures us of the resurrection of his members.

The above is the core of Paul’s argument against those preaching a false Gospel devoid of the resurrection of the saints. “Now if Christ raised from the dead is what has been preached, how can some of you be saying that there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, Christ himself cannot have been raised, and if Christ has not been raised then our preaching is useless and your believing it is useless.” This is why we must be vigilant as Christians, for many lifestyles evolve from false doctrines that are inimical to the Christian doctrine. These lifestyles develop into worldly cultures which are poisonous to the Christian faith. A Christian’s spiritual life is gradually paralysed as he unconsciously imbibes any of these evil cultures. The Rosary prayer is helpful and fruitful for any Christian to counter these worldly cultures, for it presents the core mysteries of the Christian faith to us when we pray it consistently. Meditating on the mysteries of the Rosary is similar to what Paul did yesterday when he recounted the core of Christ’s mystery. The Rosary prayer guards against these cultures of death, spreading insidiously everywhere, by imbuing our minds with the mysteries of our Lord. The Christian community at Corinth did not know when they picked up a wrong and evil gospel and started spreading it as the true Gospel. There are many false gospels today, and many Christians are living by them.

The very familiar one in our clime is the prosperity gospel proclaimed everywhere. This gospel contains the error Paul tries to correct in today’s passage, for it pays no attention to the resurrection of the dead. It considers all the blessings of the Christian life to be material wealth and riches in this present life. Paul attacks the tenet of this gospel in the following words. “If our hope in Christ has been for this life only, we are the most unfortunate of all people.” Our Christian hope is not of this present world. Hence, our faith makes us commit everything we have to preach the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, believing that when we awake in the life to come in Jesus Christ, we shall be filled with the sight of the glory of the Lord. This faith motivated those following our Lord in his preaching mission in the Gospel. “Jesus made his way through towns and villages preaching, and proclaiming the Good News of the kingdom of God. With him went the Twelve, as well as certain women who had been cured of evil spirits and ailments.” These spent their resources on the Gospel in the hope of the resurrection. The same is true of the martyrs we celebrate today St. Andrew Taegon, Paul Hasang, and other Korean martyrs. Many were lay people who believed in the Christian Gospel and laid down their lives for what they believed in for more than a century. This Church of Laypeople overcame wave after wave of fierce persecution. In less than a century, it could boast of 10,000 martyrs. May their prayers help us embrace and live the true Gospel of Christ.

Let us pray: O God, who have been pleased to increase your adopted children in all the world, and who made the blood of the Martyrs Saint Andrew Kim Taegon and his companions a most fruitful seed of Christians, grant that we may be defended by their help and profit always from their example.