Dying we live. A cold winter brings new sprouts in spring. Look at flowers around. They came to life because they endured and waited for a long while. Surely, the blood of martyrdom sows the seed of faith, hope, and love. Korea is blessed with nameless faithful dead. Many people passed away because of the greater causes of society and the church, but their enduring spirits are still alive deep in our hearts.
There are over 1,500 martyrs in the history of the Catholic Church in Korea. It is also said that a number of nameless people died during the four major persecutions. What made them profess their faith leading to sacrifice and death? Where did their inner power come from? Nobody would deny that their strong and enduring faith made a miracle to resist temptation and trials. It's truly a mystery of faith and dedication.
Let me introduce Fr. Choi Yang-eop Thomas, who was the second priest in Korea. The first priest is Fr. Kim Dae-geon, who was martyred only after a year of pastoral activity. Unlike Fr. Kim, Fr. Choi led his pastoral activity for 12 years, during which he understood and helped Christians through various interactions with them.
Nowadays, many people are so interested in the life of Fr. Choi that they often visit a place of pilgrimage at Baeron in memory of him. On the way to his memorial tomb, tall and winding pine trees are spreading their branches toward the heavens as if to meet the ultimate presence. It was good and touching for me to have my annual retreat recently for 10 days at Baeron. A newly built sanctuary in the shape of a ship reveals the solid faith of early Christians.
Aside from this, I have noticed one very interesting thing; the name of the term "Yang-eop system" in the computerization of various Catholic organizations. Seoul diocese computerized all the parish systems to make administration more effective, speedy, and technical. The Catholic information network, called "Good News" through the 'Yang-up system', was born on Sept. 20, 1998. The name 'Yang-eop' here was adapted after the name of Fr. Choi Yang-eop.
In fact, this system was developed in memory of Fr. Choi who walked on foot across the country for 12 years. At present, many people, not only Seoul parishes but the local parishes as well, are communicating total information through the above-mentioned program.
Who then is this famous Fr. Choi Yang-eop? He was born in 1821 in Darakgol, Chongyang. His parents were also martyrs: St. Choi Kyung-hwan Francesco and Lee Maria. Especially St. Choi Kyung-hwan is renowned for his exemplary pious life in the community. He made it a rule to pray all together at home, pursued equality between the upper and lower classes, and was willing to share with the poor.
His wife, Lee Maria, first refused to witness her faith, mainly because of her starving children; however, she dared to give her life when she remembered her husband dying for the faith. Fr. Choi inherited such faith. Being chosen to be a seminarian together with Kim Dae-geon and Choi Banjigeo, he studied at Macao Seminary from the age of 16. They were the first students to become priests during the period of Chosun.
Finally, he was ordained in April 1845 and returned to Korea in December. After arriving, he walked endless miles for the sake of his pastoral mission until his death at Mungyeongsaejae in 1861. Among his pastoral works, the most attentive and worthwhile job was his writing "lyric lines for the heavenly Lord".
In spite of his ardent zeal to visit as many people as possible, he was not able to gather all the believers scattered throughout various districts. Furthermore, he had to undergo his pastoral works at night so as to avoid the eyes of non-believers. Considering these two facts, he had an idea to communicate the Catholic catechism to many people in an effective way in a short period. So, he summarized the fundamental catechism in brief and made the basic Catholic teachings in lyric lines with 4-4 tones so that ordinary Christians, children and women alike, could sing and learn the contents more easily. These lyric lines were a kind of hymn with regular length in each line(4 letters and 4 letters in a line).
The "lyric lines for the heavenly Lord" were made for the purpose of incorporating Catholic catechism into society. Their rhythms and tones were proper in Korean traditional thought and common awareness. As a result, ordinary Christians could take advantage of these lyric lines to learn Catholic doctrines. They sang these lyric lines while working. The content of the verse encouraged and warned believers to live a better life worthy of heavenly values.
The verses deal with diverse subjects such as three fundamental virtues for the Lord(faith, hope, and love), the seven sacraments(baptism, confirmation, holy orders or ordination, penance, Eucharist, the sacrament of anointing the sick, and matrimony), the ten commandments, public judgment, private judgment, hell, heaven, good death and more. All these lyric lines stimulated people to live a better Christian life.
Some of the contents are dualistic and pessimistic because of the influences of Jansenism and Buddhist thoughts. But most of them encourage people to participate in the heavenly spiritual journey. Let me introduce some parts of the lyric lines on 'love'. The original lyrics in Korean are uniform in the same length of each line, but the translation is longer than the original lyric lines.
“Put up with affliction/ Love for being merits/ Endure difficulty/ Love for making reparation/ Love once more and you will be eternal/ Promptly love more/ I can't talk about love enough/ So love sincerely/ If you truly love fervently/ Martyrdom for the Lord will be easier/ Love to the death, love one in ten thousand/ Love those you dislike/ Love even your enemy/ Love, going here/ Love, going there/ Who will love me/ With no love for the Lord and people/ Resemble the good works of Jesus/ And stop evil works.”
The Korea Times/ Thoughts of the Times/ May 5, 2003
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