When Catholic missionaries first arrived in Korea in the mid-1800’s, they found a whole community of Christians already practicing their faith…a faith passed on by lay people since the early 17th century. St. Andrew and St. Paul were the first native Korean Catholic priests to join the Society of Jesus. They were articulate in sowing the seeds of faith as Jesus describes in today’s gospel. They gave their lives in witness to the faith on this day in 1846.
You and I may not be asked to live the gospel in such a notable way. Yet our words and actions do make a difference as friends and family members come to grow in faith. Will I offer the “rocky ground” of the gospel to those I meet today? Can my actions sometimes cause God’s word to “fall among briers”? Do the “cares and riches and pleasures of life” prevent others from discovering the face of Jesus in my daily actions and conversation? Just today may God’s word take root in my heart “a hundred-fold,” spreading the Lord’s life and love in all that I speak and accomplish.
—The Jesuit Prayer Team