Finding A Priest

Acts 11:19-23

Phrases that spoke to me today:
• Began to speak to the Greeks as well
• The hand of the Lord was with them
• A great number who believed turned to the Lord
• He rejoiced and encouraged them all to remain faithful

Applying the Word to My Life:
Paul Chong Hasang was seven years old when his father was executed for being Christian.

His older brother died in the same persecution. His mother gathered the children who were left and fled with them to the countryside. Christianity had cost the family almost everything, and it would have been understandable if Paul had grown up wanting nothing more to do with it.

Instead, he grew up looking for priests.

That was not easy, because there really were not any in Korea.

Christianity had reached the country in an unusual way. Korean scholars had gotten hold of Christian books from China and begun studying them. One of those scholars eventually traveled to Beijing, was baptized, came home, and started sharing what he had learned.

There was no missionary standing beside him. No parish waiting for him. No priest telling him what to say.

Just a man who had found something true and did not want to keep it to himself.

The first Catholic community in Korea grew that way. Laypeople prayed together, studied together, baptized new believers, and taught what they knew. They did not get everything right. At one point some tried taking on priestly functions that did not belong to them, and the bishop in Beijing corrected them.

But nobody told them to stop sharing the Gospel.

That part belonged to them.

Paul seems to have understood both sides of that. He knew laypeople had a real part to play, but he also knew the Church needed priests and bishops. So he found a way to get to them.

He attached himself to a government interpreter, which gave him a reason to travel to Beijing. Paul made that dangerous journey again and again, carrying the needs of Korean Catholics with him and asking the bishop for priests. Eventually he appealed all the way to Pope Gregory XVI.

He made the trip nine times.

Eventually missionaries came. Bishop Laurent Imbert met Paul and saw enough in him that he began teaching him Latin and theology, preparing him for the priesthood.

After spending years trying to bring priests into Korea, Paul was finally preparing to become one himself.

Then another persecution began.

He was arrested before he could be ordained. When the judge told him to renounce Christianity, Paul answered plainly: "I have told you that I am a Christian, and will be one until my death."

He was tortured and executed at forty-five.

Paul never became a priest.

He died a layman.

There is something about that story that makes today's reading from Acts feel very close.

After Stephen was killed, persecution scattered Christians out of Jerusalem. Most of them played it safe, preaching only to fellow Jews. But some who reached Antioch — a few unnamed believers from Cyprus and Cyrene — went further and started telling Greeks about Jesus too.

Acts does not give us their names. It does not tell us that an apostle had sent them there with a detailed plan. It simply says, "The hand of the Lord was with them and a great number who believed turned to the Lord."

Only afterward did word reach Jerusalem, and Barnabas was sent to see what had happened. When he arrived, he found that God had already been at work.

I find that comforting.

Because most of us are not going to feel especially qualified when the moment comes.

We may know someone who is hurting and have no idea what to say. We may get asked a question about faith and immediately think of three people who could answer it better. We may worry that we do not know enough theology, have not read enough Scripture, or will somehow say it wrong.

Sometimes that humility is good. There are things we should not pretend to know, and there are questions we should bring to someone with more training.

But sometimes "I'm not qualified" is just fear wearing respectable clothes.

The first Christians in Antioch did not know everything. The first Korean Catholics certainly did not. Paul Chong Hasang spent years trying to bring priests into Korea precisely because he knew the Church needed what he could not provide.

But none of them waited until they knew everything before giving away what they did know.

Maybe that is all God is asking from us too.

Not to have every answer. Not to become someone we are not. Just to be willing to say, when the opportunity comes, "This is what I have found. This is why Jesus matters to me. This is what I know so far."

Sometimes God sends Barnabas later. Sometimes He starts with us.

We do not have to be the whole answer. We just have to be willing to give the part God has already placed in our hands.

My Response for Today:
Today I'll share one thing I know about Jesus with someone who needs it.

ABOUT ST. PAUL CHONG HASANG

• Name: St. Paul Chong Hasang
• Lived: 1794 or 1795 – September 22, 1839, Korea
• Feast Day: September 20 (with St. Andrew Kim Taegon and the Korean Martyrs)
• Patron of: Korea
• Title: Martyr
• Read more: Franciscan Media, Vatican News