Anyone who loses his life for my sake will save it. We commemorate today Sts. Andrew Kim Taegon and Paul Chong Hasang and other Korean martyrs who gave their lives for the faith between the years 1839-1867. St. Andrew Kim, the first Korean priest, was tortured and beheaded along with his lay associate Paul Chong Hasang (who is believed to have been a seminarian by then). Today’s feast is thus not only a celebration of the Korean men and women who bravely gave their lives for the faith but most importantly a celebration of the Korean Church.
In the Gospel reading, following the first prophecy of his passion, Jesus presents to his disciples the conditions for following him. It was not a presentation that was meant to scare his disciples but rather to lay before them what being his follower implied. The renunciation of the self that Jesus talks about here is not self-loathing or self-rejection. By renunciation of the self, Jesus meant that those who wanted to be his disciples were to be ready to be at the service of the kingdom. Like Jesus, the disciples to-be had to be willing to give their all to ministry without counting the cost. While Jesus’ directive did not necessarily translate into the willingness to give one’s life for the cause of the faith, it nonetheless served as one of the scripture passages that formed the basis for martyrdom in the Church. However, this was not the sole reason why Andrew Kim and his companions willingly gave their lives for the faith. They also understood what Jesus had meant when he said that those who lose their lives for his sake actually end up saving their lives.
When Jesus talked about “saving” one’s life, he was not implying rescuing oneself from danger (our ordinary use of the term save). Rather, Jesus was talking about the ultimate rescue which has already been won for those who believe in Jesus Christ (salvation). We undergo a lot in our attempts to “save” our lives from imminent dangers or death that come our way as long as we are here on earth. Men and women will go to great lengths to “secure” their present lives, sometimes resorting to bizarre means in doing so. Jesus’ statement is an invitation to understand that the imminent dangers that we undergo on a daily basis are part of our life as mortals, and although it is not a sin to want to be “saved” from them (and we should do our best to secure ourselves), one should not commit sin in doing so. The only danger that we should all be worried about and from which we should pray to be rescued is that which is eternal. It is in Jesus that we can all be saved from this eternal danger. When Andrew Kim and his companions willingly gave their lives for the cause of Christ, they were in essence saving their lives. May we who have said YES to following Jesus surrender ourselves in his hands because only through him, and in him, can we fully secure our lives.