Nov 05, 2023 English

Dear Saints in Christ:

My fellow saints, this is not a misspelling. You and I are saints not because our merits or achievements, but because of the grace of baptism, through which we have become the royal, prophetic, and priestly people of God. In a word, we have become saints through the merits of Christ, crucified but risen, and through the power of the Holy Spirit. Through this grace, we are in good company, or the best there is, that is, the communion of saints!

On November 4th, 2001, my dad was called home by our loving God. My dad struggled with cancer for over a year. But he accepted the finality of his earthly journey with serene dignity and sure faith. Even the day before he took his last breath, he cracked a big smile for us. My siblings were gathering around him, he said: “It must be nice.” We said: “What’s so nice?” And he told us: “Well, you don’t have anything to fight over.” And we all giggled, because it was true that he had not really left anything to us. He was good at a lot of things such as sports, farming, gardening, music, leadership, attracting people to our Catholic faith and so on, but he was not good at all at making money. “Thank you, Dad, for nothing,” we murmured, chuckling.
 
He spent the last couple of months in a hospice. There was a constant stream of visitors. And he had good words for all of them even in his extreme suffering. More than two thousand people came to pay respect to him after his passing. In the funeral homily, I called him a green thumb. Whatever or whoever he touched grew and thrived. He liked living things, plants, flowers, and animals. One of his remarkable achievements was establishing three faith communities. The parish in the outskirts of Seoul that he started with several families now has more than 10,000 people. In fact, 10 more parishes branched out of that parish. “From now on you will be catching men (Luke 5:10),” said Jesus to his first disciples. That was precisely what my father endeavored to do all his life, a “fisher of people” for Christ! And he was an exceptionally good fisherman.

We celebrate the communion of saints as we have this week All Saints Day and All Souls Day. We live in three stages: as pilgrim people on earth (in via), as people being purified for eventual union with God (in purification), and as people of glory enjoying eternal communion with God (in glory). No one is an island. We have so many friends and saints here on earth and after our earthly journey. Jesus never leaves us alone. We live through Christ, with him, and in him. We celebrate our life in communion. So, we pray. “Saints of God, pray for us. Dad, as we pray for you, we know you pray for us. May the Lord grant eternal rest to all our loved ones and those in need of God’s mercy! Amen!”
Fr. Paul D. Lee, S.T.D.