of card. Lazzaro You Heung-sik *
The Prefect of the Department for the Clergy, bishop emeritus of Daejeon, and the first Korean at the top of the Roman Curia recounts in a volume his encounter with Christianity, the mission and also the challenges for today’s priests. In the preface, Pope Francis writes: “We need to listen to the bold testimony of the Churches of the East.”
Milan () – The discovery of Christianity when he attended a Catholic school, his baptism at the age of 16, the importance of the figure of Saint Andrew Kim in his own life. But also his own ministry as a priest and bishop in Korea, his surprise when Pope Francis called him to work in the Roman Curia, the challenges for the priesthood and the Church today. These are the issues that Card. Lazarus You Heung-sik, -71 years old, Prefect of the Department for the Clergy and the first Korean at the top of a Vatican body- addresses in the book “Like the folklore comes from the East” (As the glow comes from the East), which is reaching Italian bookstores through Edizioni San Paolo.
The book – the result of dialogue with Don Francesco Cosentino – is introduced by a preface by Pope Francis, who expresses his gratitude to Card. Thank you for this book and for its service to the Church. “With his kind and affable treatment – Francis writes – he allows us to reap the fruits of a faith sown in the land of the martyrs and germinated with simplicity thanks to the joyful witness of a living Church”. “All of us need this light that comes from the East – the Pope continues -. We need to listen to the bold testimony of so many sisters and brothers who, with enthusiasm and despite going through much suffering, welcomed Jesus with open arms as did the old man Simeon, receiving the preaching of Saint Andrew Kim and of so many missionaries who gave their lives for the joy of the Gospel We need to “decentralize ourselves”, making a trip to the East and putting ourselves in the school of a spiritual and ecclesial way of life that can reinvigorate our faith. And we need to remember that, even in difficulty and darkness, the Lord comes as a ray of light. And He wants to illuminate our lives.”
We publish below a brief excerpt from the book -full of stories from Card. You on episodes of his life in Korea- in which, recalling a chapter from the years of his formation, the Prefect of the Department for the Clergy speaks about the missionary vocation of all baptized people.
In Korea, even those who choose the path of the priesthood must do military service. I did it for 32 months and they sent me to a dangerous area, almost on the border with North Korea.
There, of course, there was no Sunday mass. I began to wonder about my identity as a Christian and about going to church on Sundays. I needed to find a way, but in the end I also began to think: what does it really mean to be a Christian? When am I a Christian? Above all, when I live the Gospel of the Lord. And so, with great courage, I went to the superior military authority to ask permission for some of us to meet on Sunday, to have a meeting on the Word of God. They granted it to me and we started four, in a corner of the dining room. We could not celebrate mass, but we did a liturgy of the Word. And those four became five, then ten. And finally, at Christmas of that year, twenty people received Baptism.
For me it was another great sign of the presence of Jesus in my life; he had not shown up in special or religious circumstances, but while I was living an experience like military service, in a not very quiet place, with few amenities, without even being able to celebrate Sunday Mass. However, once again he had come out to meet me in the Word and that weekly liturgy had brought others closer to the faith, it had been an instrument of evangelization.
Perhaps today it is also necessary to ask ourselves some questions about the liturgies we celebrate and whether the number of masses we schedule corresponds to an opportunity to truly and closely know the Lord. If they are a privileged way to discover faith or a custom, if they transmit the living Word of the Lord that touches life or are reduced to repetition, just to satisfy a precept. Christianity does not consist in satisfying a cultic and moral obligation, it is above all allowing oneself to be reached, questioned and touched by the Word of the Lord.
And even in this experience, a concrete sign through which to “live the Word” was important. We marched at night and for many kilometers, with our backpacks on our shoulders. I saw that one of my companions was very tired and I offered to take his rifle as well, which was quite heavy; a little later, in a moment of pause, that friend asked me how it was that everyone was tired and dejected and I, on the other hand, was happy. Of course I was tired too, but perhaps my faith and my encounter with Jesus gave me the strength to be calm inside, and that also showed on the outside. I told that person about Jesus and he also received Baptism. When others see our joy as Christians, they are contagious.
* Prefect of the Department for the Clergy
