When is life empty?

The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Friday, Memorial of St. Andrew Kim Tae-gon & Companion Martyrs, 20 September 2024
1 Corinthians 15:12-20 <8{{{{>< + ><}}}}8> Luke 8:1-3
Photo by author in Bolinao, Pangasinan, 2022.

"And if Christ 
has not been raised,
then empty too is our preaching;
empty, too, your faith"....

and empty too is our life!
St. Paul's words 
to the Corinthians
echo so well in our own time
when many of us believers
live as though there will be no
resurrection of the dead;
so many of us believers today
see life limited only to this
temporal world
that we indulge in everything
that is material and pleasing,
avoiding all pains and sufferings,
simply subscribing to that dictum
to drink and be merry
for tomorrow
we shall die.
Forgive us,
Jesus, when we see
life's fullness is found only
in things and pleasures
of the world that we forget
the truth that life is empty
without your Cross
because it leads us to
Resurrection each day
like the sunrise;
life is empty when we have
more of the world
and less of God
whose ultimate reality
is in the resurrection
and life everlasting.
Grant us the grace
of those holy women
who followed you in your
ministry, giving up everything
they have especially their
sinful past because in you
they found and experienced
resurrection; most of all,
like the more than 100 martyrs
of Korea whom we remember today,
let us bear our cross of witnessing
to you and your gospel,
Jesus, so that people may
realize that truly,
life is most meaningful
most fulfilled
only in you.
Amen.
St. Andrew Kim Taegon, first Korean priest with his lay associate St. Paul Chong Hasan with 113 other Koreans died as martyrs between 1839 and 1867.

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