This first native Korean priest was the son of Korean converts. His father, Ignatius Kim, was martyred during the persecution of 1839 and was beatified in 1925. After baptism at the age of fifteen, Andrew traveled thirteen hundred miles to the seminary in Macao, China. After six years he managed to return to his country through Manchuria. That same year he crossed the Yellow Sea to Shanghai and was ordained a priest. Back home again, he was assigned to arrange for more missionaries to enter by a water route that would elude the border patrol. He was arrested, tortured and finally beheaded at the Han River near Seoul, the capital. Paul Chong Hasang was a lay apostle and a married man, aged forty-five. Christianity came to Korea during the Japanese invasion in 1592 when some Koreans were baptized, probably by Christian Japanese soldiers. Evangelization was difficult because Korea refused all contact with the outside world except for an annual journey to Beijing to pay taxes. On one of these occasions, around 1777, Christian literature obtained from Jesuits in China led educated Korean Christians to study. A home church began. When a Chinese priest managed to enter secretly a dozen years later, he found four thousand Catholics, none of whom had ever seen a priest. Seven years later there were ten thousand Catholics. Religious freedom came in 1883. 
Among the martyrs in 1839 was Columba Kim, an unmarried woman of twenty-six. She was put in prison, pierced with hot awls and seared with burning coals. She and her sister Agnes were disrobed and kept for two days in a cell with condemned criminals, but were not molested. After Columba complained about the indignity, no more women were subjected to it. The two were beheaded. A boy of thirteen, Peter Ryou, had his flesh so badly torn that he could pull off pieces and throw them at the judges. He was killed by strangulation. Protase Chong, a forty-one-year-old noble, apostatized under torture and was freed. Later he came back, confessed his faith and was tortured to death. 
The charming legend of Saint Eustace tells how a Roman general named Placidus was once out hunting. He pursued a noble stag, which suddenly turned and approached him. Between the stag's antlers Placidus saw a crucifix. A voice was calling him by name. “Simon, I have something to say to you.” (Luke 7:40)
In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus used a parable about two men who were in debt to illustrate how a sinful woman could end up being more honored in the kingdom of God than a devoted, educated Pharisee.
In essence, Jesus told his dinner host, a Pharisee named Simon, that this woman’s act of love, gratitude, and devotion far surpassed his meager attempts at hospitality. So let’s look at her example to see what we can learn about the kind of devotion that both pleases the Lord and lifts us up to his presence.
First, we can say that prayer is for sinners. According to Simon, this woman was a hopelessly incurable sinner unworthy of God’s forgiveness. But she shows that those who see their sin and their need are the ones most likely to turn to the Lord for healing and forgiveness. They are also more likely to shower him with praise and worship in response to his mercy. In contrast, people like Simon, those who underestimate their need for mercy, also fail to recognize the value of the Savior.
Second, we can say that prayer is an act of humility. The woman knelt at Jesus’ feet and gave him a gift of precious ointment. She was humble enough to interrupt a formal dinner party so that she could worship Jesus. She knew she had received a tremendous gift, and she didn’t let her pride stand in the way of thanking Jesus for his love.
Third, prayer is primarily about Jesus, not us. The woman didn’t come with a list of her needs and petitions. She didn’t come ready to debate issues of theology or philosophy. She came just to be in Jesus’ presence and to offer him her worship. All she wanted to do was to spend time with Jesus—to pour her life out to him in worship and thanksgiving. She didn’t even care if Simon and his friends tried to throw her out. She was preoccupied with one thing—Jesus—and she would not be denied her chance to worship him.
May we all run to the Lord as this woman did!
“Jesus, you are worthy of my whole life. Here I am, Lord. I come before you to worship you and to pour myself out in praise and surrender to you.”
1 Corinthians 15:1-11 Psalm 118:1-2, 16-17, 28