Nov 18 Bl John Shoun d. 1619

John and Thommy

good morning
i love you

Bl. John Shoun. “Martyr of Japan. He was a Japanese from Meako and was baptized at Nagasaki. Seized for being a Christian, he was burned alive at Nagasaki and was beatified in 1867.” [Catholic online]

We have such pithy information about our saints sometimes. And with the infinite storage capacity of our ‘net’, I am disappointed that it isn’t easier to find out more about the people who came before and show the way….

A seventeenth century Japanese who converted to Catholicism, is a tad more unusual than a Catholic at a secular private school or formerly protestant college in Greensboro – a tad more but the challenges are comparable.

John Shoun was seized for being a Christian – aka in that time and place, Catholic. As a Catholic, he stood out because he stood for something very different, not just an openness to change which was [is?] culturally anathema in Japan. Standing out as a Catholic is our responsibility – and your parents’ responsibility to support that distinction against all the adversity such faith elicits. E.g., when the science teacher says you may not reference faith in an ethics paper or a science paper. Oh well….

You do get burned for being a Catholic, burned alive – if only socially, maybe in your conscience, too, when you renege on your vows. Imagine what John Shoun experienced because he was baptized and lived a life as Catholic. Maybe your challenges will not seem so onerous, so punishing. And maybe you’ll find the strength he found – in faith, community, family, God, Jesus, and the saints and angels – the strength he found to persist in his faith regardless of the burning he experienced….

I love you
dad