[이번 주 세계 교회사] “He must increase and I must decrease.”

Good morning. Dear Dermatition members,

The tropical night march has finally stopped. The news is that the ‘Seoul Tropical Night’, which had lasted for 34 days, ‘stopped’ when the lowest temperature in Seoul dropped below 25 degrees between the night of the 24th and the morning of the 25th. However, the scorching heat, with daytime temperatures reaching 33 degrees, is expected to continue until early next month, so there is a chance that tropical nights will reappear. It is said that rain and showers may fall even during the heat wave, so be sure to bring an umbrella.

This week, many famous figures appear in the history of the world church. Although she was a Catholic nun, Mother Teresa was respected by people all over the world, transcending religions. She is also a person respected and revered by many Protestants. She gave up her life, honor, and family for others and not for herself, and lived for the people of Calcutta, the largest slum in India. Mother Teresa visited Korea three times during her life. First, in May 1981, I visited a shantytown called “Gamanichon” located in Sadang 3-dong, Dongjak-gu, Seoul. We comforted the nuns of the Little Sisters of Jesus Fraternity and spent Children’s Day with the children at the free nursery school ‘Sprouts’ Room.’ Later, I visited Korea in 1982 to tour the Korean branch of the Missionary Sisters of Charity, and in 1985 I visited Korea to tour Panmunjom and other places.

While Mother Teresa lived for the poor, John the Baptist lived as a person who thoroughly prepared for the coming of Jesus. This week traditionally marks the death of John the Baptist in the history of the world church. If you think about it, there is no biblical character as pitiful and pitiful as John the Baptist. Born six months before Jesus, he proclaimed the baptism of repentance and predicted the coming of the Messiah. However, he emphasized that he was by no means the Christ and that Jesus was the Messiah and that he must be resurrected and must decline.

I believe that in the entire Bible, John’s confession, “He must increase, but I must decrease,” is the greatest confession and praise to God on earth. Among the words and hymns praising the Lord, is there any confession more precious than this? Yet his death is very bitter, exasperating, and sad. He was imprisoned and beheaded for criticizing the royal prince’s marriage. Jesus also praised him as “better than a prophet,” and “among those born of women no one has been raised greater than John the Baptist (Matthew 11:7-14). We must say, “The Lord must increase, but I must decrease.” How great it would be if we could confess this every day! In this world filled with self-love, self-pride, and self-love, it may not be easy to deny oneself and live a life that exalts the Lord every day. However, as Augustine said in The Kingdom, on that day the city of God will flourish and the city of self-love will fall. I pray that today will be a day of praise only to the Lord.

1910 August 26th Mother Teresa, an Indian nun of Albanian descent, is born. Mother Teresa founded the Missionary Sisters of Charity in a slum in Calcutta, India, in 1948 and spent her entire life caring for the poor and sick. For this work, she received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979.

Mother Teresa’s real name is Anez Gonze Boyagius. When she became a nun, she was given the name “Teresa.” Her parents are said to have been deeply religious and took the initiative in helping and caring for the people around them. It is said that when Albanian refugees or the poor came to their home, they always provided them with food and a place to sleep.

Teresa left her hometown at the age of 18, joined the Loreto Sisters in Ireland, received three years of education, and then moved to a convent in India, a British colony. She taught at the school attached to St. Mary’s Convent in Calcutta from 1931 to 1947. In 1946, Mother Teresa heard the voice of God telling her to serve the poor on a train from Calcutta to Darjeeling, and she then left the convent to help them in the slums of Calcutta, where the poorest of the poor lived.

At that time, India had escaped long-standing British rule, but society was unstable and the streets were filled with refugees, sick people and people dying of hunger. From that moment on, she took off her black nun’s habit and put on a white Indian sari. This dress is said to be worn by the poorest and meanest women in India. Teresa set up a home for single mothers and orphans and a centre for leprosy patients. Thus we created the ‘Missionary Sisters of Charity’.

The rule of the mission was to serve the poorest of the poor in body and soul. The Indian government and the Catholic Church gradually began to recognise Teresa’s activities and from then on, people called her “Mother Teresa”. She also set up ‘Nirmal Hridai (Home for the Dying)’ to take care of the last moments of the dying. People who collapsed and were abandoned on the streets were able to face death there, realising for the first time that they too were precious people. One woman even expressed her gratitude by saying, “I, who was like an insect, died like an angel.”

He also built the ‘Shishu Bhavan (Home for Abandoned Children)’ to care for children who lost their parents or were abandoned, and also opened a place to help the disabled, the elderly and juvenile delinquents. In 1963, he founded a men’s missionary group called the ‘Missionary Friars of Love’ and spent his entire life helping the poor and sick.

1727 August 27th The Moravian community of Count Nikolaus von Zinzendorf in Herrnhut, Germany, begins a 24-hour prayer chain. It is said that for more than a century, at least one person in the community prayed every minute of the day.

430 years August 28th Augustine dies of fever when the Vandals invade Roman North Africa and overwhelm the hippopotamus refugees. His writings, including the “Theory of the Kingdom”, miraculously survive the Vandal occupation and his theology becomes one of the main pillars of the church for the next 1,000 years.

‘The New Kingdom’ is a massive historical dictionary in which Augustine argued that there were two cities built on the foundation of love. The City of God was built on love for God, and the kingdom on earth was built on love for oneself. Throughout human history, these two cities have always appeared mixed together. However, there is an irreconcilable conflict, a life-threatening clash and struggle between the two. In his book, Augustine argued that no matter how powerful they were, all countries and peoples would eventually grow old and disappear, and only the City of God would remain firmly in existence at the last moment of history.

Augustine was a theologian, priest, and bishop who worked in North Africa and Rome, a province of the Roman Empire in the 4th century, and is revered as a church father in Western Christianity. With his theories on irresistible grace and predestination, he had a great influence on later religious reformers such as Martin Luther and John Calvin.

29 years old August 29th Since the 5th century it has traditionally been considered the day of the beheading of John the Baptist. John was imprisoned for rebuking Herod Antipas, the tetrarch of Galilee and Berea at the time, for marrying Herodias, the wife of his brother Herod Philip II. Herodias’ daughter Salome asked for John the Baptist’s head. When she did, he was brutally beheaded.

John the Baptist was the last Old Testament prophet (Matthew 11:13) and the last Nazirite (Luke 1:15-16). His father was Zechariah, a priest of the lineage of Abijah, and his mother was Elizabeth of Aaron. family, and they all followed the commandments of the Lord without blame. He was a righteous and devout man. Elizabeth was also related to Mary, the mother of the Lord. The angel Gabriel appeared to Zechariah and announced the birth of John. At this time, the name ‘John’ was revealed to him and he was told that he would live as a Nazirite and prepare the way of the Lord in the spirit and power of Elijah. The prophets Isaiah (Isaiah 40:3-5; Matthew 3:3) and Malachi (Malachi 4:5-6) also foretold John’s ministry. He lived as a pious and poor Nazirite in the wilderness until he began his public ministry.

John began his ministry preaching the baptism of repentance near the Jordan River around the 15th year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius of the Roman Empire. He completely humbled himself and remained faithful to his role as a pioneer who prepared the people to receive the Messiah. Although he baptized Jesus, he emphasized that he was not the Christ and that Jesus was the Messiah and that he must be resurrected and decayed.

70 years August 29th The Romans set fire to the gates, entered the inner courtyard of the Temple in Jerusalem, burned and destroyed the Temple. After three years, Jewish resistance ended with Herod’s siege of the fortress of Masada. Rather than be arrested or executed, the Zealots committed mass suicide when it became clear that the Romans would breach the walls.

Reporter Shin Sang-mok smshin@kmib.co.kr

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