Friday, January 30, 2015

Fighting for the Culture of Life

On the opinion page of the Catholic Times a Salesian recalls the days as a young priest when he saw the harm  students faced, because of ferocious competition. Many of them to forget the scars, shame, frustration and sense of inferiority, resorted to inhaling of glue and gas.

No matter how much effort was made to make clear the harm to health, it did not change behavior. He laments that society doesn't do more to keep intoxicants out of the hands of children as they do with alcohol and tobacco.

He also has problems with the mixed martial arts matches we have in Korea. They are the kick boxing type of matches, that  bring out the worse in those who are in the ring. It is not uncommon for the loser to be taken to the hospital after one of the matches.  One of the reasons some use to justify the matches is the  primitive instinct towards violence that some have, is neutralized by watching the matches. Christians  do  not see it this way. One member of National Assembly, because of his interest and activities, enabled the dropping of the matches from public television.

Money is what energizes the culture of death and the two examples the writer gives us are an infinitesimal  part of the problem. Thanks to Pope John Paul II in his encyclical Gospel of Life, we hear about the culture of life and the culture of death. Without realizing what is happening, there are many things  we countenance as normal that are destructive to life. 

Each human life has value from its beginning to natural death. As Christians we should be firmly and unconditionally on the side of life. Like the priming water that was used in the pumps of the past to bring water up, we should bring out the good from others by our words and actions that promote life. What we mean by the culture of death is not difficult to surmise, if we allow our natural feelings to control our thoughts and see reality as it is without any rationalizations and pretexts. 

He concludes his article by reminding us that  our indiscriminate desire for development feeds the   culture of death. We devalue life. Pope Francis mentioned while in Korea, "We need to fight against the culture of death that profanes the dignity of our humanity." The writer wants us to boycott all that is not on the side of life.